alexdogwood

Ok...yes this is the first year I have stored my vehicle so I have a ton of questions. I just purchased A "Schumacher speed charger" from auto zone. After reading the instructions it looks like i need to set it to Auto Charge mode, then once it is done it switches to "maintain mode" is this a trickle charger? Can I really keep this thing on the battery for 1.5 years? Any suggestions?

Thanks to everyone for all of the questions you have answered thus far!!

Matt

wagonerjim

Not sure on that one, but I use a CTEK.

It supposed to be the best and I installed and just selected the car mode and it does everything else!

Good luck with yours.

dvilin

I use a Battery Tender what you have sounds similar once it goes into maintain mode. I have mind hooked up for around 4 months with no problems. Not sure about 1.5 years, I might just remove the battery for that length of time. Have you read the intstructions that came with the unit perhaps it will give some guidelines on length of time you can leave it hooked up or give the manufacturer a call. Good luck.

cmonkey713

Battery Tender is what I use. Other chargers may do harm to your battery if they are not self sensing power flow chargers.

vettedoogie

What model number is it? I have a 1562a that has the same title and it is a totally automatic float-mode monitoring charger. I just attached the leads, plugged it in and have left it alone for the last month. Works fine.

AORoads

i'm sure mine is a lesser-model Schumacher, but that is the brand I have. mine is definitely a battery "maintainer" which is not a trickle charger.

do what doogie said and tell us the model number. or maybe look it up on the shucmacher website if there is one. what you want is a battery maintainer. you do not want a trickle charger.

as to 1.5 years of maintaining? hmm, I think it's ok. I might suggest putting a very good surge protector between the wall plug and the "maintainer" just as another precaution during that long time period.

CO Lightfoot

You're going to store it for 1.5 years?

Even just for winter storage, you might find this helpful:
http://corvetteactioncenter.com/tech/care/storage.html
And there are lots of threads on this topic.

Probably need Sta-bil in your gas; run it some miles to get it circulating thru-out the system.

Also, I do a thorough cleaning inside-and-out before storage... very nice to uncover a clean ready-to-go car in Spring. And with my CTEK battery tender working all winter, it fires right up!

BTW, whatever battery tender you use, check it periodically... some models do not automatically re-start after a power failure.

LMB-C6

Hi Matt, and welcome!

I don't think your unit is a trickle charger - nor do you want a trickle charger. Typically trickle charges are cheap step down transformers that just supply a steady charge to the battery regardless of what state the battery is in. If kept on for too long it boils off the electolyte and you destroy the battery - I learned that the hard way. After the fact, I checked the output voltage of the one I had and it was something like 20 volts!

What you want is a battery maintainer (or a charger with this feature). They charge the battery and then switch over to maintenance mode to keep the battery charge topped off. There are several on the market - I use the ones by Battery Tender. I was looking at the literature for the SpeedCharger and it looks like it has a 'float charge' feature on it so I think you are OK. One way to check is to plug it in, charge the battery, and when it switches to float mode check the voltage using a voltmeter to make sure it's somewhere around 13V. If it's way over that then do NOT leave this charger on the battery for extended periods of time.

rws.1

the battery float charger is the 21st century version of the trickle charger. The microchip adjusts the charge rate to match the battery condition to always keep it topped up
We have used the $7 one from Harbor freight for the last 5 winters on my 3 vettes, My nephews Vette, My brothers 2 ATV's and 2 boat batteries.....