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AGM Charger Maintainer
#1
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wjames
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I am having trouble trying to find a AGM 6v Maintainer. I have a Optima 6V Red top Battery and I am looking for a Maintainer that I can just plug in forget about until the next time I use the car
Anybody have a good experience with a 6V AGM Maintainer?
W

Posted on: 2021/3/17 15:00
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Re: AGM Charger Maintainer
#2
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su8overdrive
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An Optima tech suggested the CTEK UC800 6-volt charger best for our 6-volt Optima Red Top batteries. It's also one of the least expensive. Have had mine for ages. Orange light when charging, green when charged, and you can leave it on 24/7.
Spiral wound matrix Optima batteries (once and for all; they are not "gel" batteries) like any battery will last longer the closer to 100% charge it remains. However, like all batteries, it's a good idea to use it, "run it down," deep cycle it now and then, just don't let it sit in a lower state, which can lead to sulfation, death knell for any battery.
I believe in supporting companies and products that cater to those of us with old cars, lest they go the way of Packard.
Check online. Got my CTEK via Amazon. SummitRacing.com (775) 352-8787 had the best price on Optima Red Top, free and amazingly fast shipping.
Got a month or two shy of a decade from my last Optima, and know of a fellow with a '41 Cad who got 14 years, and of a bloke whose V-16 Cad starts just fine with a single Optima, as does my '47's 356 engine with gear-reduction starter.
Make sure you have double aught (00) copper battery cables, ends crimped and soldered, and a couple extra grounds never hurt. "Heavy duty" cables from the local auto parts store in this 12-volt world still too skimpy. Try a big rig supply house.
Cole Hersee brass, marine grade battery disconnect switch terrific, rated for more amps than your starter draws, via any NAPA store or online.
In your traditional-bodied '36, like the '40 120 i long ago owned, mount it on the floor, just ahead of the front seat, near the battery.
(In my '47, through the firewall, under the dash.)
Have never understood fellows who insist on heavy, off-gassing old-type batteries. And what part of "weight is the enemy" don't they understand?
For those whose batteries are visible and care about such nonsense, Jim's Auto Battery, Youngstown, Ohio and others purvey fakey-do battery boxes to disguise your Optima.

Also recommend one of Jim's 6-volt, positive ground, 55-amp alternators in any Packard. Tell Jim and Dolores a '47 Packard in Walnut Creek, CA sent you. (800) 426-7580. Friends with Cords have them, too, because low voltage in those barouches means no shift. Bolt-in proposition; absolutely no butchering so if you sell your car to some "purist," no problem.
Such were available in the '50s on tow trucks and emergency equipment when most cars still had generators. Trust me, had Packard remained in business, and you taken your car in for repair, they'd have installed such an alternator. Faster battery recovery, brighter head and taillights at dusk and night, tho' spraying the insides of the taillight housings gloss white or placing shiny side out aluminum foil helps, as does good ground.
Packard built automobiles, not batteries, tires, generators, brake fluid, motor oil, grease. Use the best.
You've got some nice, lowkey two-lane backroads around Milway, NJ, not the case in my auld greater NYC--let alone the frenetic CA Bay Area.
Not really off topic, but if we're serious about preserving and occasionally enjoying Packards, curbing overpopulation should be the number one priority of every buff; amending our antiquated, agrarian tax code to encourage only one or two babies per family, better yet, adoption, pressuring the Pope and other religious leaders to do the same.

If you think this "politics" and not germane, try driving out here.

During Packard's era, national population was only a quarter to a third today's 1/3rd of a billion, people walked not drove short distances, took trolleys, streetcars, interurbans, obesity so rare they made a star out of Fatty Arbuckle. Since 1950, GDP per capita has risen in every nation with declining birthrate.

A 2019 poll of 11,000 scientists reported in the Nov. 5th, 2019 Bloomberg.com news showed them agreeing overpopulation is the world's biggest problem, despite the consumer-driven media's blackout on the subject, this up from a 2013 poll of 2,000 UN scientists, their words, "bigger than climate."

You want to be around to enjoy an occasional jaunt in your Packard, go vegan per Drs. Neal Barnard, Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, Joel Fuhrman (YouTube them).

According to UN and other vetted international studies, animals raised for meat and dairy produce more greenhouse gas than all the world's cars, trucks, buses, trains, planes, ships combined.

"Having-it-all" me-me-me types have decimated this hobby; auction hype, trophy hounds, the Pebble Beach mentality. Packard suggested other motorists looked to Packard drivers to set a responsible example.
We make concessions in a sane society, or they're made for us, so let's occasionally think about the big picture, tomorrow as well as yesterday.

There were reasons Packard was overwhelmingly the leading choice of the world's embassies, and why they advertised in not just Fortune, Collier's, the Saturday Evening Post, but Time, Newsweek, the New Yorker, National Geographic, and the Literary Digest.

Posted on: 2021/3/17 15:58
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Re: AGM Charger Maintainer
#3
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John
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Wow....

Posted on: 2021/3/17 16:05
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Re: AGM Charger Maintainer
#4
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todd landis
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Posted on: 2021/3/17 16:51
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Re: AGM Charger Maintainer
#5
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wjames
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Thanks
Will

Posted on: 2021/3/18 8:52
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Re: AGM Charger Maintainer
#6
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JWL
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Will, give a Batteries Plus store in your city a try. They have a good selection of accessories for batteries. Plus, it supports a locally operated business.

Posted on: 2021/3/18 12:25
We move toward
And make happen
What occupies our mind... (W. Scherer)
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Re: AGM Charger Maintainer
#7
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Tim Cole
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Those scientists must not be very bright given when I was a kid population control was a government funded program. My generation had the lowest birth rate since the depression, but the results have not been encouraging given what we ended up with was spoiled self centered brats. All this greenhouse gas stuff is more politically motivated garbage talk because the horse is already over the fence. When you look at the numbers either the "experts" are stupid or they are crazy. The only bright side is all that overpriced beach front real estate is going to be washed away. Shoot, global warming was already happening when the Titanic was surrounded by icebergs. I tell the youngsters today I feel I sorry for the mess they are being stuck with. I don't understand these billionaires. All the money in the world isn't going to get them a willing sexual partner. I don't have much interest in money because it attracts a lot of people I don't want to talk to. Why would I want to even be in the same neigborhood as, say, Trump. The thought makes me nauseous. And when I croak I want to make sure there is nothing left to be picked over.

This car hobby stuff hasn't escaped. I saw a situation were some nut case bought a car from a high priced place like Hyman, stripped off the paint, tore out the interior, and threw the drivetrain into the trash to make a hot rod and get a trophy someplace. No thanks, I'll stick to banjo tunes.

But to get back to topic. I agree, those 6 volt Optimas can work really well in the 6 volt system. I handled a case where this Packard was burning out light bulbs because the generator was wired in full field mode. It had an Optima battery in it that handled the punishment and didn't break down. But rather than leaving them on chargers a better strategy might be to buy a voltmeter and check the voltage periodically. A heavy duty battery charger with AGM mode can be a great investment, but I haven't seen one with six volts so two Optimas in series would need to applied. Very often the engineering test cars come in with stone dead batteries because the programs are in development and draining batteries. I can revive lead acid batteries, but the AGMs are much more suseptible to failure. I haven't yet figured out why the test equipment is so rough on those deep cyclers. So proper charging methods are important.

When test vehicles come in that have been sitting, I put them on the charger automatically to simulate a full drive cycle. If I have a car sitting and due to go back out I check the voltage and put a charger on it.

Posted on: 2021/3/18 21:18
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