battery tender with extension cord?

[iwannadie]

so i got my tender (went with yuasa) and it says over and over not to use with an extension cord. that ruins all my plans, theres no power outlet near my bike to plug into. i have to run a cord to the nearest power outlet. i dont mind going with a heavy duty cord and all that, but how safe is that?

[tzortn]

How long of a run? I would think that if you got a good heavy duty cord you will be ok as long as you do not use a giant cord. I would try to keep it under 25 feet. Most of the time the battery tender is not actually on.

[WildKat]

Ive run mine with an extension cord many times. Not a generic one for lamps and stereo's and such. But a heavy duty outdoor cord that Ive used for the weedwhacker, trimmer, etc. Never had a problem with it and works fine everytime I use the battery tender.

[iwannadie]

ya i dont need a long run, 25 feet would be perfect. i figured a good orange cord ment for power tools and stuff should handle it just fine. the way the intructions warn against it at all cost basically, made me wonder though...

dam tender gets Hot real fast though...

[The CyberPoet]

I have the 25' battery tender extension cords here if you need one. These cords plug in between the charger and the bike, rather than between the wall and the charger.

I think their reasoning is that the charger has a grounding interuption protection circuit in it, while most extension cords don't, so if it gets hit by water or other issues, the charger will protect the circuit if the extension is between the bike and the charger (as verses to between the charger and the wall). That said, I can't see any other reason that you couldn't use a standard extension cord with the charger.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[douglasg]

Go the easy route and hire an electrician to install a receptacle for the tender.

[iwannadie]

Go the easy route and hire an electrician to install a receptacle for the tender.

not really an easy route, i dont own the house and to get anything 'added' takes alot of paper work and time etc. plus the cost of that has got to be high compared to a cord....

CP, how much for the 25' tender extension?

[The CyberPoet]

CP, how much for the 25' tender extension?

$10 plus S&H.

=-= The CyberPoet

[ArcherDude]

Re: battery tender with extension cord?

so i got my tender (went with yuasa) and it says over and over not to use with an extension cord. that ruins all my plans, theres no power outlet near my bike to plug into. i have to run a cord to the nearest power outlet. i dont mind going with a heavy duty cord and all that, but how safe is that?

To Me that’s a bunch of a house is made up of a bunch 14/2 extension cords. The wire in your walls are 14/2 so get a 14/2 extension cord. I’m not an electrician but I do electrical work on the weekends. The only thing that i can see that would make a difference if the cord was extremely long or large gauge wire.

[BarMatt80]

just make an extension cord out using romex 12/2 or 14/2, then it would be as if it was a socket in the wall, use metal junction box and traditional receptical on one end, but yet i would go with cyber, because one it is made for it and two the price of copper and wiring(has gone down some) best price as well.

[The CyberPoet]

We're talking about Mesa, AZ here, right? What's the annual rainfall, something like 7.5" a year? That's the average rainfall in a single typical summer downpour here... I doubt that water is a concern for you, but as long as the other end of the of the charger is plugged into a GFI outlet, it shouldn't make a difference what method you use

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[trinc]

I have the 25' battery tender extension cords here if you need one. These cords plug in between the charger and the bike, rather than between the wall and the charger.

I think their reasoning is that the charger has a grounding interuption protection circuit in it, while most extension cords don't, so if it gets hit by water or other issues, the charger will protect the circuit if the extension is between the bike and the charger (as verses to between the charger and the wall). That said, I can't see any other reason that you couldn't use a standard extension cord with the charger.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

NO. A GFI has NOTHING to do with the ground line. A GFI detects an imbalance between the hot & neutral line.

a good quality 2 or 3 wire extension cord is fine.

a lot of warnings are placed on devices because people buy the $2 lamp cord and plug in there lamp - tv, vacuum etc. etc.



tim

[Yellow2002Kat]

NO. A GFI has NOTHING to do with the ground line. A GFI detects an imbalance between the hot & neutral line.

a good quality 2 or 3 wire extension cord is fine.

a lot of warnings are placed on devices because people buy the $2 lamp cord and plug in there lamp - tv, vacuum etc. etc.

