Customer Reviews

Battery Tender 021-0128 Battery Tender Plus 12V Battery Charger

5 star:		(545)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Every time I want to fire up my old 71 Datsun (that's Nissan for those of you younger than 30) 240 Z there's a good chance that the battery has drained down and that I can't start it! Looking around at car forums I read about this nifty little gadget....It's like a battery trickle charger....sort of. Whereas it's not recommended to keep a trickle charger hooked up all the time, this one has circuitry to limit the current and sense when the battery needs charging. It only charges at 1.25 amps which is easier on the battery.

I've had it on for a month now and it's great. The first couple of days, the red light was on indicating charging. Since then it's been on green and the car starts right up. I live in Houston where the heat and humidity can be just as brutal on batteries as the cold.

I highly recommend this "tender" for those that have cars that stay unused for long periods.

As other reviews have mentioned it comes with a set of adapters that allow you to permanently attach pigtails to the battery posts and then you can quickly connect the tender without having to use the alligator clips (also included).

For the price and free shipping you can't go wrong!

UPDATE after two years of use.
I can now reconfirm that these battery tenders work great - I've had them hooked up continuously on two cars that stay in the garage a lot and I've NEVER had them not start right up. A quick glance at the LED display lets me know that the batteries are either charging or fully charged. It's a real pleasure to be able to go right up and enjoy your wheels without having to worry about whether the battery is dead. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that it lengthens the life of the battery as well.

This little gizmo is dynamite.

I have a 4 year old Accord that, due to circumstance, only has about 4400 miles. Rarely driven...and what driving is done is mostly at night.

Sat for a week once in very cold weather...dead battery.

Ordered this. Hooked it up. 100% charge and the battery is very powerful once again.( had thought I would probably need a new one).

It's very small size makes it extremely easy to use and store. And it will not overcharge, so you do not have to babysit the process.

It's LEDs glow red when charging. Green and red blink once 80% has been achieved. Solid green at 100%.

It did, in very cold weather, take a long time to establish a full charge on my almost completely discharged battery. The battery would have been usable in a few hours, but 100% took close to 18.

Highly recommended.

I have an older version of this charger that I bought in the mid 90's. I used it to maintain my garaged Mustang's battery over the winter months for many years. I made a cigarette lighter adapter so all I needed to do was to plug it in instead of using the alligator clips. I have to say this thing is dead reliable! It always kept my battery in prime condition. I love it and recommend it highly.

I recently purchased a Deltran Battery Tender Plus (they are made in China) battery charger for a total cost of $63.30. It has never worked correctly from the first day I got it. It charges great, but it never goes into the "storage" mode, or notifies you that the battery is at 80% charged. It apparently just keeps charging the battery whether it needs it or not.

I contacted Deltran's "technical" department a few times about the problem, and told them that I suspected the charger was faulty, but they kept telling me it was the battery, or "check this" or "check that" or "the weather was too cold" (in Florida), even though I had told them the battery was new. So, figuring they knew what they were talking about, I purchased another brand new battery at the cost of $79.92.

I left the "new" battery on this charger for a few days, and it was the same thing as the "old" battery. The charger never showed a full charge or went into storage mode.

So now that the equipment that this battery is from has been out of service for a couple of weeks, (because Deltran recommended I remove the battery from the equipment since I was having a problem charging it), and I couldn't afford to fiddle around any longer, I bought a competitors battery charger for $46.45, and as it turns out after connecting the new charger, within a matter of a few minutes both the "old" and the "new" batteries showed fully charged, and the new (competitors) charger went into "storage" mode with no problem.

Now that I knew for sure that this Deltran Battery Tender Plus charger was not working properly, I reviewed the Battery Tender Plus "LIMITED" 10 year warranty, and found out they (Deltran) wants a $9.95 "handling" fee (if you have had the charger over 90 days), and if you have the original sales receipt, if you want to send it in for repair.

If you don't have the original receipt, then it is a $15.95 "handling" fee no matter how long you have had it.

Having wasted about 2- weeks fiddling with 2- different batteries and 2- different chargers all because the Deltran Battery Tender Plus did not work correctly in the first place, I am not about to spend another $15.95 "handling" fee (because I don't have the original receipt) plus shipping (maybe $10.00) to return it to Deltran for exchange/repair, and then wait another week or two to get the charger back and have to hope that it now works correctly.

Deltran also told me that since I did not buy the Battery Tender Plus in question directly from them, I would need to send it back to where I originally purchased it. Not having the original receipt (because I bought it someplace online and don't remember where), I asked Deltran what's the difference where I purchased it since they (Deltran) are the manufacturer and supply the warranty as well, and I was told that "it is the same as trying to return a Chevrolet to a Ford dealership". That I don't understand, because if a person has a problem with a Chevrolet, they can take it to any Chevy dealer in the country and have it fixed (and maybe any GM dealer).

They also said in so many words that I should have known sooner that the charger was defective, which must mean that their "technical" department is not fully competent to be advising anyone, and that I should have not paid any attention to their suggested remedies in the first place.

Because of the investment of time and money I now have in this Battery Tender Plus, and the poor "technical" support I received from Deltran, I would never buy another one and would not recommend it to anyone else. Their 10 year "LIMITED" warranty is also a joke. Battery Tender PlusSucks! It should be called Battery Tender Negative!.

