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FORD MUSTANG
94-08
Battery Charger & Tender PLUS
PICTURES and Information
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Battery Tender
PLUS©
Device
Details |
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Product
Details
Battery Tender PLUS is lightweight, compact
size makes it ideal for those hard-to-fit spots. The
trickled charger with a brain will assure batteries
are maintained after charging and allows ready to
go!
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Fully automatic two-stage lead-acid battery
charger. Perfect for all lead-acid, sealed
maintenance free and gel cell batteries.
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SuperSmart™
Charging
Technology.
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After reaching peak 14.4 VDC, charger
automatically switches to 13.2 VDC float
voltage.
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When
voltage drops below 12.6 VDC, charger resumes
charging back to 14.4 VDC.
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Solid state two color LED indicates stage of
charger.
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Spark proof.
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Reverse polarity protected.
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12'
output cord.
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5
year warranty.
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3-Step Charging (Initialization, Bulk, Float)
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Short Circuit Protected.
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You will
never have a dead or weak battery because your car
was sitting too long!
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It's
so EASY! The connector cord and female
connector head simply connect to your battery and
stay connected. Plug it in to the charger connector
and keep it plugged in for a constant trickle
charge. It will only come on when your battery
starts to get low. When not in use it simply tuck
the connector cord (yellow Arrow) up inside the
engine compartment. Start your car and drive away.
You never have to open the hood.
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1. How can I tell if my battery is
charged or not?
Lead acid batteries are made up of cells. Each cell
is approximately 2 volts, so a 12-volt battery has 6
individual cells. It turns out that a fully charged
2-volt cell has a voltage of approximately 2.15
volts. Oddly enough, a fully discharged 2-volt cell
has a voltage of 1.9 volts. That’s only a difference
of 0.25 volts on each cell from fully charged to
fully discharged. So a 12-volt battery will measure
at about 12.9 volts when it’s fully charged and
about 11.4 volts when it is fully discharged. That’s
a total of 1.5 volts that represents the full range
of charge on a 12-volt battery. To make a good guess
at how much charge your battery has left, you can
assign a percentage of charge remaining that is
directly proportional to the battery voltage. Let’s
see how we can do that. If the battery voltage is
12.15 volts, how much charge is left? Beginning with
11.4 volts representing no charge or 0% charge
available, subtract 11.4 volts from the voltage that
you read. So 12.15 – 11.4 = 0.75 volts. Since there
are only 1.5 volts above 11.4 volts that represents
the full range of charge, we can divide the
difference that we just calculated by 1.5 volts to
get the percentage of charge remaining. 0.75 volts /
1.5 volts = 0.5 or when expressed as a percentage,
multiply by 100 and get 50%. Here’s the procedure
written as a formula that is applicable to 12 Volt
Batteries:
OPEN CIRCUIT BATTERY STATE OF CHARGE CALCULATION
% Charge = SOC
% Charge = ((Measured Battery Voltage – 11.4 volts)
/ 1.5 volts) x 100
Equation 1
That seems easy enough. So what’s the catch? In
order for this formula to work, the battery must be
in a rest state. In other words, the battery should
not be supplying power to any type of load. The
experts say that the battery should remain at rest
for at least 24 hours to get an accurate
measurement, but in a pinch a couple of hours are
good enough to make a reasonable guess. Even if the
battery is connected to a load, as long as the load
current is less than 1% of the battery capacity in
amp-hours, then this method is probably good enough
in most cases. It’s all a matter of how accurate you
want to be. If you’re a scientist or engineer trying
to develop a battery powered product, then you
probably want a more accurate measurement than if
you’re going fishing for the weekend and you just
want to know if you need to take the time to charge
your battery before you use it. There is one more
thing to keep in mind. The only way to be absolutely
sure that your battery is fully charged is to do a
load test. It is best to have the battery dealer do
this for you. We only mention it here because it is
possible for a battery to indicate a good voltage,
but then immediately when you try to use it, it acts
like it’s dead. This doesn’t happen very often, but
it’s good to know that it is a possibility.
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2. How long will it take to charge a
battery?
We can make a pretty good guess by just dividing two
numbers:
Approximate Recharge Time Calculations
(Battery Capacity) / (Charger Current) = Hours
(Amp-Hours) / (Amps) = Hours
Equation 2
Suppose I have a 50 Amp-Hour battery. That’s a
fairly typical size for an automotive engine start
type battery. Now let’s say I have a 10 Amp charger.
(50 Amp-Hours) divided by (10 Amps) = 5 Hours. So we
would estimate that it will take a good 10 Amp
charger about 5 Hours to recharge a 50 Amp-Hour
battery. Actually this rough estimate usually tells
us how long it takes to recharge the battery to
about 80% of its capacity. To complete the recharge
of a battery to 100% with a 3-step charger, it turns
out that it will probably take an equal amount of
time, or another 5 hours to recharge the last 20% of
the battery capacity. To complete the recharge of a
battery to 100% with a 4 step charger, in most cases
it will take less time than with a 3 Step Charger to
recharge the last 20% of the battery capacity. These
times are different for all of the software
versions.
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3. Is the
Battery Tender
PLUS
battery charger more expensive than a trickle
charger?
The Battery Tender
PLUS Device will
do a much better job in maintaining the charge on a
battery than a typical trickle charger. The Battery
Tender PLUS Device will provide more
long-term value and hence a significant improvement
in the total cost of ownership. The initial price
may be higher than trickle chargers with comparable
output power capability, but like the ad says, "The
Battery Tender Device is like a trickle charger with
a brain." That added measure of on-board
intelligence provides the means for the Battery
Tender PLUS Device to more safely and
effectively maintain the charge on a battery much
larger than its competitor’s in the same power
range. A trickle charger simply cannot regulate its
output voltage to consistently safe levels over
extended periods of time as the battery
characteristics change.
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4. How is the
Battery Tender
PLUS
Device battery charger different from a trickle
charger?
The Battery Tender
PLUS
Device employs a higher
level of sophistication in its use of electronic
control to maintain a battery in a full state of
charge over extended periods of time. The Battery
Tender
PLUS Device employs a charge control method to
keep the battery at full charge while minimizing the
long-term risk of overcharge and premature capacity
loss. Trickle chargers are simply not capable of
regulating the output voltage applied to a battery
as the battery ages, or if a different battery with
different characteristics is connected to the
trickle charger’s output terminals. The Battery
Tender PLUS Device is capable of charge
maintenance on all lead acid battery types,
including both AGM and GEL cells.
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