Help me pick a Battery Charger

[mayday0017]

I am in need of a good battery charger as the last one I bought crapped out... Managed to charge 3 battery's with it in it's life, not exactly what I would call a good buy.

A guy at work has pushed the "Batteryminder" battery charger from Northern Tools. Swears it is the best one he has ever owned and has saved many batteries for him that would of otherwise been trash.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200326706_200326706

I am open to any and all suggestions, I don't really want to spend a ton of $$ but I do want something that will work well when I need it.

 

[jkwilson]

Black and Decker makes good chargers in their VEC series. Schumacher Ship and Shore are good as well.

 

[Haukur]

Check out CTEK. I have two, a MULTI US 3300 and a MULTI US 25000.

Those are the best chargers I have owned and used. They're small and easy to fit under the hood if you want to leave them overnight.

My MULTI US 25000 has reconditioned multiple batteries in my friends carhaulers and off-road rigs. I've gotten quite a few beers and favors for saving batteries.

They're also good for trouble shooting and testing circuits. The supply feature supplies 12V and when it shorts it just shuts off the supply, and can be reset with a push of a button. It has probably saved me millions of dollars in ATO and mini fuses over the years.

 

[mayday0017]

Anyone else have any recommendations? Looks like more and more people are recommending these small chargers instead of the traditional larger ones. Kinda shocked at that honestly, any reason?

Really kind of want a non smart charger, I feel like that is the real problem with mine... It "Thinks" the battery is charged but it isn't. It might would work fine on a standard car battery but for smaller 12 volts I've had issues for a long time. Would AGM batterys not work with some cheaper chargers that are "Smart"?

 

[W650Mike]

I have a Shumacher conventional that is about 20 years old and a Shumacher smart about 7 years old. Both have been good chargers.

I maintain a handful of batteries for personal trap machines and seem to be getting 6 - 7 years before replacement.

 

[HTGTS350]

CTEK if you can get them in the US, they are the best, bar none.

 

[mayday0017]

Any suggestions of which CTEK? Seems like they make several at different price points.... is the only real difference how many amps they put out? I prefer to charge at 2amps or less whenever possible so having a charger that puts out high amps doesn't do much for me (Should it?).

 

[pfctblu]

get the Ctek 3300. It automatically charges based up on state of discharge (that's one reason they call it "smart"). Good stuff.

 

[kar298]

i agree with everyone else i have two ctek 3000 and would buy another one if i need it. been using them for several years with no problems.

 

[mayday0017]

I'm looking at the new(er) big(er) CTEK 25000 as a possible, the biggest thing it offers me over the smaller units is "Supply mode" at 25amps. I like the idea of being able to use it for providing 12volts for bench testing things I am working on. Only down side is it doesn't have an IP65 rating like the others because it has a fan for cooling.

Anyone have the CTEK 25000?

On the flip side part of me wonders if I should buy the Smaller CTEK & an old style charger that will put out 25amp (or more) supply power and have the best of both worlds when I need them.

Thoughts?

 

[jfdestree]

I have a CTEK MXS 5.0 and it's a very good product. It can load battery that are deeply discharged when a conventional charger couldn't. It's also IP65 rated which I found important for those kind of electrical product.
I have quite a few battery chargers. From an old timer Delforge, to the most recent smart chargers as the CTEK. This new generation of battery charger is a nice improvement over the older one. No more boiling battery.

 

[ken w.]

If your looking for a big style charger, NAPA has a few on sale.I've had one in the barn for over 20 years and one in the shop for at least 10.I've had a Craftsman one in my garage that I bought when I was in high school ( 84 grad ) that has worked untill I dropped it and broke off the selector switch. A battery charger is as only as good as the person using it. If you want a charger to just charge a battery and jump start a car in the driveway all you need is a 2 amp - 10 amp -200 boost charger.

 

[W650Mike]

CTEKs certainly seem to be popular, but is there someplace to buy them for under $300? (Assuming Amazon is at least something of a price indicator.)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UK0WO0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[mayday0017]

$192

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045F3SGY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[mrborohachi]

The largest most expensive Schumacher from WalMart is nice. It charges AGM batteries too. I was really impressed with it's Jumpstarter function. It had a built in saftey 180sec (3min) count down timer in between cranks that it auto sensed the car not being able to start.
Last week i worked on a friends mom's Safari van, my idiot friend and/or brother sat in the van listening to the radio to the point the battery barely could click the starter solenoid. For some weird reason i could not get the Van to start with my Toyota Avalon (I would consider our batteries were of equal size). Luckily there was a 24hr Wal Mart close and we went and bought the most expensive charger they had in stock. It looked like they only stock the Schumacher brand chargers.


On a side note/question for you Ctek guys. Have you saved any batteries using the "Patented desulfation function"?

 

[padronanniversary]

ctek and I work in the battery industry

 

[Johnny chaos]

Is it true that a common 12v flooded battery cannot be recharged if it has dropped below 9v?

I have used both the "old" style chargers and the new smart chargers and the new smart chargers seem finicky about charging a battery that is around or below 9v?

I think somewhere in the past I read that if a battery was below 9v it was toast? Sometimes my memory gets me in trouble though That's why I'm asking the question.

 

[t1r2u3s4t]

Good thread, any opinion on PulseTech Xtreme chargers?

 

[Mooniac]

I'm very happy with Battery MINDers on my plane and road vehicles. I previously had a Battery Tender Jr that one day released the magic smoke for no good reason and quit working...

 

[gte718p]

I have Napas battery charger. I have an F350 diesel so it takes a lot of current to start. I also have a couple of offroad vehicles that need to hit the charger pretty much every time I use them. This thing is a beast and a little pricey, but it has not let me down yet. In 5 years of abuse I did manage to kill the fan, but it took 15 minutes to replace. It ran fine even without the fan, I was just afraid the Ford was going to burn it up.

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=NBC851010_0006389653

 

[sberry]

I dont know much about all this new fangled stuff except my repair bud has a stack of them. This is the hand down best charger I have owned. It outlived them all, made a couple minor simple repairs, they didnt soup it up, no fan.

 

[Haukur]

On a side note/question for you Ctek guys. Have you saved any batteries using the "Patented desulfation function"?

I've saved a few batteries, mostly batteries that had been left outside in projects or broken cars and had drained and frozen. They worked fine after being charged on the recondition mode.

 

[rodm1]

add these to the list http://usabatterychargers.com/

 

[jkwilson]

Is it true that a common 12v flooded battery cannot be recharged if it has dropped below 9v?

I have used both the "old" style chargers and the new smart chargers and the new smart chargers seem finicky about charging a battery that is around or below 9v?

I think somewhere in the past I read that if a battery was below 9v it was toast? Sometimes my memory gets me in trouble though That's why I'm asking the question.

Some chargers don't like to charge deeply discharged batteries, but that is intentional to protect from providing power into shorted cables.

Every time you use a battery you are doing minor damage. Deeper discharges do proportionally more damage. For longest life, it's best to keep a battery above 11.7V or so.

 

[6-Speed]

My cheap $20 Sears battery charger just died today so I placed an order for the CTEK US 3300 based on the recommendations in this thread.