Need recommendations for a battery charger

I have a Shumacher that my wife gave me for Christmas. It is a 15A charger and a 3A desufinator. I put it on our Roadtrek camper battery yesterday and all day it just said "SUL" meaning it was desulfating the battery. Today I went out to our camper and it showed "100" meaning it was back to 100% of charge. Got in the camper and it cranked quick and started. It was barely cranking yesterday. I am not at the house where it is right now so I will have to post the model number of it when I get there. It did an amazing job on my Rural King battery and I am sure it is over 6 years old.
 
Lots of good recommendations made.

I'll add my favorites:
Battery Tender
Battery Saver "Save a Battery" by Granite Digital
www.batterystuff.com

Battery Saver 6v 12v 50 Watt (4.17A) Maintainer, Pulse Cleaner & Tester - 2365-LCD

The Battery Saver 2365-LCD is a high-powered 50-watt dual voltage 6 & 12-Volt charger. See why its a perfect maintainer for your motorcycle, motorhome, & more.
www.batterystuff.com www.batterystuff.com
Battery Minder (best price at the link below...but out of stock at the moment)
www.batterystuff.com

BatteryMINDer 128CEC2 | BatterMINDer 12v 2/4/8 Amp Charger Maintainer Desulfator & Lithium Charger Maintainer

The BatteryMINDer 128CEC2 is a desulfating charger suitable for Flooded, sealed, AGM, and Lithium batteries. Features an amp and chemistry selector button!
www.batterystuff.com www.batterystuff.com

They all work well...the Battery Minder has the most features, automatic desulfation mode, automatic temperature compensation, can charge any type battery to include lithium ion, has multiple charge outputs from 2 to 8 amps. Can charge multiple batteries as well.
 
BatteryMinders are my go-to for maintaining. Temp. compensated and desulfating. I have 8 1.5A of them in play.
I'm not a fan of NOCO, odd ball connectors and price. My snowmobile club uses them so experience there. Our older NOCO may not automatically restart after a power failure like the BM units also. No sure if newer ones do though.
I have an old Sears fully manual 10/2A charger to bring up batteries that are too low to trigger the auto chargers to start charging.
Currently seeing if one of my BM units can bring back a Spyder cycle battery that the key was left on for weeks (not my cycle). Had to use the manual charger to get the battery over 10v so a BM would sense and start charging it.
 
What is your use case?

Occasional top up? Consistent attachment via an SAE plug? Long term storage?

Do you anticipate charging dead batteries? Topping up good new ones?

Typically I’d recommend either a Clore PL2320, or a BatteryMinder 2/4/8A model. The Clore is a great bet for occasional use because it gives voltage and %SOC in the readout. It’s also helpful to have a decent multimeter, btw. The battery minder is imo the best bet due charge and float use.

Ctek and Noco are also good bets. Different sizes, but low on info.

For a plug in and forget long term, the NOCO genius 1 or 2 are probably my favorite.
 
Good point about SAE connectors. I do prefer that all of my current ones (I have a bunch of different brands and models) but all have the standard SAE connectors. Since I have ring connector pig tails on most of my cars and motorcyle, it makes all of them interchangeable as to which I can connect up. Some brands use Molex or proprietary connectors.
 
repairman54 said:
BatteryMinders are my go-to for maintaining. Temp. compensated and desulfating. I have 8 1.5A of them in play.
I'm not a fan of NOCO, odd ball connectors and price. My snowmobile club uses them so experience there. Our older NOCO may not automatically restart after a power failure like the BM units also. No sure if newer ones do though.
I have an old Sears fully manual 10/2A charger to bring up batteries that are too low to trigger the auto chargers to start charging.
Currently seeing if one of my BM units can bring back a Spyder cycle battery that the key was left on for weeks (not my cycle). Had to use the manual charger to get the battery over 10v so a BM would sense and start charging it.
Click to expand...
Which reminds me that Battery Minder makes a simple 1 amp version with desulfation and temperature compensation and is sold through this retailer for about $35 delivered with shipping. You can get it for $30 if you use their first time user $5 off coupon. I bought one (haven't used it yet) simply because it is such a great value.

 
mikemilburn said:
I used to think the same thing.
I bought a 1.5A Schumacher maintainer off Amazon and it boiled my bike battery dry and ruined it, 6 months old. The second pic is what it was putting into the new replacement battery, which at the time was fully charged btw. The replacement charger was actually putting more into the new battery, I never took a pic of that. It was actually boiling the battery.
The first pic is the replacement charger, notice the label is upside down as the LED's visable thru the label are supposed to project thru the three areas that tell you their purpose. No big deal, I was able to peel the label off and flip it over.
I contacted them three times and was ghosted, not a peep from them. Now the tender is about 1/2" think as I took a sledgehammer to it vowing to neve buy another Schumacher product.
My replacement maintainers are now Deltran battery tenders. Knock on wood no problems yet.

