Battery Chargers

[jkesselr]

Hey guys,

I was in the shop yesterday with a buddy and he decided to let the magic smoke out of my trusty ol' battery charger. So, now I get to buy a new one... yay.

I need recommendations for a good old school battery charger. I absolutely despise the new age smart chargers. I don't want buttons and blinky lights. I want a dumb charger that I twist a dial for this or that and it puts out a charge - regardless of what the battery says.

Please educate me on the good ones. I don't need to spend a billion dollars, but something in the $200-$400 range, give or take, is fine.

What says the garage?

 

[cgrutt]

What kind of batteries are you charging?

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have always had good luck with Schumacher brand chargers. They also make wheeled manual chargers.

This model #FRO1666. You will probably have to order it online.

 

[micromind]

I have always had good luck with Schumacher brand chargers. They also make wheeled manual chargers.

This model #FRO1666. You will probably have to order it online.

The nice thing about this type is they will bring a battery 'back from the dead' where an electronic one won't.

 

[zendriver]

I have a "Diehard" manual charger.

Oldder version of this.

Advance Auto Parts - Down for Maintenance

Puts out 12 volts @ "x" amps. Rarely use it any more, now I have jump pack and smaller auto chargers.

 

[ericg]

K3153-1 Century 15/2/100 Amp 6/12 Volt Manual / Automatic Deep Cycle Battery Charger Starter

Power and convenience. The K3153-1 packs 50% more charging and starting power than most portable chargers, plus features automatic 12-volt settings to shut output OFF at full charge, but turns the unit back on if the battery discharges for any reason.

www.centurytool.net

 

[Dagny]

All junk too many tv parts.

 

[Two Speed]

Hey guys,

I was in the shop yesterday with a buddy and he decided to let the magic smoke out of my trusty ol' battery charger. So, now I get to buy a new one... yay.

I need recommendations for a good old school battery charger. I absolutely despise the new age smart chargers. I don't want buttons and blinky lights. I want a dumb charger that I twist a dial for this or that and it puts out a charge - regardless of what the battery says.

Please educate me on the good ones. I don't need to spend a billion dollars, but something in the $200-$400 range, give or take, is fine.

What says the garage?

You might be able to repair it if its old school and the smoke came from any regulators rather than the transformer.

My schumacher manual charger is transformer based. And a simple circuit board of diodes/regulators.

 

[JuncleJohn]

Bought an old school Schumacher like new on Craigslist for $30-40 a couple months ago. This was purchased for my work as our old one finally bit the dust. Like you, I prefer the simpler basic chargers.

For old school, I’d check out garage/estate sales and pawn shops.

Hope you find what you want.

John

 

[Rusted Nut]

Old school chargers don’t work well on new school batteries, like AGM. The new smart chargers work very well. I really like my NOCO Genius 10. Both a charger and maintainer. About $100. Won’t desulfinate or bring back a totally dead battery, other than that it’s awesome.

 

[honcho]

Electrically, basic chargers are pretty simple electronic devices. Unless the transformer failed, repair shouldn't be difficult nor expensive.

 

[jkesselr]

What kind of batteries are you charging?

Mostly cars with lead acid batteries. I tried the AGM battery game for a bit, but didn't have any luck.

 

[cgrutt]

Mostly cars with lead acid batteries. I tried the AGM battery game for a bit, but didn't have any luck.

That's why I asked you really should use smart charger on AGM to get right profile. Schumacher still makes manual charges as already stated. Associated has some nice made in USA chargers but significantly more expensive.

 

[jkesselr]

Alright guys, I will look into repairing what I presently have, but it was relatively cheesy to start with. Now it's just smoked cheese.

I'd like something like the Schumacher posted at the top of the thread, but I'd like the wheeled version. I'm old and fat and I like wheelie things.

 

[cgrutt]

Believe Shumacher has a wheeled version of that charger.

 

[Steve_P]

The nice thing about this type is they will bring a battery 'back from the dead' where an electronic one won't.

Some new electronic chargers, like Noco will; you just need to press a button to override for a few seconds. Project Farm did a test on battery chargers and showed which ones will work and which don't on a dead battery.

 

[Rinspeed]

I have both a NOCO low amperage tender and jump pack and both have been great. If my old school 6 amp charger made 45 years ago ever dies I would probably buy a NOCO.

 

[bob from indiana]

If you need any help start another thread and take some photos of the inside. I bet the talent here can figure it out.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I have this one Clore Pro Logix 20A. I know you said no electronic flashy things.
It will work on a dead battery. Just hold the start button for a few seconds. It will read out charging voltage or % of charge.

I have a Rizk brand charger that is what you are asking for. I'm not sure they are still available.

 

[ronkz650]

I have all 4 Noco in the lower amp range 1-2-5-10. They work good. The 10 has the side benefit of the power supply mode which is great. Otherwise you can always use a cheap lab power supply as a battery charger. I have a cheap 5A, don't know or care of brand, but you can dial in your own amps and volts. Works fabulous as a charger, more or less like an old charger before the safety ****.

 

[engineer2]

I've got a 1989 vintage Associated battery charger I really don't need. It was a sales demo unit and I rarely used it. No idea what it is worth.

