[ember1205]

Yeah, I know this is going to sound weird...

I keep my car in storage in the winter months. The worst thing for the battery is if the charge drops and the voltage gets below a certain level because that puts it at risk for freezing (which brings on different problems).

I don't want to remove the battery from the car, but I have no means to plug in a battery tender of any sort at the storage facility. I have thought about seeing if there was a way to hang a solar panel on the door, but I'm 99.999% sure the owners will say no way.

So, it got me wondering if there is any sort of battery tender type device on the market that I could plug in at home to charge it up, then move it to the storage facility and connect it to the car to transfer charge to the car's battery. I've seen the jump-start packs, but that really isn't what I'm looking for. I suppose I -could- use one of those type of devices with the power inverter switched on to power a battery tender... But... ???

[GroundhogSS]

Maybe get a battery backup like you use for a computer. Charge it at home and take it over to plug the battery tender in. Should last for several hours with the low drain of a tender. Just a thought.

[HDRDTD]

Is there a light in the storage facility where the car is stored?

If so, you can pick up a socket adapter at your local home depot store and plug the tender in there.

That's what I did years ago when I kept my Camaro in storage for the winter.

[gotroost]

Search around for a solar battery maintainer for an RV. Lots of options.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by GroundhogSS

Maybe get a battery backup like you use for a computer. Charge it at home and take it over to plug the battery tender in. Should last for several hours with the low drain of a tender. Just a thought.

I have a few of these sitting around doing nothing that I could potentially try this out with. It's basically the same sort of idea as a jump pack with an outlet/inverter on it. Definitely worth trying... Thanks for the idea here!

Originally Posted by HDRDTD

Is there a light in the storage facility where the car is stored?

If so, you can pick up a socket adapter at your local home depot store and plug the tender in there.

That's what I did years ago when I kept my Camaro in storage for the winter.

No lights inside the storage units. The outside lights are flood, tube style, and nowhere close to the unit my car is in - it would be a huge no-no for my to try and repurpose one of those.

Originally Posted by gotroost

Search around for a solar battery maintainer for an RV. Lots of options.

I own one. As I mentioned, though, there isn't a good place/way to situate the panel except to allow it to be attached to the door and that is not likely to go over with the owners.

[zxspeedspec]

Antigravity lithium battery with self-jumping capability.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by zxspeedspec

Antigravity lithium battery with self-jumping capability.

Those are designed for jump-starting, though... I want to be able to run a maintainer on the battery.

[Rock-It Man]

Have you looked for a storage facility specifically designed to accommodate cars? They always have electrical service for battery tenders.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by Rock-It Man

Have you looked for a storage facility specifically designed to accommodate cars? They always have electrical service for battery tenders.

I appreciate the thought, but - Storage here is hard enough... Plus I have personal items to store as well. It's 0% worth it to me to locate a place that can store cars, find one with an available unit, AND pay the ridiculous costs for it... Just for the privilege of an electrical outlet. There are other options that will work for me AND still be fairly close to home.

[wwiiavfan]

Just take the battery out. 10mm and 13mm socket wrench and you will have it out in less than 5 minutes. I do it every year. Then store the battery in the house with the tender on it.

[Zaqwert6]

Well there are 12 V to 12 V multi-stage Chargers, so it seems to me I might pick up a couple of extra car batteries, put them together in a bank, and then run the multi-stage 12v off of that to your car. Probably last for a while before you have to recharge the whole Bank.

[95 imp]

Car battery and an inverter sized to handle the tender load. You could probably pick up one that plugs into a cig lighter pretty cheap.

One battery in service while the other one is recharging at home.
Or, possibly just one aux battery. I doubt the battery in the car is going to die if the tender is disconnected for a day or 2.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by wwiiavfan

Just take the battery out. 10mm and 13mm socket wrench and you will have it out in less than 5 minutes. I do it every year. Then store the battery in the house with the tender on it.

Already stated - not interested. I'm aware of the "ease", but have zero interest in actually doing it, toting the thing around, dealing with it in the house (in the way), and then having to make damn sure I bring it back to storage with me every time I go "just in case" I have to open the car or move it.

Originally Posted by 95 imp

Car battery and an inverter sized to handle the tender load. You could probably pick up one that plugs into a cig lighter pretty cheap.

One battery in service while the other one is recharging at home.
Or, possibly just one aux battery. I doubt the battery in the car is going to die if the tender is disconnected for a day or 2.

Car has been sitting for almost four months as of now with NOTHING connected to it and the battery is still ok. I have three APC Back UPS Pro 1500 units that are unused. I believe one of them has a bad battery in it, so I'm going to charge all three of them up see if I can verify at least one of them as good. I'll then drop by storage and set everything up with either my 7.5W or 10W tender and leave it overnight to see what happens. I can do as you suggest and swap out a charged one for a dead one each week or something to keep the battery level higher in the car. I'll just have to be sure that I don't leave the UPS "dead" in the unit when the temps drop or the battery in the UPS will freeze....

[UnknownJinX]

I personally took mine out for a couple of months, which isn't too bad. The battery is freaking heavy, though.

I mentioned this in another thread, but if you have a second car, you could just hook up the jumper cables and charge the Camaro that way once in a while. You were concerned about AGM charging compatibility, but again, I have retrofitted AGM into cars not designed for AGM and had zero issues. These things aren't that fragile.

Otherwise, you would probably need something like a power bank that is capable of outputting 14V, and hook that onto the car battery. I don't know how well that works, though. Would need someone with more electrical knowledge to chime in.