VetMan4Life

that is crazy. not sure how that can be called a battery charger. thats like the ultimate manual charger EVER my genius charger is working great. i have now used it on my vette, jd mower, and hd fat boy. works great.

incabird

I have to agree with the OP. If the issue he is describing is built into the tender, then that to me would be a flaw. I have used Deltran Battery Tender Plus and one of their two bay Battery Tenders for years and have not had any issues with them. I keep my lawn tractor and camper battery on the two bay Battery Tender and my motorcycle on the Battery Tender Plus all winter and the batteries work like new when I hook them back up in the spring. I purchased my battery tenders to tend my batteries, not so I could tend the battery tenders.

cclive

Well, I checked mine and I can get it to blink the red light by opening the door for a minute or so after it is in the maintain mode with the green light on. The current is running at about 30 milliamps when it settles down with the green light on. When I open the door, the current goes up and when it hits about one amp, the red light starts blinking and all charging stops. It is now actually drawing 2 milliamps from the battery. Unplugging and re-plugging, either at the wall or the battery, will reset it and start it charging on the yellow light. The only way I can get it to start blinking the red light is to make the car draw some extra current by opening the door, if I leave it alone, then the green light will stay on...mine has been on a week and a half now. I would suggest that if someone wants a charger that they can leave unchecked on the car for a long period of time, this is probably not the best one to get. For me, it is fine as I see my car every day in the garage, even if I don't drive it for a week or two.

rado63

I have the Deltran Battery Tender Plus. I lock/unlock, enter/exit, turn on ACC mode. Battery is in the car and I just disconnect car from battery tender and drive away. Never resetting the battery tender. Maybe yours is not operating correctly.

2006c6keller

If this so, why not just put a timer on it and have it turn off once a day for fifteen minutes or so, then it starts charging again! That is way I would solve the problem for three or four bucks if I had this particular charger.

Don-Vette

I don't have ANY problem with this battery charger,it works perfectly as it was designed to do. Not sure what all the hub bub is all about.

pettvette

I have that exact Schumacher charger, been using it for over a year, never a problem....

JKbride

Tnxs, will keep an eye on both models

weathermaker

.
This should solve the problem.

AlfredMay

This is the OP.

Looks like cclive has come up with one scientific answer as to why the problem exists. Just as the tech from Schumacher stated "something" did come on. In my case I remember opening the door to the Corvette to put something in the car. I must assume that is when the maintainer went off. However, it does not resolve the question raised by others who report that the XM1-5 battery maintainer went off after a power failure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the solution to the problem. Schumacher should hire this gentleman as he offered more help than their tech line.

Originally Posted by 2006c6keller
If this so, why not just put a timer on it and have it turn off once a day for fifteen minutes or so, then it starts charging again! That is way I would solve the problem for three or four bucks if I had this particular charger.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I now have 6 battery maintainers. Three Battery Tender Jr's, two Schumacher XM1-5's and my original 8 year old Battery Minder. I either have to open an ebay battery tender store or purchase more cars.

raysk

cclive

I am not convinced that a power failure will cause this behavior in the maintainer as a power failure is exactly the same thing as plugging in the tender in the first place. I do not think that anything that happens naturally in the Corvette will trigger this charger to abort. I think some outside act, like opening the door, is required to make it abort and start flashing the red light. Is it possible that the manual for the Schumacher just has a misprint and they mean that the red light starts to flash instead of the yellow one??? Has anyone actually seen the charger flash the yellow light???

Bob, (BEZ06), can you chime in on what might have sent your charger into abort.......

phileaglesfan

I just use mine when the car sits for more than 10 days and I only use the Schumacher for about 1 night then it is off for another 10 days if I don't drive the car. I did this with my 08 and it had the same battery in it this July when I traded it in. It also always fired up even after sitting for 2-3 weeks (sometimes without the Schumacher hooked up). I don't mess with something that works.

