hayesdt Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 Have any of you used a Battery Tender (or comparable trickle / slow) charger for the 12 volt battery in your C Max? Motorcycle and Scooter riders (myself included) often use them to keep their cycles and scooters charged (which the Battery a Tender does without overcharging). Just wondering if anyone has used one to avoid the 12 volt battery problems so many have reported with hybrids ( yes, I'm told it happens not only with The C a Max but with Toyota and Honda hybrids too!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobJustBob Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Have any of you used a Battery Tender (or comparable trickle / slow) charger for the 12 volt battery in your C Max? Yes, I have used a Deltran Battery Tender Plus on my C-Max a few times. I am one of those unfortunate individuals who has experienced multiple instances (9 and counting) of a dead battery in the first 17 months of ownership. My completely unsubstantiated view is that using this charger forestalls the battery problem. I seem to go a lot longer between instances of the dead battery when I use the charger. I note here that I was unable to recover from a dead battery by using this charger. One Saturday morning, I came out to find my battery had died. Since I could use a family member's car to get where I needed to go, I decided to put the dead battery on the charger and see if it would recover. Twenty-five hours later, the light on the battery charger was still red, indicating that it was doing no good. So I got a jump from a family member's car, drove my C-Max for 45 minutes, then put it back on the battery charger. Four hours later, the battery was completely charged. Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plus 3 golfer Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 (edited) The issue I see is most battery Tenders have a low Ampere rating. It is not meant to be a quick charger. In addition, if there's a parasitic load of 3-4 A on the battery sometime in the overnight period, a battery tender is unlikely to prevent every dead battery as the drain is likely greater than the capability of the tender. So, eventually the battery will go "dead". A battery Tender is good for vehicles driven on an occasional basis and driven for short distances to keep the battery fully charged. IMO, one needs a portable, rechargeable jump start system or jumper cables plus another vehicle as a better hedge against a dead battery. I'm not familiar with which jump starts are best but it seems that one will likely have to pay $100+ for a decent one although Harbor Freight has one for $50. Edited May 3, 2014 by Plus 3 Golfer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptjones Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Yes, I have used a Deltran Battery Tender Plus on my C-Max a few times. I am one of those unfortunate individuals who has experienced multiple instances (9 and counting) of a dead battery in the first 17 months of ownership. My completely unsubstantiated view is that using this charger forestalls the battery problem. I seem to go a lot longer between instances of the dead battery when I use the charger. I note here that I was unable to recover from a dead battery by using this charger. One Saturday morning, I came out to find my battery had died. Since I could use a family member's car to get where I needed to go, I decided to put the dead battery on the charger and see if it would recover. Twenty-five hours later, the light on the battery charger was still red, indicating that it was doing no good. So I got a jump from a family member's car, drove my C-Max for 45 minutes, then put it back on the battery charger. Four hours later, the battery was completely charged. Weird.I was wondering if you actually had the 12v battery go dead with a trickle charger connected? :) Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
METROVAN3 Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Hi Cmaxers When using The battery Tender Jr, Where on the Cmax did you make the connection's, On the battery itself or can you use the jump points up front ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptjones Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 You Should be able to connect too posts up front in ICE compartment. Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billyk24 Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Here is what it looks like, the hood is closed and cable hanging out for the connection to the trickle charger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plus 3 golfer Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 20 hours ago, METROVAN3 said: Hi Cmaxers When using The battery Tender Jr, Where on the Cmax did you make the connection's, On the battery itself or can you use the jump points up front ? One should connect the positive of a tender / charger to the 12 V positive terminal of the battery beneath the Floor of the hatch or the positive post under hood. The negative should be connected to a chassis ground either the ground post under hood or the chassis ground lug to the left of the 12 V battery (black cable attached to lug) never to the negative post of the 12 V battery. The negative cable from the battery terminal to the chassis ground lug has a BMS sensor which measures current flow into / out of battery. The tender / charger current flow to battery is needed for the BMS to work as intended. So, one does not want to bypass this sensor by connecting either a load or a tender/charger negative directly to the battery terminal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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