Battery Chargers

Lvnmarks

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
I need to get a real battery charger, I just have the cheap Black and Decker one. There are allot of brands out there but like batteries, I'm sure there are just a few manufacturers.

So what should I be looking for? I know I want something strong enough to jump a dead car but is there any thing else that I should be looking for? What do you have? I would like to stay around $100 but I'm willing to budge in order to get the right one.

Thank you in advance.
 
tixer

tixer

Lincoln Evangelist
Personally, I go for "big power, and low tech." I don't necessarily want one that's smarter than I am.

In a perfect world, I'd have one of those big boys that rides on a cart.. Then I'd have to store it.
This one, looks real good to me. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BO8TTY/

There's a cheaper, 10A version, but "more is better."

The only thing it doesn't have is selectable voltage. (I rarely use it, but for some reason I think that having 6v capability is nice.)
 
C

chris2523

New member
i have a harbor freight model.
2/10/50 amp selectable and a switch for AGM or regular.
it works. nothing special. but so far works as advertised.
 
budpytko

budpytko

Super Senior Associate


Testimony - these things just keep on working.... mine (above) is over 50 years old. Doesn't look hardly any different than the new one shown in an earlier post ^. If it works, it works.
 
Lvnmarks

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
budpytko said:


Testimony - these things just keep on working.... mine (above) is over 50 years old. Doesn't look hardly any different than the new one shown in an earlier post ^. If it works, it works.
Click to expand...
I regards to the one Mike posted from Amazon, here is a review regarding your 50 year old one.


OKAY its a year later... this one died early on - they sent a new one after I retutned the bad one. That one died too. They quickly sent another without any return needed, and the rep sounded like he was Po'd at his company for allowing so much junk to go out the door. Now I have two working and one dead for spare parts, and even after the hassle these are still the most for the least on the market. You only other option is sears, and they appear to be made by Schumaker also, or harbor freight which should send its electric stuff with a death certificate.

2014: Your only hope is a "GENIUS" charger made in the USA and made forever - really. More money, but not going into the dump every 2 years or less. Give up on Schumaker - they sold their soul about 30 years ago when they closed the factory in Chicago.

Seems that yours was built a bit better than the newer ones. Kinda the way all things are made these days. Maybe I should search the Bay for an older model.

I was reading the Mike S's battery thread and there is good info available about choosing a good battery. Waiting to hear what beerdog has to say about a charger.
 
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ONLYTONY

New member
I have a Snap on charger #YA165B, 40-10-2, 250 amp boost. Had it for years, and works great. Yesterday my neighbor brought over his super charger, a B&D. Weight about 2 lbs. I giggled, but wanted to try it. Always put out the same 15 + volts, but at different amps. It says it can recondition a battery. I did put it on my back up battery, that has a minder on it. It told me it had 1 bad cell. Some guy on line said it told him that 3 different new batteries had a bad cell. I like my snap on, made in USA.
 
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beerdog

New member
More than likely Snap-on does not make or design their chargers. They would work someone like Schumacher or some other company. Or they purchased a battery charger company. One thought is do you want a charger with some diagnostic capabilities or what we call a dumb charger. If all you want to do is charge a wet lead acid battery you do not need much. Simple 20-30$ tester from Orielleys will be just fine. If you want some digital intelligence or starting capabilities that is when you start spending some money. Like all things these days, the older stuff is usually built better for a basic product.

Schumacher is my competitor, but don't judge them only on what you see at Orielleys. They make very high end professional tools too.
 
driller

driller

El Presidente
I have a couple small battery chargers but the Schumacher is what I have in the garage for general duty...

charger.jpg

I also have an old resistance type battery load tester I use.
 
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98mark8lsc

I make stuff
driller said:
I have a couple small battery chargers but the Schumacher is what I have in the garage for general duty...

View attachment 12143

I also have an old resistance type battery load tester I use.
Click to expand...
I think I have this exact same charger. I got a really good deal on it from Sam's club a few years ago.

I also have an Optima Digital 400 charger/maintainer that I try to keep on the car all the time. I bought it a couple years ago, and at the time, it had the most consistent reviews of all the charger/maintainers that I was looking at. A quick look on Amazon shows it's still fairing pretty well.

optima 400.jpg
 
Lvnmarks

Lvnmarks

quandoomniflunkusmoritati
I went to HF yesterday and looked at their chargers, just couldn't pull the trigger on it.
 
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beerdog

New member
HF is not bad option as long as you don't use it. The risk with cheapo's like that is they fail while in use, explode your battery, and burn your house down. It happens. Even with quality chargers. More with crap ones.
 
tixer

tixer

Lincoln Evangelist
Ok. So I spent a little time in the garage last night, and decided to do some "research." I did a little dissection on my two chargers. One is quite modern, the other was given to me with mangled battery clips a few years back. They've both been very good, although I don't think I've ever successfully started a car with a dead battery by using the "boost" feature on either of them...

I apologize in advance for the photo quality. I thought they'd come out better. This post may be amended if I get the chance to snap better ones..

Both have similarly sized transformers, and weigh about the same. There are some differences in the electronics.

Contestant #1. I picked this up from Fleet Farm "fairly recently." (the date code on the unit says "00" though, so I assume this thing is already 15 years old. :)

Century model 87122 Deep Cycle charger.
Honestly, this thing's been great. I use it all the time. On regular car batteries, as well as deep cycle. Beerdog, tell me if I shouldn't be doing this, but it hasn't been a problem thus far... It has automatic and manual modes, so on "auto" it will revert to 2A "trickle" when it feels the battery is fully charged. Does 6V and 12V batteries.

20160201_171307.jpg

20160201_171930.jpg

Contestant #2 is my "freebie" Schumacher SE 12-50

This one tends to be my backup and/or loaner, so I don't use it nearly as often. It also doesn't have an "automatic" mode.
It's dirty, but the electronics certainly appear more "robust" than the Century. (or at least older, and therefore larger.)

20160201_171358.jpg

20160201_171938.jpg

Gosh these photos are terrible. Sorry about this...
 
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