Next to batteries, the most often overlooked and undervalued need is the charger for the vehicle battery. Whether a bike, UTV, or a big ballsy diesel truck, there are times when all vehicles will need a charger. Since you’re here reading this, you may be feeling a little guilt, maybe you’re “that guy” who overlooks the charger until it’s too late and you’ve wasted another perfectly good battery. Or maybe it’s more complicated than that, you have an antique charger, it belonged to your Grandpa and you’re wondering, “Does it really matter what I use?” It’s a brand-new year, and we’re here to help you never be “that guy” again.
Let’s start with the “Does it really matter?” scenario. If you spend long enough around the battery side of the industry, you learn quickly the difference between a good charger can sometimes make all of the difference to a battery’s life and overall performance. The problem is there’s a billion charger brands on the market but very few of them care to understand the science of charging a battery. We know this from firsthand experience when customers take the time (good on them) to ask if their charger will work with our batteries. The preset voltages on some of these chargers are often egregious, failing to even be close to the target voltage range of most AGM batteries. This experience alone is the driving force behind us offering our own solution.
Getting the target voltage is an important first step, and even if these brands manage to get into a tolerable range, they proceed to leave off other critical aspects of a quality charging solution. The next most critical thing we would cite is temperature compensation. You may not know it, but ambient temperature has a massive impact on batteries. When it’s cooler out, batteries need higher voltage, and when it’s warmer they need the voltage to be reduced. Without this, batteries can end up undercharged in the cool season and overcharged in the warm months. Rest assured, Grandpa’s copper core transformer-based charger does not have temperature compensation (zero disrespect the Grandpa).
While those are pretty much essentials, let’s move on to the full package, when a charger is at the top of the game, going the extra mile for your battery. Features like worry-free, fully automatic, set it and forget it type of charging are essential for periods of storage, short or long. But we can do better, once that initial charge is done, many chargers just shut off. The Full Throttle Optimate is like a little guardian angel hovering over your battery, always watching. When the voltage drops it jumps into action and brings it back up. It doesn’t stop there. Did you accidentally leave an accessory on and now your battery may be on its way to the recycler? The Full Throttle Optimate comes to the rescue with a reviving battery recovery mode slowly nursing that battery back to health, surgically cutting away sulfation until all is restored. This mode engages automatically when the charger is plugged in and senses something is off. With the FTS Optimate-6, the features just keep coming. Earlier in the article, we touched on voltage range. While most AGM batteries are fine with 14.4V, some, like our Full Throttle Series do better with a higher 14.7V charge. The FTS Optimate-6 allows you to toggle between 14.4 and 14.7 for whatever battery you’re using. Lastly, for more technical needs, we love the 13.6V 4A mode for tuning and critical vehicle mods that keep the ECU from being bricked.
And if you’re “that guy” who we first mentioned, putting off forking over a little money for a quality charger, and you aren’t fully sold yet, here’s some of the features that should remove all objections. Both the FTS Optimate-2 and 6 are handheld, vehicle mountable, include adjustable ring terminal and alligator clips for connecting to virtually any terminal, and are IP56 rated to protect them from water and dirty environments. We fully believe the money spent on these amazing little chargers isn’t just insurance; it’s one of the best investments you can make for the life, health, and performance of your battery.
It’s a new year, turn over a new leaf and be the guy who has the peace of mind that the best charger in the game is protecting his batteries. Author’s note: Believe it or not, this list doesn’t cover all the features and benefits. We had to keep the article length reasonable.
