hey welcome back everybody Roger here from O'Reilly Auto Parts to talk to you about battery maintainer but before I get into that I want to give you the opportunity to subscribe to our channel if you haven't already so you don't miss out on any of our new content a battery maintainer is essentially a battery charger that's designed to supply your battery with a small amount of electricity for long periods of inactivity in addition a maintainer will extend the life of the battery the main difference between a battery charger and a battery maintainer is that a charger applies a constant charge until it's done which means it needs to be disconnected once the battery has been fully charged a battery maintainer on the other hand will charge only when the voltage has dropped so it can be left connected and unattended for much longer periods of time some chargers include a maintenance feature to prevent overcharging and some don't when you store a vehicle for long stretches like over the winter months whether that's a motorcycle lawnmower ATV or classic car its battery can discharge through the electrical system and the longer a battery is discharged the less likely it is to start the vehicle again when the time comes a battery maintainer will keep the battery charged and extend its life again the great thing about battery maintainer x' is that they're completely automatic so you can leave them connected for long periods of time they use a system that applies the appropriate amount of current based on the charge level of the battery when the battery is fully charged and maintainer will switch over to float mode to maintain the battery at full charge that means the battery maintainer will only charge the battery when it drops below a certain voltage when it comes time to actually make a purchase the first thing to determine is whether your battery is a six volt or a 12 volt most vehicles run on 12-volt batteries but you can still find six volt systems and batteries in older cars some motorcycles lawn equipment and golf carts if you have a 6 volt battery be sure to only use a 6 volt maintainer because applying too much voltage can cause damage to the battery you'll also need to consider whether your battery is a standard or AGM battery a standard charger or maintainer can damage an AGM battery and lastly the amperage of the charger or maintainer is also a factor the amperage of a charge will affect how quickly a battery is charged the higher the amperage the more quickly that will recharge a battery so let's take a look at a few of our battery maintainer options the first is our Schumacher battery maintainer which is the perfect solution for someone looking to maintain 12 volt batteries at eight tenths of an amp it will provide a steady current for overnight battery charging or maintenance the next option is a higher performance 12 volt charger with a 3 amp output so it will charge batteries much faster it can be used for both 6 volt and 12 volt batteries as well as AGM batteries a great versatile choice if you're dealing with different battery types now if you have more than one battery to maintain we also have multi bank charges like this Schumacher Bank charger this 2 amp maintainer has two banks and is also capable of handling both 6 and 12 volt batteries and AGM batteries and these are just a few of the battery maintainer that are available at your local O'Reilly Auto Parts Store or O'Reilly Auto complex