View attachment 218572View attachment 218571
Click to expand...
I used the same RV voltmeter to test out a WFCO 55A RV power supply. As advertised as that thing went up almost 30 amps, voltage clamped down. Mine has the wires all exposed, yours seems to be neatly placed in a box 👍

Ps also used it to verify a 3157 LED drew 3.7 watts (down from 27 on the incandescent)
 
I use a bench top power supply because it just does exactly what you tell it to do. But I know what I'm doing. Mostly. Would be a bad idea to use one if you didn't
 
jeffy876 said:
I use a bench top power supply because it just does exactly what you tell it to do. But I know what I'm doing. Mostly. Would be a bad idea to use one if you didn't
Click to expand...
I got this Dec. 2020 for $127. Seems to be $255 today. Don’t use it that often, though. I measured it and it went from 13.2 to 13.6v when I turned on lights, blower, defrost and the car was drawing 23 amps. It’s perfect for coding or say if car in showroom with people getting in and out and trying features when vehicle not running

www.wfcotech.com

WF-9855 Deck Mount Converter Charger – WFCO Technologies Converters

WF-9855 Deck Mount Converter Charger - 55 amp Power Converter. For a lithium-ready solution, click here. – Converters https://www.wfcotech.com/shop/converters/wf-9855-deck-mount-converter-charger/ WF-9855 Deck Mount Converter Charger
www.wfcotech.com www.wfcotech.com
 
John105 said:
I got this Dec. 2020 for $127. Seems to be $255 today. Don’t use it that often, though. I measured it and it went from 13.2 to 13.6v when I turned on lights, blower, defrost and the car was drawing 23 amps. It’s perfect for coding or say if car in showroom with people getting in and out and trying features when vehicle not running

www.wfcotech.com

WF-9855 Deck Mount Converter Charger – WFCO Technologies Converters

WF-9855 Deck Mount Converter Charger - 55 amp Power Converter. For a lithium-ready solution, click here. – Converters https://www.wfcotech.com/shop/converters/wf-9855-deck-mount-converter-charger/ WF-9855 Deck Mount Converter Charger
www.wfcotech.com www.wfcotech.com
Click to expand...
That's neat. I like being able to set whatever voltage I want though. I'm annoyed by the preset stuff.

A bench power supply is the kind you'd see in a lab, with the little dials and lots of buttons. I use it for little electronics projects. Lets you adjust output by the mV

I wouldn't buy one for the sole purpose of charging a battery, super unnecessary level of precision for the task. But I already had the thing.
 
Battery Tender (BT) or Battery Minder.

We have 4-5 BT units, one in continuous use for almost 15 years.

They are referred to as "maintainers" but will charge batteries -- just more slowly than a dedicated charger.
 
f355spider said:
Which reminds me that Battery Minder makes a simple 1 amp version with desulfation and temperature compensation and is sold through this retailer for about $35 delivered with shipping. You can get it for $30 if you use their first time user $5 off coupon. I bought one (haven't used it yet) simply because it is such a great value.

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Click to expand...
Where did you get the coupon code from?
 
I’ve had good experiences with Schumacher but I think their newer units aren’t as good as their older ones.
 
StarCaller said:
Where did you get the coupon code from?
Click to expand...
When you go to their webpage there is a pop up on the page to enter you email for a coupon code to save $5.

But I just noticed they temporarily lowered the price to $30 delivered on their eBay listing...but not sure how long it will be at the reduced price

www.ebay.com

BatteryMINDer Plus Battery Charger/Trickle Charger/Desulfator — 12 Volt, 1 Amp, | eBay

The BatteryMINDer Plus Battery Charger/Trickle Charger/Desulfator is an 8-stage maintenance charger/desulfator that extends performance and life of all types and sizes of 12 Volt lead acid batteries, including all starter, deep cycle, maintenance-free, sealed AGM, or flooded batteries...
www.ebay.com
 
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