ifteen years ago no one in the powersports industry gave the Deltran Battery Tender a chance. Back in 1991 when Mike Prelec brought the first Battery Tender® to the powersports industry trade show, then held in Cincinnati, he came home empty handed. He didn’t get a single order. No one in the industry could see what benefit these new battery chargers/battery maintenance devices brought to the table, mistakenly confusing what Deltran had just developed with ordinary trickle chargers. Mike Prelec was told his Battery Tender® would never sell. It wasn’t needed. The industry already had low-cost trickle chargers.
     The industry couldn’t have been more wrong, of course. Today there’s hardly a powersports enthusiast anywhere who doesn’t have at least one Battery Tender® in his garage–or who doesn’t need one. Battery Tenders® are just about the furthest things imaginable from ordinary trickle chargers. Fully automatic and computer controlled, they evaluate batteries needing charging, recharge batteries to full power and, able to be left connected indefinitely, maintain batteries at full charge with no over-charging, over-heating, out-gassing or bubbling over. Hardly the performance description of a trickle charger. Disheartened by that chilly reception in Cincinnati but a believer nonetheless, Mike brought his Battery Tenders® to the Miami Boat Show and here the results couldn’t have been better. He sold every one he’d brought with him and set up the beginnings of a distributor network. And these people weren’t buying and ordering those Battery Tenders® just for their boats.      They had motorcycles, cars, lawn mowers, and personal watercraft and immediately recognized the benefits of Deltran’s Battery Tender®. Soon the Battery Tenders® were being written about and reviewed in the major watersport magazines–which led to the motorcycle and ATV market taking a second look. This, everyone finally realized, wasn’t just a trickle charger. And there was definitely a need.
     Today the Deltran Battery Tender® is the industry standard that all its competitors shoot at–for boats, motorcycles, ATVs, collector cars, you name it. Battery Tender® has become almost a generic term for all the chargers/maintenance devices that would come later following Deltran’s lead. But there is and there remains only one Battery Tender®, the original, and while there are many models available now–the Waterproof, the Battery Tender Jr., the Battery Tender Plus, the 2-Bank Battery Tender, the 4-Bank Battery Tender, the 5-Bank Battery Tender, the 10-Bank Battery Tender, the Portable Power Tender and the 5-Amp Power Tender, they’re all an offshoot of the business Mike Prelec’s dad started in 1965. The company was Deltona Transformer Corp. then, which is where the current name, Deltran, comes from. Mike, Jr. began working in the business when he was a kid, mowing the lawns after school, and he’s been there ever since.
     “And today our whole lifeblood is Battery Tenders®,” he says. “These aren’t a sideline for us. They’re our entire business.” Besides all the Battery Tenders® in the Parts Unlimited/Drag Specialties catalogs Battery Tenders® are and have been private branded for Harley-Davidson, BMW, Lexus, the Corvette Museum and even AC Delco. Deltran has worked with the Ford Motor Company in their electric vehicle projects. Deltran has also done extensive testing for just about every name-brand battery manufacturer. The testing facility at the company’s current Deland, Florida, location is that sophisticated. There are special EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) Cells, there are Environmental Chambers for the testing of electrical equipment from subzero temperatures all the way up to 180? F. Needless to say, every Battery Tender® developed is subjected to this rigorous testing, as well.
     “I firmly believe,” says Mike Prelec, “that we just know more about batteries than any other competing manufacturer. We’re constantly working hand-in-glove with the battery manufacturers themselves, and our charging algorithms are exactly what they recommend for recharging their batteries.” Nevertheless, Mike says, whenever they develop a new Battery Tender® or upgrade a current product they’ll test it on every battery in the market. “Our charging circuit is more complete, too,” he says, and all the design, both mechanical and electrical, and all the prototyping for every Battery Tender® model is done in-house right in Deland. There are five design engineers on staff constantly improving and upgrading every Battery Tender® produced. As advances are made in chip design and circuit boards and manufacturing techniques they’re integrated into existing Battery Tender® models. Deltran doesn’t stand still; improvements and refinements are ongoing and never ending.      Deltran even maintains its own in-house CNC machine shop to produce and refine prototypes and upgrades.
In Cincinnati in 1991, none of this seemed possible. Now, of course, everyone knows better. Today everyone realizes that a Battery Tender® isn’t just a trickle charger. Far from it. Deltran Battery Tenders® have become an integral part of every powersports enthusiast’s garage, and while the two most popular models offered are the Battery Tender® Plus and the Battery Tender® Jr., every Battery Tender® model made is available through Parts Unlimited and Drag Specialties. And there is indeed a demand. Fifteen years ago Mike Prelec might have been one of the few believers, but today it’s a universal truth. Call your rep today and make sure that your store is stocked with plenty of Battery Tenders®…all of your customers need one!