Battery Charger/starters

[GarageGuy89]

Really needing one of these that has the trickle charge and ability to start something, would be nice to have the ability to test as well.

Currently have one of those cheap 0.5 amp chargers from HF which does the job after 24 hours, but sometimes I need to start something without having to pull the car around and hook up jumper cables when the kiddos leave the keys on....

Saw HF has a new fancy 2/8/15 amp charger, a 2/10/50, and a 2/10/40/200 chargers. Can anyone speak to the usefulness of any of these and if there is something out there better for the money.

Seems like the 2/8/15 wont have the juice to start something. My Dad had one of the 50amp starters growing up that seemed under powered but would get something like a tractor going in a pinch. 200 amp seems overkill and would like to get a test feature in that if I'm going to buy something that large.

 

[Bert_]

I'd be looking at 2 separate chargers. I have a Schumacher 10/30/200 charger that I like. Also have a couple smaller chargers. I don't want to carry around a 40lb charger if I'm only going to use the 2 amp setting.

 

[GarageGuy89]

I'd be looking at 2 separate chargers. I have a Schumacher 10/30/200 charger that I like. Also have a couple smaller chargers. I don't want to carry around a 40lb charger if I'm only going to use the 2 amp setting.

Ended up doing some research. Seems like what i read is that the CTEK chargers are the bee knees. Not to be confused with HF's Cen-tech, i see what you did there HF.

These are the stock chargers that come with all those European super cars. Backed by jay leno himself.

I don't really buy into there black magic hype but the price is $20 or $30 more than a junk harbor freight charger so they got my Money. They have an 8 step charging process with a mode to recondition those dead batteries and bring them back to life.

We'll see how it does. Thought i would share for anyone interested.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[American Locomotive]

I've never had much luck with those "crank assist" 200A battery chargers. They take up a lot of space, are too heavy, and often don't get the job done.

My favorite "little" charger is my Turnigy Accucel 6. It will charge anything from NiCD, Lead Acid, NiMH to Li-Ion at just about any voltage from 1.2v to 20v. It can even do balanced charging if your battery pack has the right connections. I have a larger, old 15A Schauer 12v battery charger that I just for just car/tractor batteries.

The best solution to quickly getting something started is either have a spare 12v battery lying around, or getting a decent jump pack. More portable.