12v Battery Charger recommendation?

IF.....it is has a well designed "automatic" function, the total capacity is pretty much meaningless because it will reduce the charge as needed depending on the charge in the battery.

Most have a fairly low capacity because that is all you need to maintain a battery that starts out fully charged.

You should NOT leave a non-automatic "trickle charger" continuously connected to a battery, no matter what the capacity.

 

Do you have any simular concerns about leaving the HV battery for days not in use? How much can it handle sitting around? I know multiple months of inactivity is bad for the HV battery, but let's say you only drive the car once a week?

 

Ours is behaving like new still, and it sits multiple days, often a week. The 12 volt with suffer without a charger though, in that scenario.

 

Not a problem, assuming it starts with moderate charge level.

 

Entirely different battery chemistry.
Entirely different situations.
So the answer is: NO.

 

It depends on what kind of HV battery you are talking about.
A Gen 3 Prius has a Ni-Mh chemistry, which has a known 'self-discharge' rate. You can look this up.
A Li-ion pack has very little self discharge.

It's the 12V that has duties to power when sitting around.
It's nice to have a 'Battery Minder' on it if you're leaving it for a long time.
I recommend that brand and have the 2A version with the 'desulfator' function. I put it on all my 12V's around the ranch for a few days, about once a month or so. I seem to be getting great 12V life from those batteries.