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      01-10-2022, 12:11 PM   #2
Thecastle
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Drives: F10 550i
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Houston, TX

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Garage List
2020 BMW M340i  [0.00]
2019 RAM 3500  [0.00]
2020 BMW X3  [0.00]
2016 BMW 550i  [0.00]
2000 Ford F450 7.3l ...  [0.00]
I charge my BMW v8's regularly to prolong battery life and ensure reliability. Another not talked about issue is if the battery is not charged enough, when the car is turned off it will not run the turbo cooling pumps and fans to preserve battery power. Damaging the turbos overtime.

Any charger that lists AMPS of charging is the maximum number of amps the charger can charge with if the battery will accept it generally when its lower than 80% State of Charge SOC.

When the battery gets near full i.e. the same voltage as the target voltage, the batteries will automatically pull (accept) less amps. The charges are not fixed in amp output, they are just capped. Generally the slower the charge the less heat and longer the life of the battery

With that said I have a 1.25amp Battery Tender which supports Flooded/AGM on my X5M when in storage. Works great battery lasted for years. I replace them every 4 years preventatively here in my climate. Heat kills batteries.

I also have a 4 amp Battery Tender for battery maintenance on my other cars, 550i, mini, and X3. It works fine generally tops the cars off in a few hours.

When you want more amps is if you have a big battery bank. I have a bucket truck with multiple 4D batteries. So it has a 400ah boom battery bank, if the bank was 50% depleted, you want a bigger charger so it can recharge in less than 24 hours. I use a 25ah battery charge for that one.

I use battery tender for car storage and they work great. My friend uses them on his car collection with no issues. Any good charger will work fine. The ones to watch for are the ones who don't have a float mode and continue to overcharge your batteries.
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