In theory, the current between the hot leg (red or black) and the neutral leg (white) should always be equal. However, there is an allowable variance. Now, if the variance in current between the hot and neutral wire gets high enough to hurt you, but not high enough to trip your circuit breaker, the GFI switches off the electricity.

It's important that you use a 3 WIRE (or 3 prong) extension cord when using the GFI. See, when there's a variance between the hot leg and the neutral leg the circuit starts to "leak" electricity. As a rusult, the electricity starts to look for a shorter path to flow through (i.e., your hand when you grab a cord) and has the potential to "gound out" via your body.

If you use a two prong (2 wire) extension cord, there's still a chance you can get shocked by this "leaking" electricity if it hasn't exceeded the allowable current variance between the hot and neutral legs. Using a 3 prong extension cord is more safe because it will absorb any "leakage" via the ground prong (or third wire).

Get a good heavy duty three prong extension cord to work your tender with. Do not go longer than 25'. As you increase the length of your run, you increase the resistance of the current as it has a further distance to travel. This increases the odds of a Ground Fault.

Go the easy route and hire an electrician to install a receptacle for the tender.

not really an easy route, i dont own the house and to get anything 'added' takes alot of paper work and time etc. plus the cost of that has got to be high compared to a cord....

Actually, if your receptacle box has a ground wire coming into it, you can simply replace the old receptacle (outlet) with a GFI receptacle at a cost of about $15. This is if you really want to be on the very safe side, and certainly worth doing if this receptacle is located outdoors or in a garage.

Good luck!

[The CyberPoet]

Unfortunately, most of the smaller battery charges for single motorcycle batteries only use two prongs from what I've seen. But the better chargers (Deltran BatteryTenders, OptiMax, Yuasha) have circuitry built into the charger that looks for a straight-short between the feed wires going to the motorcycle. Since there isn't a ground circuit in the feed to the bike, they aren't GFI's in the proper sense, although the protection circuits function basically the same at the circuitry level....

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[trinc]

NO. A GFI has NOTHING to do with the ground line. A GFI detects an imbalance between the hot & neutral line.

a good quality 2 or 3 wire extension cord is fine.

a lot of warnings are placed on devices because people buy the $2 lamp cord and plug in there lamp - tv, vacuum etc. etc.

In theory, the current between the hot leg (red or black) and the neutral leg (white) should always be equal. However, there is an allowable variance. Now, if the variance in current between the hot and neutral wire gets high enough to hurt you, but not high enough to trip your circuit breaker, the GFI switches off the electricity.

It's important that you use a 3 WIRE (or 3 prong) extension cord when using the GFI. See, when there's a variance between the hot leg and the neutral leg the circuit starts to "leak" electricity. As a rusult, the electricity starts to look for a shorter path to flow through (i.e., your hand when you grab a cord) and has the potential to "gound out" via your body.

If you use a two prong (2 wire) extension cord, there's still a chance you can get shocked by this "leaking" electricity if it hasn't exceeded the allowable current variance between the hot and neutral legs. Using a 3 prong extension cord is more safe because it will absorb any "leakage" via the ground prong (or third wire).

Get a good heavy duty three prong extension cord to work your tender with. Do not go longer than 25'. As you increase the length of your run, you increase the resistance of the current as it has a further distance to travel. This increases the odds of a Ground Fault.

Go the easy route and hire an electrician to install a receptacle for the tender.

not really an easy route, i dont own the house and to get anything 'added' takes alot of paper work and time etc. plus the cost of that has got to be high compared to a cord....

Actually, if your receptacle box has a ground wire coming into it, you can simply replace the old receptacle (outlet) with a GFI receptacle at a cost of about $15. This is if you really want to be on the very safe side, and certainly worth doing if this receptacle is located outdoors or in a garage.

Good luck!

wrong - YOU DON'T NEED A GROUND WIRE FOR A GFI !!!!!

it senses the imbalance between the hot & neutral wire. it has NOTHING to do with the ground wire ( other than the 'leak' may be flowing in that wire )

BUT.... UL requirement for GFI's is 5mA. i don't care where the current is going if it's limited to 5mA ( even if i'm dripping wet - which is why they where invented )

but like i said so many things are sealed in plastic that you really need not worry about it.

and the comment about keeping it under 25'. are you nuts ? copper wire in 14 guage has a resistance of .00297 ohms per foot !

tim