Quality reliable battery minder ??

[Olympiadis]

I'm looking for an on-board charger/minder that I can plug into the house at night and run the outlet on a timer to keep up the charger for cold morning starts.
There are a lot of options out there. If you have had a good experience with one, then feel free to suggest a brand/model/source.
Thank you.

[Daox]

For what application?

[Olympiadis]

A standard type 12 volt, 600 amp car battery in our Focus.
It's not for jumping/starting, just for keeping the battery up while the car sits.
Thank you,

[Olympiadis]

Nobody has had a good experience with one?
they are all junk?

I have a couple of full-size chargers but I didn't want to have to integrate one of them into the front of the Focus.

I'm also looking for a good quality high-am outdoor electric timer switch that can handle a couple of block warmers and the battery minder/charger.

Most of the timers I've looked at are for very small loads, like Christmas lighting.

[Ryland]

Google

I would go with one of the many that have a 3 year warranty, the Noco charger is what I just put in my electric car, haven't used it enough to know how well it works but I really like the looks of it.

[Daox]

I use Soneil chargers on my EV lawn mower and one in my Paseo for my alternator delete charging. I love them. They have low power consumption when not charging and are pretty efficient. A 1A charger would probably suffice for you.

[FPO]

Battery Tender?
Battery Tender - Home of the Battery Tender Jr. - Batterytender.com

[Ryland]

The other question of course is do you need it to be salt water proof so it can be mounted to the car with a cord coming off, or do you want one that just has a little cord pigtail coming off it and the charge will stay safe and dry in the garage.
For a 60 amp hour battery you shouldn't need a charger larger then 1 to 1.5 amps if it's going to be plugged in every night.
I'd go with something like this Amazon.com: NOCO G1100 NOCO Genius Gray 6V and 12V 1100mA (1.1A) Fully Automatic Battery Charger and Maintainer: Automotive because it's a sealed, solid state charger and I think all of their chargers are made in the USA.

[Olympiadis]

I haven't decided on one yet, - taking my time checking them out.
It seems the most common ones that are only around 1 amp are really too small to be very useful. Some of the cheaper ones can also be unreliable and possibly shorten the life of your battery too.

So far it looks like some of the more pricey "marine" type designs are the best quality and have the best features. I'm not really surprised by that, and I think it could be worth it to spend a little more on something that will last and be able to be used for other jobs in the future if needed.

[Olympiadis]

This is an FYI for others.
I tried to be cheap and tried a $6 one-amp charger and ended up returning it.
While bench testing it I noticed that when the charger is not plugged in, but still connected to the battery it is draining the charge from the battery.
I guess extra diodes would have doubled the price.

My larger charger doesn't drain when unplugged, but it's also not practical to mount in the car for on-board use.

Back to looking at the expensive marine units.