Have you ever used an old-school automotive battery charger? Consumer-grade battery chargers have been around for decades. But a lot has changed over the last 50 years. Many of today’s mid-level and high-end battery chargers come with built-in smart technology. The technology is so good that a more expensive smart charger can actually pay for itself over time by extending a battery’s life.
Clore Automotive, the makers of the PRO-LOGIX line of smart battery maintainers, points out that a battery charger and maintainer are essentially the same thing. One of their main purposes at the consumer level is to keep seasonal vehicle batteries charged and maintained during the off-season. But a battery charger can also be utilized to recharge a dead battery.
Are you considering purchasing a smart battery charger yourself? If you are still on the fence, here are five ways a good charger can pay for itself:
1. Preventing Battery Sulfation
Sulfation is a naturally occurring process. It occurs when sulfur crystals build up on the lead plates. Here is the problem: battery discharge actually encourages sulfation. So every time you start your car, a little more sulfation occurs.
Clore Automotive says that sulfation is the #1 killer of automotive batteries. That is why they have designed PRO-LOGIX smart battery maintainers with a reconditioning mode. In this mode, a PRO-LOGIX maintainer actually reduces sulfation. Less sulfation means longer battery life.
Note that sulfation cannot be prevented 100%. Eventually, it will overtake the battery and kill it completely.
2. Doubling or Tripling Battery Life
Between reconditioning and better maintenance modes, modern battery maintainers can significantly increase battery lifespan. How far? That depends on both the battery and the maintainer.
A typical automotive battery has a lifespan of 3-5 years. This is true whether you are talking about a sedan, SUV, minivan, or light-duty truck. Also note that battery life will be closer to the 3-year mark in warm weather states where summer temperatures can do a real number on car batteries.
At any rate, a smart charger can add several years to the life of a typical battery. Combine a high-quality battery maintainer with a high-end battery, and you could get up to 8 years out of it. Not having to replace a bad battery twice in that same amount of time easily covers the cost of the battery maintainer.
3. Dead Battery Recovery
Standard battery maintainers – and even some smart ones, too – will not engage with a battery once the voltage has dropped to 1-2v. That could lead to a perfectly good battery being tossed simply because the maintainer will not engage.
The best smart battery maintainers, like those from PRO-LOGIX, offer an override feature that will engage even batteries registering 0v. If the battery really is good, the charger will actually recondition it, giving it new life.
4. Automatic Temperature Adjustments
Traditional ‘dumb’ battery maintainers deliver a constant trickle of energy regardless of the ambient temperature. But a smart charger automatically adjusts, preventing both overcharging in the summer and undercharging in the winter.
5. Built-In Protection
Finally, a modern smart battery maintainer should offer built-in protection against voltage spikes, inverse polarity, and overheating. These same protections keep a car safer when its battery is being charged in place. Modern smart maintainers provide more stable and regulated power, meaning batteries don’t have to be removed from cars in order to safely maintain them.
Is a smart battery maintainer worth the extra cost? I think so. Under normal conditions, a smart maintainer pays for itself by reducing how frequently you need to replace your battery.