Battery charger choice for Optima type battery?

[Myron Piatek]

Along the lines of what magnumv8 said, I've been using "automatic" battery chargers on Optima and Odyssey batteries for years with no issues and getting long life out of the batteries. I've used a Schumacher auto taper charge with 2amp and 10 amp switches. At the moment I forget the name of the brand I'm using now, but it's a well know company who makes a variety of crappy tools. "Orange" is their color. But this battery charger has been working well and it basically goes into a trickle cycle to maintain it once fully charged.

I've always heard that it's important to keep batteries fully charged, so I keep them up during the races and fully charge them as soon as I can after the races.

[Bob Mulry]

Just going to add my 2 cents to this thread...........

I learned a trick about charging gel-cell batteries from when they first came on the market....

If your gel-cell will not take a charge try the procedure below....

Take your charger and connect the cables to a conventional lead-acid battery next you connect, in parallel (negative to negative and positive to positive, + to + and - to -), your gel-cell battery with a pair of jumper cables. Turn on your charger with the lowest charging rate that you have…..

This will put a load on the charger and act as an electrical damper for the gel-cell.....

I have brought many gel-cells back to life with this procedure.....

Bob

[Doug Domm]

Bob Mulry you have a PM

[340Cuda]

I have this Black & Decker that I like a lot. It was recommended by a racer friend with three cars and three of these chargers. It has settings for wet cell, AGM, and Gell Cell. Works great with the Optimas in the race car and the deep cycle wet cells in the trailer.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_os_product

[Tom Goldman]

I've used the Diehard Microprocessor controlled charger for years to charge two Optima red tops at once and it works great.
It has specific settings for AGM batteries and limits the charging voltagefor them.


http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...25000P?prdNo=8

[1320racer]

Schumacher's "Speed Charger" also has a specific AGM/Gel Cell setting as well Deep Cycle and Regular settings

Not a fan of optima batteries. AC Delco in my cars

[Phil Veldheer Racing]

I use http://smartercharger.com/ and like them..they are also waterproof. I use Optima batteries in all race cars and tow vehicles. They work great.

Phil

[SGSST109E]

I work for the company thats owns Optima. Battery Tender is what I use, CTECH is good too. We also make our own charger now. The key with all the Optima whether red, yellow or blue is that the charge voltage can not go over 14.5volts. If you had a charger that put 500 amps thru a battery it would be fine in charging an Optima as long as the voltage stayed below 14.5 volts.

[Doug Domm]

The Battery Tender and CTECH may be the better suited for battery maintenance but will they get the job done between rounds? Or do these Optima type batteries just perform that much better between rounds? I've yet to have a battery that I had absolute confidence in.

[rallye bob]

I use a Coleman Powermate Pulse 1850 portable generator with a "built in" battery charger. I use it on my Optima between most every round. Been doing it for years. No issues as of yet. Am I asking for trouble?