VetMan4Life

ok, i looked and had an old schumacher charger and saw the same problem you talked about. The problem is that once the charger fully charges the battery, it wont start recharging if a load is placed on the battery. So, it is a design flaw. My genius charger does not have this issue, and as others have pointed out, most smart chargers wont either. I would recommend genius - my experience has been great.

AlfredMay

CClive,

I have had the Schumacher XM1-5 for 8 months. Late last winter I tested it on my Wife's Lincoln. It did go into abort mode, as described in the owners manual with a yellow light, one time. I don't remember why.

BEZ06

I just came back to this thread to post up:

TIMER - THAT'S THE SOLUTION!!!!


Butt.....I see a couple others already came up with that idea!!



Hey Chris - will some pics and a video work okay???

I agree that a power failure is not the problem. Like you say, that's actually how to solve the problem - either unplug/plug it back in, or disconnect/reconnect it to the battery.

Here's a couple pics and a video of a Schumacher XM1-5.

Below is the unit attached to my emergency generator. It's got a small 12 volt battery, and there is no drain from anything except the starter motor when it's engaged. It's a little hard to see in the pic below taken with my iPhone, but the top 3 lights are lit up - the top and 2nd one are red, and the 3rd one down is yellow (indicating it's in the "charge" mode); the 4th one is not illuminated - it will light up green when in the "maintain" mode:





I went out to the garage a little later and below is what I saw - the top red lights was steady, and the 2nd red light is blinking. In the video below I disconnect the clip from one of the battery terminals and the light stops blinking, then I pan up to the lights and when I reconnect to the battery terminal the lights go back to like in the first picture above - top 2 lights red, 3rd light yellow (charging), and 4th light not illuminated.





I went out again a little later after doing the video and took the pic below, and you can see that the top 2 lights are illuminated red, the 3rd light (yellow one) is out, and the 4th one down is lit up green (indicating it's in the "maintain" mode):




So....I'm happy with my 2 Schumachers. When I get the red lights blinking I just disconnect/reconnect either the plug or the battery connection.

A TIMER would do the same thing!!!

Bob

incabird

Would'nt you want the tender to automatically take care of the battery without having to plug and unplug it from time to time or come up with some kind of timer?

BEZ06

Yeah - ideally!!

Everybody loves their DelTran Battery Tenders, and I did too.

I had a Battery Tender Plus for about 7 or 8 years:




I kept it hooked up to my Harley. It has a red and a green light. When the green light is on the battery is fully charged and in the unit is in a maintain mode.

I used to go out to the garage and see the green light on all the time. Earlier this year (Bike Week in early March) I hadn't ridden in a month or two, but the green light was always on whenever I took a look at the bike and the charger.

Bike Week was getting close so I got ready to go out for a ride. I tried to start the bike and the battery was TOTALLY DEAD!!!

I put a regular charger on it, thinking the battery was completely dead and probably wouldn't come back to life, but it charged up and worked great all during Bike Week.

The Battery Tender Plus obviously wasn't working properly and I pitched it into the trash. I have had good luck with the Schumacher on my emergency generator (I check it out every couple of months and the starter motor cranks it right up).

I went to Walmart and for $20 bought another Schumacher for the Harley, and it's kept it charged up for about 9 months now.

I have seen the red light blinking a few times, but it's easy to remedy, and at least it lets me know if it's not charging - unlike the Battery Tender Plus that just about ruined my Harley battery!!!

Bob

Foxer55

Got mine at Walmart for $19.95. Works great! Now doesn't that just p*ss you off...?

AlfredMay

BEZ06,

Nice video..... and I agree that a timer is the solution. However, what could cause the Schumacher XM1-5 to stop charging a generator battery. There is no door to open and I doubt it has much (or anything) in the way of computers in it that will create an electrical drain. It seems that in some cases that are unexplained, the maintainer just shuts off. It then needs to be restarted. To me this is a design flaw.

Regarding your Batterry Tender. It worked properly for 7 or 8 years and then failed. I agree that it would be a good idea to have a light on the unit that would illuminate when it failed. At least you got 7 years out of it........ I barely got 7 days of "maintaining" from my Schumacher.