 

[pbon]

Mostly cars with lead acid batteries. I tried the AGM battery game for a bit, but didn't have any luck.

Or on lithium starter batteries. I have 2 gas cars with lithium starter batteries, 3 gas cars with AGM, and a couple with standard lead acid batteries.

 

[autobon7]

You can find older Associated chargers on marketplace for cheap. Thats the route I would go.

 

[zendriver]

Alright guys, I will look into repairing what I presently have, but it was relatively cheesy to start with. Now it's just smoked cheese.

I'd like something like the Schumacher posted at the top of the thread, but I'd like the wheeled version. I'm old and fat and I like wheelie things.

Do you want a silly repair project or a battery charger. It’s burnt up. Even if only one component is fried, the rest of the circuit is probably stressed.

Do you want the charger to have a jumpstart capabilities? If so, you’ll probably need something that has 40 A and up.

 

[jkesselr]

I have all 4 Noco in the lower amp range 1-2-5-10. They work good. The 10 has the side benefit of the power supply mode which is great. Otherwise you can always use a cheap lab power supply as a battery charger. I have a cheap 5A, don't know or care of brand, but you can dial in your own amps and volts. Works fabulous as a charger, more or less like an old charger before the safety ****.

I'd like to know a bit more about this. I have toyed with the idea of buying a power supply for other purposes. How does it work to use it as a charger?

 

[jkesselr]

I've got a 1989 vintage Associated battery charger I really don't need. It was a sales demo unit and I rarely used it. No idea what it is worth.

That is pretty cool, but I suspect it would cost a fortune to ship!

 

[jkesselr]

Do you want a silly repair project or a battery charger. It’s burnt up. Even if only one component is fried, the rest of the circuit is probably stressed.

Do you want the charger to have a jumpstart capabilities? If so, you’ll probably need something that has 40 A and up.

The short answer is that I would rather have a battery charger. Everything I am looking at has a 200A or higher engine start feature.

 

[jkesselr]

You can find older Associated chargers on marketplace for cheap. Thats the route I would go.

Okay, I'll take a look. A quick hunt for "battery charger" didn't turn up much.

 

[jkesselr]

I have this one Clore Pro Logix 20A. I know you said no electronic flashy things.
It will work on a dead battery. Just hold the start button for a few seconds. It will read out charging voltage or % of charge.

I have a Rizk brand charger that is what you are asking for. I'm not sure they are still available.

I couldn't find anything new on Rizk. Maybe they are out of business.

 

[jkesselr]

Believe Shumacher has a wheeled version of that charger.

I found the Schumacher DSR139 that has piqued my interest, but I need to dig into it more to see if it is a solid unit.

 

[jkesselr]

I have both a NOCO low amperage tender and jump pack and both have been great. If my old school 6 amp charger made 45 years ago ever dies I would probably buy a NOCO.

Yeah, its one of those 45 year old bastards that I am looking for!

 

[JimDon]

I think the old guy that owned Rizk either folded up shop or died. Too bad too, I bought a bunch of his chargers for gifts. They were well made. Cheers, Jim Don

 

[DrinkMan]

I have an older version of this: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cbc-sc1445?rrec=true . I just roll it to where I need.


And I have a bunch of trickle charger/maintainers. Battery Tender, NOCO. Viking (HF), Battery Minder, and some I got with a coupon at Costco. They all work well. The NOCO and Battery Minder are for my AGM batteries. I like ones with a display of progress but that isn't too important to me.

And while I keep the big roll around in our main garage where we work on our cars, I also have a couple of countertop jump starter manual chargers that I keep at our other garages and houses just in case I need to jump start or quick charge.

 

[dcg9381]

something in the $200-$400 range, give or take, is fine.

On CL, you can probably get about 10 "old school" chargers in that range!


To me it's either a (dumb) "old school" charger or it'll do lithium. Not much in the middle that I'm interested in.

 

[ronkz650]

I'd like to know a bit more about this. I have toyed with the idea of buying a power supply for other purposes. How does it work to use it as a charger?

A power supply as a battery charger works great, but of course you must remove it after the battery is fully charged. Generally the best charge rate on a lead acid battery is 1/10 the AH rating of the battery, so one of my motorcycle batteries is 10ah, another one is 20ah, so depending on which one to be charged I can set a lab power supply to 14.5v and 1A or 2A depending on the battery and it will fully charge the battery at the correct rate, then remove the charger or if you really want to get crafty, you can set it to 13.1V and leave it hooked up forever. This is all a Battery Tender does.
This is OK and all, but a decent smart charger does a few things besides just applying a steady charge. I still use a Noco in the correct rating to match the battery mostly.

 

[autobon7]

Okay, I'll take a look. A quick hunt for "battery charger" didn't turn up much.

I found both of mind by searching "associated battery charger" which gave slightly different results than just battery charger. Marketplace searching can be so fiddly.

 

[zendriver]

Unless I'm missing something, big old battery chargers are not always "all that".

Some (most) have been beaten pretty hard, for years. Run way too long charging/jumping wasted batteries, Left in the rain, shorted out etc.

Seem pretty rare to find one on pristine condition, like the gem in post #21.

 

[Dagny]

If your power supply is AC you will need a full wave bridge to get DC.