ProV1

I'm looking for a battery charger to both recharge my completely drained battery (only 5 months old) in my other car, and also to use for the S2000 during the wintertime. But I don't quite understand the exact differences between a trickle charger and a float charger. Can someone explain in plain engrish? lol

which one is better for me?

4cpu

If your battery has been drained, it likely needs replacing. Only deep cycle batteruies can take that--they have larger plates but generate fewer cranking amps/temp than usual car batteries. Any charger will do. Check to see how many amp-hours your battery is rated for. This is the amount of time the battery will have juice--eg 100 amp=hr will run 10 hrs with a 10 amp drain. Similarly, charge at 10 amps for 10 hrs. Rapid charging should be avoided. Most batteries will lose at least 50% of it's capacity by a single full drain, even worse if protracted.

Undercharging is better than overcharging. Underestimate the charge time. Get a hygrometer.

ProV1

thanks 4cpu. i have an Exide Group49 battery (850CCA). i checked it out today, and i was getting 12.4V, 920CCA. looks like it's still doing ok

slalom44

A float charger and a trickle charger are essentially the same, however a float charger is supposed to periodically provide a trickle charge to the battery when it becomes a little discharged. They are both good for your battery and because the current is small, neither one will boil off your battery fluids.

You may want to consider using a desulfator/charger for storing your car. There are several manufacturers - PulseTech is the most popular, however is a little pricey. These trickle chargers pulse a current back into the battery which breaks up the soft sulfate crystals that can eventually cause your battery to go bad.

Since I have a daily driver and tend to park my S2K for days/weeks at a time, I use a BatteryMINDer. I've been using it since I bought my car (almost 4 years ago). These desulfators reportedly can help restore a dead battery, but don't believe everything you read. If hard sulfate crystals form, these desulfators can't restore it.

It's a good idea to use something like this, especially if you have an alarm system on your car. The alarm system, your radio clock, as well as the door lock electronics gradually draw current from your battery. This causes them to fail prematurely because batteries that aren't fully charged form sulfate crystals on the lead plates. The lead plate surface has to be exposed to charge/discharge, so if the plates have reduced surface area exposed, they reduce their ability to hold a charge.