If you could only have one battery charger...

[Mikek13]

My GF needs a 12v battery charger and I'm tired of lending her mine. She needs one that can charge a riding garden tractor and car battery and likes my old analog everstart 2-12-75 amp charger I inherited from my dad rip. But I need the analog for when my smart charge wont charge if voltage is too low..

Can anyone recommend a well made charger for her needs?

Thanks!

 

[fsdork]

Noco Genius 5 would be my bet. It also has a force charge program for instances like you describe where voltage is too low for the automatic charge program to run.

 

[Rand]

they have a battery tender at costco for around $45 that is nice.

if not costco.. let me check around for online sales for a few

this noco 5amp is nice but you just missed the 46$ sale
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...5a11ec8a39c24b30196ae70INT&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

HF has some decent viking chargers.

 

[eljefino]

I'd get one of the old buzz boxes that do 6V, 12V-2A, and 12V-6A.

 

[Rand]

I'd get one of the old buzz boxes that do 6V, 12V-2A, and 12V-6A.

HF 29.99

 

[doitmyself]

The Pro Logix has had a pretty good following here for a number of years. It has a feature to get deep discharged batteries going. It's value priced also.

https://cloreautomotive.com/product/pl2310/

 

[RitcheyRch]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ESQW08/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[350Rocket]

I got this one and I think it's worked pretty well for me although I'm not qualified to properly test it.. I've been using it for maintenance charging top ups on 2 cars, a truck and now 2 lawn tractors for the past 2 years.
After I hadn't charged in quite a while I finally hooked up for a charge top up and noticed a low state of charge...charged all weekend a couple of times and the battery wasn't holding a good state of charge more than a couple of days, so I kept topping it up....I eventually got it load tested and it failed..kept topping it up evenings and one day it said SUL (sulfated) so I let it desulfate a couple of overnights and it revived it long enough until I could steal the battery from my cutlass for the winter.

 

[Mikek13]

Noco Genius 5 would be my bet. It also has a force charge program for instances like you describe where voltage is too low for the automatic charge program to run.

Nice, but wouldn't 5 amps be to high for a small garden tractor battery? I like the force charge program though but cant find any 2-10-50A HF chargers that do that..

 

[UncleDave]

optimate 6

good from 3-240 AH batts

 

[fsdork]

Nice, but wouldn't 5 amps be to high for a small garden tractor battery? I like the force charge program though but cant find any 2-10-50A HF chargers that do that..

That's a fair point - I just had a look at the manuals for the Genius 2 and Genius 5, and they list battery compatibility as "up to" 40 Ah and 120 Ah, respectively. Given that they don't specify a minimum capacity with respect to compatibility, I can only assume the charger is capable of throttling its output so as to avoid overwhelming a smaller battery. I am absolutely making an inference there, though.

 

[2010Civic]

Nice, but wouldn't 5 amps be to high for a small garden tractor battery? I like the force charge program though but cant find any 2-10-50A HF chargers that do that..

The charger is capable of 5 amps but it will never overcharge the battery. When the battery gets near full charge it will lower the amps.

 

[y_p_w]

I think my old (heavy) Schumacher SEM-1562A with the switch would have been perfect for this application. But they discontinued it in favor of a new version with auto voltage detect. But sometimes old school works, especially if the battery is really, really dead.

 

[Nick1994]

The real question here, where did you find a girlfriend who uses car battery chargers and jump starts their own car!?

 

[JHZR2]

The Pro Logix has had a pretty good following here for a number of years. It has a feature to get deep discharged batteries going. It's value priced also.

https://cloreautomotive.com/product/pl2310/

This is a good start because if only one, it’s good to have a volt meter, and the selectability.

 

[JHZR2]

The real question here, where did you find a girlfriend who uses car battery chargers and jump starts their own car!?

My wife can do those things. ? Proper parenting/training.

 

[bbhero]

Actually I'd want what wrxsixeight uses... A variable power source that can be adjusted voltage and amperage. With a good ammeter to go with it too.

Once a battery drops amperage and is only accepting 0.5 amps per 100 amp hr and it's holding it there at 14.4 volts.. you know it's truly one hundred percent charged.

 

[UncleDave]

Actually I'd want what wrxsixeight uses... A variable power source that can be adjusted voltage and amperage. With a good ammeter to go with it too.

Once a battery drops amperage and is only accepting 0.5 amps per 100 amp hr and it's holding it there at 14.4 volts.. you know it's truly one hundred percent charged.

Sounds like a great charger for his girlfriend.

 

[UncleDave]

My wife can do those things. ? Proper parenting/training.

Same here,

Although all my batteries have a pigtail so its as difficult as plugging in a two prong connector and walking away.

 

[joemo]

My GF needs a 12v battery charger and I'm tired of lending her mine. She needs one that can charge a riding garden tractor and car battery and likes my old analog everstart 2-12-75 amp charger I inherited from my dad rip. But I need the analog for when my smart charge wont charge if voltage is too low..

Can anyone recommend a well made charger for her needs?

Thanks!

C Tec 4.3