Due to being retired, my S10 pickup is rarely driven. For example, I bought it Nov 2014 and have only put 1200 miles on it. Was wondering if anyone has used a battery maintainer? Are they safe? Right now I just unhook negative battery terminal but then when I do drive the truck my aftermarket radio has lost its memories and I have to reconfigure bluetooth to hook up to my phone. Would rather be able to unhook maintainer and drive away with radio as I left it when parked.

 

My coworker keeps one of these on his Porsche that he rarely drives because it will kill the battery in a week without driving and ever since he started using this he can go months without touching the car and it starts right up every time! Its as simple as plugging it into the cigarette lighter and putting it on the dash and then when its time to drive unplug and go. We just started keeping one on our Mercedes van as well and so far so good there.

 

I use battery tender brand. Works great, only charges when needed to maintain the proper voltage. No overcharging.

 

I just got this, since my battery has decided that holding a charge is optional. It works pretty well.

 

I have four Battery Tender brand chargers. One larger dual charging unit for our GPS base station batteries, two wall-wart chargers (one for my camper and one for my mower during the winter months), and a water proof unit that is mounted on the radiator core support in my K5 to keep it's battery happy over the winter. All of them have been in operation for nearly 5 years without a single issue.

 

I use a Battery Tender Jr on my Harley in the winter months and all is fine.


Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger | eBay

 

Thanks everyone. I ended up getting a Black and Decker one. It is plugged into the cigarette lighter. Been hooked up for two days. The first day I kept checking to make sure the maintainer wasn't getting hot. Well it is cool as a cucumber and I am very pleased. Now I can take off with my radio ready to go and battery with a full charge!

 

It should do you well. I use a battery tender for my riding lawn mower battery over the winter.

 

I saw the OP had made a buying decision, but wanted to mention another choice for others that may read this. Ctek is a brand of battery tenders that I have read a lot of good things. It is on Amazon starting at 58.xx and 64.xx and up. That is with free shipping. Note they have harnesses to make it a quick disconnect.