Need to pick up a battery maintainer -

[urban_legend]

any suggestions / recommendations...?

[schnellman]

I use the Porsche brand maintainer which plugs into the cigarette lighter. Have done so successfully for two years now. I understand you can get the same maintainer from CTEK. (http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/home/default.aspx) for less money. It's the same maintainer, but without "Porsche" written on it and we all know what that costs. Do a web search for CTEK and you can find it in many places for less money than the one from the stealership.

[jmatta]

I've used the "Battery Tender, Jr" on my cars for the last five or six years...work perfectly and inexpensive. Has loop terminals that attach to the battery posts, with a quick disconnect.

[Norminhouston]

A nice little maintainer for very little money.

Norm

[JFP in PA]

I'd go with Ctek over Battery Tenders for a couple of reasons: All Ctek's have desulfation cycles built into their normal charge profiles, no Battery Tender's do. With sulfating being one of, if not the principal reason batteries die prematurely, regular desulfation capability is a definite plus. Some Ctek models also have "supply" and "recondition" modes as well. "Supply" is the feature mentioned in the recent "Excellence" article about why you should not disconnect the battery on some Porsche models without an alternative power source connected to prevent unintended issues. "Recondition" is used to recover a battery that has been totally discharged; while this will not bring a battery that has run its course back from the grave, it will recover an otherwise good battery that has been mistreated.

Battery Tender is a good basic unit, but there are much better units in the same general price range...............

[clickman]

My CTEK 3300 gets used year round on one vehicle or another. Seems good so far!