UPS just delivered my Deltran Battery Tender from Amazon.
When I opened the box I saw this on the bottom:
Oh come on now I said to myself. I bet they don't want someone to use it because you plug it in and leave it on to keep your battery up to snuff. Sure enough with a google search I found this:
Deltran Battery Tender® has achieved the very first listing in the California Energy Commission Appliance database for certified electronics, small battery chargers for Automotive and Power Sport Applications!
Starting in 2013 all non-commercial battery chargers manufactured after February and sold in California must conform to the new “Appliance Efficiency Program” in coordination with the California Energy Commission.
Mike Prelec Sr. CEO stated, “Battery Tender® has been supplying high-efficiency battery chargers for over 10 years to the European market with the CE certification. We have spent the better part of a year redesigning our units to meet the new stringent standards of both California and Europe. The units have also been re-qualified by Underwriters Labs and/or ETL.”
The California regulation is designed to reduce the strain on the power grid caused by inefficient consumer electronics. Eventually the rest of the country will follow suit!
Probably old stock that hadn't been through the testing program.
ReplyDeleteActually, I just called them after I posted it and they added a resistor to slow down the charging to the ones they sell in CA and CO. So I was told.
DeleteThe tech guy and I had a laugh.
What a crock. So a resistor added into the battery minder to slow down charging is supposed to save energy? Uh huh. Just off the top of my head and trying to remember basic electrical equations that I learned in high school 40+ years ago, I would say that the resistor would make it consume more energy to keep the battery up to full charge. If I am correct then I can understand you and the tech guy getting a laugh out of it.
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on where they added the resistor.
DeleteIf they just put it in series with the output, then yes, it would dissipate additional power.
If they added it in the control circuitry for the output, then it wouldn't.
I've got a couple of the Battery tender Plus units, but I've never opened one up to look at the circuitry.
Okay, I understand that. Good point, drjim. If it was in the control circuitry then it probably wouldn't dissipate more power as it would in series with the output. Now the next question is: If the output to the battery from an old style charger without the resistor takes, as an example, one hour to bring the battery up to full charge before it shuts down and just say that the newer model would take twice as long to bring it to the same level, it would still draw the same total power to charge the battery wouldn't it?
DeleteThat's basically correct. It takes the same amount of power to charge a battery regardless of how that power is applied to the battery. What differs is the efficiency of the charger.
DeleteOne charger might consume 20 Watts just to "run itself", while another charger might only consume 5 Watts.
And if the "5 Watt" charger could charge the battery twice as fast as the "20 Watt" charger, you'd have an even greater power savings.
One of the things these agencies look at is called "phantom power" or "vampire power", which is the draw when the device is plugged in, but turned off.
I don't miss the stupid stuff I endured there. When I moved there in '94, I brought in a 1982 Honda Civic I bought new in Florida a dozen years earlier. It was not listed on their "50 state approved car list". This is a list of cars where California made them install performance reducing smog crap. So I had to pay a $400 fee to register the car even though it's SMOG test showed that it was emitting only 10% of the allowable CO2 and other evil gases. Years later the State Supreme Court made the State refund that fee with interest. It was unconstitutional. The place is run by clowns.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Oregon was also listed just goes to prove how badly it's been Californiacated over the last twenty years.
ReplyDeleteWashington is not far behind anymore.
I was born in California, grew up in Oregon, have lived in Washington for the last twenty years and have watched it happen in slow motion.
Idaho gets a bit cold for my tastes but is really starting to appeal to me.
Hey, can you guys help me out here? I remember seeing these advertised on TV car shows years ago. I then saw them in stores, but they were kind of pricey compared to a regular old trickle charger, so I just bought a trickle charger. What is the advantage of the Battery Tender over a regular trickle charger? I bought the trickle charger for about $8, and I think that the Battery Tender was about $30. I think the trickle charger I bought has a one amp charge, so how much less energy could the more expensive Battery Tender possibly use? I've been using two of these trickle chargers to keep some batteries at full charge 24/7/365, for about ten years now. Is this stupid, wasteful, or dangerous? I would be interested in hearing what you guys think.
ReplyDeleteHey, can you guys help me out here? I remember seeing these advertised on TV car shows years ago. I then saw them in stores, but they were kind of pricey compared to a regular old trickle charger, so I just bought a trickle charger. What is the advantage of the Battery Tender over a regular trickle charger? I bought the trickle charger for about $8, and I think that the Battery Tender was about $30. I think the trickle charger I bought has a one amp charge, so how much less energy could the more expensive Battery Tender possibly use? I've been using two of these trickle chargers to keep some batteries at full charge 24/7/365, for about ten years now. Is this stupid, wasteful, or dangerous? I would be interested in hearing what you guys think.
ReplyDeleteCalifornians are like clownfish or New Yorkers. They cannot comprehend the concept of time-space. They live in their now, self absorbed, both unaware of the effects of both history and time, and clueless to the upstream effects of demands.
ReplyDeleteShame both on them and those that try to sell there.
Neil, these tenders are not battery chargers in the true sense like a trickle charger, they do not have the heavy windings to put out a lot of amperage.
ReplyDeleteThey are used to keep a fully charged battery topped off.
Yes, I understand what you are saying, but what I specifically want to know is this: I've been using two trickle chargers for the use that the Battery Tender is intended for, for about 15 years. Is this stupid? Is this dangerous in any way? The trickle charger only puts out about one amp, and is self regulating, so how much energy could I possibly be wasting? My experience tells me that everything I'm doing is OK, but if that were true, why did they ever even come out with the Battery tender? What benefits would you be getting with the Battery Tender over trickle charger?
Delete