Looking for advice for a battery charger

garnold · #1 06-17-2014, 03:59 PM

I'm looking for a nice battery charger. Not a maintainer but a charger. Not only would I like it to charge but it would be great if it could also give me the voltage of a battery so I can see if it's dead or not. I might go pick up a few more of those trickle charges for these batteries I have laying around but I also need something to get these back up to snuff. What are you folks using?

olds45512 · #2 06-17-2014, 04:27 PM

I have a $30 cheapy from tsc at home that works pretty good, if your looking for something to tell you voltage i recommend getting a load tester as it will show you voltage and give you the ablity to load test the battery so you know if its junk.

Nitro · #3 06-17-2014, 04:44 PM

I highly recommend an automatic type. Otherwise you can forget about it and cook a battery.

R Bedell · #4 06-17-2014, 05:02 PM

Quote:

I highly recommend an automatic type. Otherwise you can forget about it and cook a battery.

Ditto...

Maxwelhse · #5 06-17-2014, 05:51 PM

I think there's basically 2 ways to go... Cheap automatic trickle charger or a big boy charger on a cart. I'm not sure I've seen many chargers that don't have a voltage or amperage gauge.

My Dad decided that he wanted a big boy cart charger so my sister and I got him this one for Christmas a few years ago. It's manual but it has a timer. It DOES charge a battery fast if that's what you want to do (I'm making no statements about what that does to your battery). In 225 amp mode it will start a totally dead car in about 10 minutes.

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...250_0006389653

I inherited his 40 year old 10A trickle charger in the deal. They both charge batteries just fine.

I've had this model recommended to me by several people before Dad just handed my his old one for free (which is also not automatic). It's not automatic but it does have a 2A mode which makes me think it would be fine for at least a day if you forget about it. The 50A mode would be handy from time to time.

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SE-...pr_product_top

I've also been wanting some maintainers but they're not a replacement for a charger. I suppose if you had the money to do it all at once I'd get the monster cart charger and the maintainers and call it good.

Cubby guy · #6 06-18-2014, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nitro

I highly recommend an automatic type. Otherwise you can forget about it and cook a battery.

+1 on the automatic charger. Never mind HOW I know.....

jimbob200521 · #7 06-18-2014, 09:27 AM

I'll put in the

worth of experiance I have. I grew up where my father had only one charger, and still does. The thing has to be 30+ years old. Anywho, it had a couple settings: 6v or 12v and then different amperages with each respective setting (it was also automatic; shut off when the battery was charged). If you wanted to charge a battery, you hook it up and set it to a low amperage and walk away. If you needed to start a car, truck, or tractor with a dead battery, you cranked the charger up, waited 1 minute, then turned the key. 98% of the time, it worked like a charm. The other 2% either the battery was completely gone, or you'd have to wait 2 minutes then turn the key

Now that I'm a big boy and out on my own, I picked up an automatic trickle charger I found on sale, it was less than $15 at Farm & Fleet. It's what I used throughout all last winter. If I knew a snow storm was coming, I'd hook it up the night before and have a full battery the next morning. However, if I ever didn't do it or woke up to a dead battery on a different machine, I'd have to start a tractor to jump the dead battery.

All that being said leads up to this; get a cheap trickle charger for winter/overnight chargers/battery maintaining, and get a decent larger charger for those quick start tasks (or I suppose a jump box). The only application I see for the chargers so big they are on a cart is for farms on machines with multiple batteries or just a single humungo battery (technical term, I hope y'all understand). Anywho, that's just my

fpatd · #8 06-23-2014, 09:27 PM

Let's simply look at the facts; " battery charger " used to charge a dead / low battery ,
"Trickle charger " , battery maintainer or battery tender used to keep
A charge in a stored battery how ever the battery tender brand unit will charge & maintain a charge & will also start & stop charging as needed , making this unit more worth wile over a " trickle charger"