Hi Folks. I have not been in here for a long time, but HELP>>LOL. Since the OEM battery, in my 2000 Miata, with less than 44,000 original miles, I have been using the Duralast battery from AutoZone. And since I drive it so very little (Obviously with
those miles), I keep a Battery Tender Jr. on it. Well now that it is cold here, with fall setting in, it appeared that this 4.5 yr. old battery was giving up the ghost, with the tender going into flashing Red, then green and back and forth. I thought
maybe it was because I had moved the tender to the floor from the lip of the trunk in Summer and that maybe the floor now (Concrete) was way too cold for it, so moved it back, and I thought that solved it, going back to solid green, but a couple of days
later SAME thing, hence decided today new battery time. Now the guy there, tested and said the battery tested good, what did I want to do. Well since I planned to replace it at 5 yrs. anyway, I still bought it and put it in, figuring it was probably just
low enough to make the tender do that thing.

Well got home hooking the tender back up and the same thing, so now appeared that this 4 yr, old tender went bad. Went down and got another Tender Jr. and by all appearances looks exactly the same, but is feather weight compared to my 4 year old one.
Long winded, sorry, but now some ???s: 1) In the future how can I protect my wallet by knowing which one really needs replacing?? and 2) Even though this battery is brand new and fully charged, this new tender was also red, probably would have gone green
in maybe 15>30 minutes or so, but impatience me fired up the car, and it went green pretty quick and has stayed green just fine. But I did decide to re-route the extension cord, unplugging it, and upon re-plugging it, it went RED again. Fired up the car
briefly again, being IMPATIENT. Now is it a bad idea to have the Tender on and connected at the same time the car is running??? I have gone over its' instructions with a fine tooth comb and it does not say??? Does this brand new Tender Jr. model just
function slightly differently, taking a bit longer to go from Red to green.

TIA for ANY info :-) And by the way, since about noon has been fine and solid green since the last engine turn on.

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On Thu, 05 Nov 2015 18:34:57 -0800, moeshefrankenstein_1 wrote:

Hi Folks. I have not been in here for a long time, but HELP>>LOL. Since
the OEM battery, in my 2000 Miata, with less than 44,000 original miles,
I have been using the Duralast battery from AutoZone. And since I drive
it so very little (Obviously with those miles), I keep a Battery Tender
Jr. on it. Well now that it is cold here, with fall setting in, it
appeared that this 4.5 yr. old battery was giving up the ghost, with the tender going into flashing Red, then green and back and forth. I thought maybe it was because I had moved the tender to the floor from the lip of
the trunk in Summer and that maybe the floor now (Concrete) was way too
cold for it, so moved it back, and I thought that solved it, going back
to solid green, but a couple of days later SAME thing, hence decided
today new battery time. Now the guy there, tested and said the battery
tested good, what did I want to do. Well since I planned to replace it
at 5 yrs. anyway, I still bought it and put it in, figuring it was
probably just low enough to make the tender do that thing.

Well got home hooking the tender back up and the same thing, so now
appeared that this 4 yr, old tender went bad.

I had one on my 1996 and after some years, it started cutting out the
engine while I was driving. So I threw it away and did not get another. Instead I put in a lights-on buzzer.

Went down and got another
Tender Jr. and by all appearances looks exactly the same, but is
feather weight compared to my 4 year old one. Long winded, sorry, but
now some ???s: 1) In the future how can I protect my wallet by knowing
which one really needs replacing??

See whether the battery starts the car with the tender disconnected?

and 2) Even though this battery is
brand new and fully charged, this new tender was also red, probably
would have gone green in maybe 15>30 minutes or so, but impatience me
fired up the car, and it went green pretty quick and has stayed green
just fine. But I did decide to re-route the extension cord, unplugging
it, and upon re-plugging it, it went RED again. Fired up the car briefly again, being IMPATIENT. Now is it a bad idea to have the Tender on and connected at the same time the car is running??? I have gone over its' instructions with a fine tooth comb and it does not say??? Does this
brand new Tender Jr. model just function slightly differently, taking a
bit longer to go from Red to green.

TIA for ANY info :-) And by the way, since about noon has been fine and
solid green since the last engine turn on.

Leon

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