Grabbed both chargers to see which one actualy makes sense for the different situations they can be used in. The Battery Tender is best for individual who merely need to provide maintenance to their batteries. The NOCO Genius 5 battery tender has various charging mode including 12 V standard, 12 V AGM, 12 V Lithium, 6 V, an 12 V Repair mode, and a Force mode for batteries that are severely depleted of their battery power.
The designers created the Battery Tender to excel in one area: maintaining batteries that are otherwise in good health and merely need maintenance to keep them that way. If the user has a car battery that is already in good condition, then the simplicity of the Battery Tender make the most sense for the user.
The NOCO Genius 5 offer various benefits to users that have different types of batteries. For instance, the NOCO Genius 5 can handle 6 volt batteries as well as 12 volt batteries which is beneficial for cars that use 6 volt batteries. The Repair Mode is beneficial for automobiles with weak lead-acid batteries, while the Force Mode is beneficial for those batteries whose voltage readings drops to levels that the charger cannot normally detect with there standard modes.
For those with cars, trucks, AGM batteries, lithium batteries or batteries that easily die during use, the NOCO Genius 5 will make more sense for the user despite the additional step to start and charge the battery.
The most noticeable difference between the two brands of battery tenders is that the NOCO Genius 5 display the battery level with a battery level indicator with various LED segments, while the Battery Tender only has a single LED that change color to indicate the battery level.
To start the NOCO Genius 5, the user must first connect the positive lead to the positive terminal of the battery, followed by connecting the negative lead to the negative terminal of the battery. Once the leads are in place, the user can power on the charger.
The next step is to choose the proper mode to charge the batteries. For most cars, a standard 12 volt mode will work. Pressing the MODE button will allow the user to cycle through the available mode to the proper setting to charge the battery. The charger will display which mode the battery is in through its display screen.
Operating the NOCO Genius
Once the user selects the proper mode, the battery will begin to charge. The LEDs on the NOCO Genius 5 will display the battery level while it is charging.
To start the 6 volt mode, the user must hold the MODE button for more than three seconds. Holding the button again will start the 12 volt repair mode. Both of these modes takes a few tries to remember the proper button presses to engage the mode.
Force mode will activate if the user holds the MODE button for five full seconds. Force mode will run for five minute before returning to the normal charging mode. Force mode is beneficial for batteries with a voltage level that drops to levels below 1 volt, which are batteries that the standard modes of the NOCO Genius 5 will not recognize.
If all of the LEDs on the NOCO Genius 5 are lit green, the battery has reached 100% charge.
The Battery Tender can charge a dead battery but only if it is not too far gone in its dying process. When attempting to charge a dead battery that had a very low voltage reading, the Battery Tender began flashing its red LED instead of allowing the battery to begin charging. The Battery Tender indicated that there was not enough voltage for it to work with the dead battery.
Testing the voltage of the dead battery indicated that it was reading just over 1 volt. This is too low for the Battery Tender to work with the battery alone. Instead, the user had to jump start the dead battery with another battery to increase it’s voltage.
Checking the voltage of the battery after being jump started indicated that the voltage increased to a level above 3 volts. At this voltage, the Battery Tender will recognize the battery and begin to accept it. Once the user reconnected the Battery Tender to the jump started battery, its red LED change from flashing to solid indicating that the battery began to charge.
The NOCO Genius 5 will better handle batteries with extremely low amounts of voltage due to its Force Mode mode built in while the Battery Tender requires assistance to charge dead batteries. For cars or trucks with batteries that are otherwise healthy, the simplicity of the Battery Tender battery tender wins. For cars with batteries with issues and various types of batteries, the NOCO Genius 5 make more sense for the user. It comes down to what type of batteries you have and how often they may require more than maintenance mode.