I bought one, for my own use and spent much time reading Deltran's website, and the finally the info that came with the Deltran unit.

Over all, Works well, made well (vented metal case). I've been testing it on a 55ah AGM.

I have a lot of background in battery chargers. Based on my review of the unit I bought, I wanted to maybe offer some general practical help for those that can't find all the info they need for guidance before they but such a product.

The price at Amazon makes it worth it, but not list at the OEM's site. The OEM list price is pricey for the Battery Tender Plus, the Battery Tender Jr is about 1/2 (based on the OEM price), and can take care of much of the same duties.

While I've read all I could from their site, all their advertising pre-sale doesn't warn that it may not charge a large cell that has been properly discharged. Once I bought my Battery Tender Plus, I found liteature comes with the charger that warns you of this..

I figured as much and bought it as a compliment to my smart bulk chargers that aren't good maintainers. The reason.......
If the power is interrupted on any of my bulk chargers, they don't come back to the correct profile, just the profile for 2amp charge for a wet cell general. Not the AGM profile.

The Deltran being a dedicated maintainer doesn't suffer from this problem.
If the power was to be cycled, it would just go through it's profile again. And since it's such low current, no harm.

These Tenders are Great for when the bulk charger is taken care else where on the larger RV, boat, or secondary car battery. Your primary car battery is charged by the alternator, and when you store the car you need to take care of the self discharge issue and any parasitic loads that will discharge your car's battery while in storage... the Battery Tender Plus is great for that.
As well as the Battery Tender Jr, if you have very little or no parasitic loads.
(if your parasitic loads are too great, you may need to disconnect the battery from the vehicle for storage - if the parasitic drain/loads comes close to the tender's rating, it wont do it's job and your battery wont be a happy battery)

I've been testing the Battery Tender Plus on my optima AGM, and on maintenance float, the battery is only pulling a .01a at 13.2vdc. Just right. The profile was just about perfect, per optima's spec and other AGM's spec, and perfect for wet cells (normal car batteries).

If you have larger parasitic loads, the Battery Tender Plus (1.25a) will be a better choice. But if you pull your battery lead of have little or no parasitic loads, the Battery Tender Jr will work well and save you money over the Battery Tender Plus.
(Again, remember if your parasitic loads are too great, you may need to disconnect the battery from the vehicle for storage - if the parasitic drain/loads comes close to the tender's rating, it wont do it's job and your battery wont be a happy battery)


For a motorcycle battery, the Battery Tender Plus is probably the end all charger.

But for the larger batteries, neither Tender will serve as a bulk charger. To protect your battery investment, get a good smart bulk charger (not the cheapo dumb bulk chargers) with the right profiles, and use the Deltan Battery Tender Plus or Battery Tender Jr for storage.


After the testing I've done (monitored and recorded voltage, current, and temps to see what the profiles are of the chargers), for my storage use, I could have gotten away with the Battery Tender Jr @.75a, for my storage "tender" of a single 55ah optima agm battery.

I haven't used any other tender for a battery and this was my first purchase of this type of product. It was very simple to hook up and it included the wires to "pig-tail" the tender to my battery. That was great becasue I don't want to have to remove the seat and remove the battery cover every time that I use it. With the "pig-tails," you just hook them to your battery terminals and place the wire where you can run it down underneath the battery box and out the side of the bike. You then put the battery box cover back on and the seat back on and you never have to deal with them again. The wire comes out the side of the bike and I used a plastic cable tie around the frame to keep the wire in place. The wire has a rubber cap, so when you want to ride, you just unplug the wire and put the cap on. You're done. It worked great from the moment I plugged it in. I would have no reason to try any other brand of battery tender.

I use this to maintain a strong battery charge on a vehicle that rarely gets driven over the winter. I opted to use the quick connector leads so I didn't have to worry about propping the hood up to clear the red and black clamps on the battery terminals.

This unit is a workhorse for the money. I use it on my Corvette in the winter and in the summer I have my snowblower attached to the battery tender. This product is compact in size and simple to use. It came with different adapters that enabled use with different battery charging requirements.

I recently gifted a unit to my father in-law who leaves 2 cars in Florida year round.

A must have for anyone who has a vechicle or seasonal piece of equipment.

...or anything with a 12V battery that isn't driven regularly. I've been using Battery Tenders for years on my motorcycle and airplane-both of which are usually battery-a-year propositions. I now have one for every vehicle but my daily drivers-even my hydraulic dump trailer. It's simple to use:clip on the battery leads, plug it in, and forget about it. You don't worry about a dead battery when you need the vehicle, and you don't have to worry about overcharging, either. If it saves one battery from seasonal replacement, you've paid for the unit a couple of times over. Money well spent.

For ease of use, The Deltran Battery Tender is an excellent way to charge and maintain the battery on your motorcycle, snowmobile, or even a heavy- duty vibrator, not that I would know anything about that! The kit includes a BMW type plug for machines so equipped, and an SAE adaptor with alligator clips. You can also wire the SAE adaptor right to your bike's battery and have easy access to the plug- in. The battery is maintained in a peak state of charge, with no worries of over charging.