Battery Tender Jr *OR* CTEK 3300?

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CatalogGuy

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I finally realized how much better life would be if I used a maintainer instead of hot leads into the lighter to open the hood every couple months.

It seems these maintainers listed on TOB get the most attention. I believe they are both safe for long term use regarding battery life. I believe it is ok to feed the juice into the lighter rather than directly to the battery? The CTEK which I think is Porsche OEM is about $70 while the BTJ is only $30. Both prices from eBay with shipping.

Is there a reason to pay more for the CTEK?
 
CatalogGuy said:
I finally realized how much better life would be if I used a maintainer instead of hot leads into the lighter to open the hood every couple months.

It seems these maintainers listed on TOB get the most attention. I believe they are both safe for long term use regarding battery life. I believe it is ok to feed the juice into the lighter rather than directly to the battery? The CTEK which I think is Porsche OEM is about $70 while the BTJ is only $30. Both prices from eBay with shipping.

Is there a reason to pay more for the CTEK?
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I've used maintainers on multiple cars for years with great results and no ill effects, including a couple of Porsches via the lighter socket.

That said, there are some quality issues amongst the maintainers out there, so in some sense, you get what you pay for. I have a full sized Battery Tender that is on my tractor, and it has been fine for nearly 10 years. I have the Porsche "base" unit (~$50 on sale from various dealer weblistings), and have used it for about 8 years on three different Porsches, also with great results. The CTEK is a newer design with additional features, and you can find the one that Porsche sells for about $60 from other sources.

As I currently run four individual maintainers currently, if I had it to do all over again, I would buy the Battery Tender multiple bank unit to simplify everything.
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A maintainer is a maintainer

And the only differentiation is in indicator lights and plugs/clips it uses to connect to various things.

You can pay $100+ or $18 and they work the same.

WalMart sells a ~$18 maintainer that works fine for lots less than you are talking about.

In my web page on batteries, there is a section on maintainers with comments and pictures here
 
Wal-Mart!

I have the Wal-Mart maintainer, actually it is a Black and Decker unit. Runs $17 bucks. The nice thing about this unit is that it has 3 different hook-up possibilities. 1. Cigarette plug, 2. alligator clips, 3. A hook up direct to the battery. All of them have about a 6 inch "pig" tail, that allows you to just plug it in. The unit is switchable 1 amp or 2. I use three of these units, one for the Porsche, and for my ATV and lawn tractor. Have used them since fall with no problems so far. Good luck!
 
I've used the CTEK unit for over a year. Trouble free great results.
 
Lenaing toward BTJ

Thanks to all who commented. It seems like the BTJ does what the CTEK does but for less money. I am looking at getting one for my Boxster and another for my sand rail in San Felipe, and another for the gf's 944 in Walnut Creek. I can get all 3 delivered for $78.
 
Dave G said:
I have the Wal-Mart maintainer, actually it is a Black and Decker unit. Runs $17 bucks. The nice thing about this unit is that it has 3 different hook-up possibilities. 1. Cigarette plug, 2. alligator clips, 3. A hook up direct to the battery. All of them have about a 6 inch "pig" tail, that allows you to just plug it in. The unit is switchable 1 amp or 2. I use three of these units, one for the Porsche, and for my ATV and lawn tractor. Have used them since fall with no problems so far. Good luck!
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I saw the maintaners up here in Canada, they were a heck of a lot more though, $45, the one's here are made by Schumacher, must be different the B&D units?

I figured they would be a reasonable alternative to the $150 that Porsche charges us for their unit...
 
I have two BTJ's and they work great. After I got them, I called the company and asked about a cigarette lighter adapter. They sent me two for free! I think many BTJ's are used with motorcycles, so they don't bother to include the CLA and just provide it for free on demand.
 
Ditto to Kevin C. I have the Waterproof Battery Tender. It has various circuitry to prevent over-charging/etc. like the Jr. but is like $10 more. I just wanted it sealed so that I don't have to care about corrosion or it getting wet, etc. The company send me the cigarette lighter for free as well.
 
Ordered!

I got 3 for the total price of $76.50! eBay is very handy as the nearest WalMart is 2.5 hours away. I still gotta burglarize my own trunk to get to the battery - hopefully for the last time! Thanks everybody for your comments
 
I just bought the Black & Decker Charger and it's in use right now. Good advice on it as an alternative to Porsche's.:D
 
blinkwatt said:
I just bought the Black & Decker Charger and it's in use right now. Good advice on it as an alternative to Porsche's.:D
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I just went into the garage and saw that the maintainer didn't have a light indicating what mode it is in,does this mean that it's broken or it shut off?
 
Battery Maintainer

Westcoaster said:
I saw the maintaners up here in Canada, they were a heck of a lot more though, $45, the one's here are made by Schumacher, must be different the B&D units?

I figured they would be a reasonable alternative to the $150 that Porsche charges us for their unit...
Click to expand...


If the battery is dead, does the battery maintainer provide enough juice through the Cigarette Lighter access to open the hood?

Doug S
01 986 GR
 
Battery Maintainer

blinkwatt said:
I just went into the garage and saw that the maintainer didn't have a light indicating what mode it is in,does this mean that it's broken or it shut off?
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You may want to unplug it, then plug it back in.... and check the battery connections.
 
dougster01 said:
You may want to unplug it, then plug it back in.... and check the battery connections.
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That's what I did and turned it on,it went back into charging mode,oh well we'll see what happens.
 
Quick connect battery maintainer

I've been using the one in the photo for the past 3 years. Works great! The switched socket near the windshield is a drilled out Boxster screw cover plug. The wiring runs thru an in-line fuse to the battery. Socket rust isn't a problem since the car spends 99% of its time in the garage. :(
 

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More photos

Here are some photos of the swing arm assembly used with the battery maintainer.

It's an over-center design that's stable when down or up. In the down position, it's plugged into the maintainer socket shown in my previous post. Since it's in front of my face when I get in the car, it's hard to forget to unplug it. Even if I did, it just pulls out.

In the up position, the dangling cord is above head level, but within arms reach to grab it and pull it down. The rope going thru the metal bar weight on top is a safety rope...just in case something breaks. :eek:

So far...so good.
 

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As you can plug any maintainter into the cig lighter on any Porsche, doesn't this set up seem a little excessive?
 
Excessive? Yes. Some people, like me, are willing to work hard to be lazy.

I connect the maintainer whenever the car is in the garage (unless I forget to plug it in).

Short of driving over an inductive coupling (which I also considered) this is about as quick and convenient as I could come up with.
 
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