Can a battery die even if plugged into trickle charger?

I would think it certainly can... don't forget, if it can lose charge (or more correctly - fail to take a charge) from an alternator, it can do the same with a trickle charger. Maybe it needs a charge from a charger that outputs more amperage than the trickle charger has? It could possibly still be salvageable for awhile.

 

Yes.
The trickle charger maintains the battery but does not cure it of its problem.

 

Not sure about Trickle charger but my Battery Tender never let my battery looses charge weather it's connected for weeks or even months. As soon as the battery drop in voltage the Tender kicks on then shuts off once it's fully charge.

 

u can blow the fuse for the charger behind the driver seat under panel causing it not to charge...also if the trickle charger is not charging but still hooked up to the battery it pulls enough miliamps to kill the battery over time.

 

all batteries die eventually, no matter how well you care for them.
a Battery Maintainer just prolongs their life

 

Some trickle chargers can ruin a perfectly good battery. (Schumacher)

 

Father time marches on...

the only thing a trickle charger does is prevent premature failure of the battery by keeping a small charge in it. Eventually, every battery will give out no matter what you do.

 

I was killing too many batteries in my fun car even with trickle chargers. My problem was finally solved by accident when I relocated the battery to the trunk (drag car) and installed a cutoff switch. With the battery completely cut off I haven't had one die from storage yet! Flick the switch and vroom.

 

Absolutely! Just had one go recently. There are some new trickle charges that can extend by removing the sulfurization of the plates. Just installed one on the Plane and time will tell.
Docf

 

There are some important differences in types of charging:

Quick/high/high-amp charges: These rapidly bring a battery to usable levels, but usually do not bring a battery to 100-percent states. These is what you use when your battery is flat, you can't start and you need to get going (and you don't want to just use a really high-amp start mode and let your alternator kill itself while you're driving.)

Trickle Charge: A trickle charge is a slow, constant level of charge (usually a 2A) to a battery to bring it from a depleted state to as full as possible. For some Mr. Wizard reason, a lead-acid battery is best charged with low power for long time -- using the high amp charge/start function isn't good for the battery and won't fully charge it. If you take your battery to a distributor under warranty, they'll test the cells (and if they all test fine) place it in series with other batteries being charged at really low amps for two days to bring it to 100-percent. Just like with high-amp charges, trickle charging your battery too long can fry it.

Float charging: A float charger simply maintains a test loop on the battery, and when it senses the smallest drop, it will bring it back to 100 percent. A float charger cannot
"charge" the battery if it ins't 100-percent, and it won't overcharge a battery.

A Battery Tender has both trickle and float functions and electronically figures out which is right for the situation. Most battery chargers have trickle, but not float, and therefore people toast their batteries. You can buy a float charger for $5 at Harbor Freight.

 

+1, don't use a trickle charger to maintain a battery as it provides constant charging which can ultimately sulfate the battery.

As I said in a previous post, the Harbor Freight maintainer works great and is very inexpensive. I could never understand why some people spend 40, 50, 60 bucks on a maintainer when the cheapos work just as well.

The only thing to note is that the battery should be fully charged before using any maintainer.

 

I think it's time for some definitions:

There are battery chargers and trickle chargers, which provide constant DC power to charge the battery.
Main chargers will provide 5, 10 or even 15A of charging current.
The cheapest "trickle chargers" typically provide about 1A.

Then there are battery maintainers. These are smarter devices, which will sense the voltage of the battery, and provide a small (typ 1.5A) charging current until the battery voltage reaches a specific level.
(These presumably turn off their supplied voltage periodically to measure the battery voltage alone.)

Then there are half wave battery "reconditioners" which provide a series of voltage spikes to a battery which can help dislodge particles on the plates of a lead-acid battery. These are typically used when a DC charger no longer works.
(I stretched a "Die Hard" in my Alfa out for 14 years, using a reconditioner twice in that time, to bring it back "from the dead".)

So the 1A Schumacher "trickle charger" should *not* be left connected to the battery all the time, while the 1.5A Schumacher "tender" can be, because it will only charge when the battery needs it. (You have to read the box carefully, because they look alike, until you read the fine print.)

Frankly, I don't really see any point to a trickle charger, other than being cheap. And the tenders aren't that much more expensive. Even my big 10A charger has auto-sensing capability.


As the the original question, a battery can "go flat" while a tender is in use, if the tender (due to a fuse or poor connection) isn't actually connected to the battery, or if there's a drain in the car that exceeds the tender's output capacity.
Most tenders will have a warning light combination to tell you if there is no connection, and provide more than twice what even a recovery system and alarm should consume.

Trickle chargers, since they don't detect battery voltage, will typically not have a warning for a bad connection, and can over-charge a battery, causing evaporation in the acid mix, which can cause a battery to "go bad".
(Many decades ago, you used to be able to get a battery "recharged" with new electrolyte. But batteries are cheap enough now that's it's easier to just replace the whole battery and send the old one back to be recycled.)

 

I was told by the local vendor that they were having problems with the multiple-voltage (110V-220V) Battery Tenders. Since we use 220V outlets, I bought the charger anyway. After 6 months, it went on the blink, literally (the amber light just kept blinking). Has anyone else had the same experience?

 

Consider the possibility the Ferrari charger or it's circuitry is bad. There is no way to check battery charger's efficacy (barring use of a hydrometer on the acid) without measuring and comparing battery voltages with the mains input plugged in and then disconnected. Bottom line is a good voltage is ~13.6V with device connected to mains and ~12.6 when mains voltage is removed.

Anyone know what charger Ferrari installs in a 16M?

Re SammyB's and DGS definitions...I generally agree with you but lacking industry standards, marketing departments of the suppliers get competitively very loose with their terms and once something is printed on the box...well, the uneducated sales people become experts and perpetuate the product myths about their crappy tender trickle floating wonderboxes.