Schumacher battery charger

[tcianci]

I have an SC 600A battery charger and it's one of those that have an automatic float/maintainer function. Well, I let the battery on my hot rod go dead (hasn't been started like 5 months or so). When I connect he charger, it starts to charge and then it goes into what the owner's manual calls ABORT mode and the charging cycle stops. I'm pretty sure that the battery is just flat and possibly the charger is looking for some sign of life. Outside of hooking up an old "dumb" charger, is there any way to fool this thing into charging a dead battery?

 

[firworks]

Can you just jumper cable it to another vehicle for a bit to get the battery back up in the normal range where the battery charger will bring it the rest of the way?

 

[tcianci]

Yeah, I can do that, I just didn't feel like pushing it out of the garage tonight. I guess that's my project for the AM.

 

[Bdgjr215]

Try dropping the battery from about five or six inches a couple times.sometimes you can
Drop some electrolytes off the plates and adjetate them enough to get the charger to start
It's charging cycle.
Also if your charger has a 50 amp start feature,switch to that for a couple 30 second intervals,that can sometimes get electrolytes flowing again.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Is it a regular lead-acid battery, or an Optima? I've heard that dead Optimas can be difficult to recharge with a conventional battery charger.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Hook a second battery up to fool the charger.

 

[nickelmore]

Hook a second battery in parallel to the dead one with a pair of jumper cables and hook the negative lead from the charger to the neg on the dead battery and the positive to the good one.

 

[HOTFR8]

I have an SC 600A battery charger and it's one of those that have an automatic float/maintainer function. Well, I let the battery on my hot rod go dead (hasn't been started like 5 months or so). When I connect he charger, it starts to charge and then it goes into what the owner's manual calls ABORT mode and the charging cycle stops. I'm pretty sure that the battery is just flat and possibly the charger is looking for some sign of life. Outside of hooking up an old "dumb" charger, is there any way to fool this thing into charging a dead battery?

Try jump starting the vehicle and letting it run for about 10 minutes (or go for a drive round the block if you can) and shut it off then after that hook up your Schumacher and if it still goes to abort mode then have the battery tested. If it does not go to abort mode after a jump start you may be OK. It sort of sounds to me like the battery could have a bad cell. Post a reply after you have tried this. Good Luck.

Edit: Selling many brands of tender style chargers I get asked this a lot.

 

[gungatim]

Hook a second battery up to fool the charger.

this is what I do. I've got some of the sealed batteries for various toys and can't get my smart charger to work with them unless I add a **** mower battery in parallel.

to make it easier, I made a mini pair of jumper cables. I scrapped a couple old jump packs this winter, and kept the short cables from them. took one pair apart and added the clamps to the other pair and have a nice short pair of little 24" jumper cables. they work perfect for adding a battery and fooling the charger...

 

[Showkey]

Yes ..........you need to trick the smart chargers...........but...........bringing back a completely dead has it's other issues. Allowing the batteries to deep discharge or Or low state of charge the batteries sulfate quickly and each time it is less less likely the battery will come back to life and stay there.

Sulfating is the death sentence and I hard to reverse if not impossible........the drop trick is meant to physically knock the sulfate off the plates. It has it own issues one of which is open circuit one or more cells.

 

[tcianci]

Thanks for the advice. I have access to a battery and a dumb charger. Going to play with it tonight after work

 

[tcianci]

I got the charger tonight. When I attached it, the current draw was very low <2A but over the course of a few minutes it went up over 5 A and seems to be working. Nothing is getting hot or appears to be out of order, so it's going to stay on the charger overnight.

BTW, the charger is an "Allstate" sold only by Sears, Roebuck & Company. That might give you an idea about how old the charger is!

 

[HOTFR8]

Keep us posted and how it works please.

 

[tcianci]

The charger settled down to little under 2 amps. Tonight I took it off the charger and the truck fired right up. Garage was closed and heat was on so I only let it run for about 10 seconds. Tomorrow I'll see if it has gone south or not. I'm kicking myself for letting this happen. I usually grab the smart charger and set it up when the truck sits more than a month or so. The buddy that I borrowed the dumb charger from told me to keep it. He has a couple. I might end up cleaning it and detailing the paint, it's a little piece of Sears history right in my garage.

 

[HOTFR8]

So the interesting thing now is did the tender charger pick up the battery after the car had started? Would still pay to test the battery as I had one with a crook cell and the tender kept enough in the battery to start it but every so often the battery would fail.

 

[elidas]

I work at a new car dealership that has a bunch of newer chargers. Including a Midtronics gr8 that costs more than my first ten cars together. I have a fleet of tag sale "dumb" chargers to handle whatever the classy chargers turn there noses up at. An old Sears is always the first one I grab.

 

[tcianci]

I went out to the truck again last night and hit the key, if started right up. It's been off the charger for 2 days now. I might have dodged the bullet this time. I do plan to put the smart charger on it again just to see what it does.

 

[HOTFR8]

Good to know the old trick of charging it that way worked. Do you have any way to test the voltage after it has been sitting and not starting. It should stay above 12 volts.

 

[brownbagg]

i had wired a "battery tender" trickle charger in all my cars, so during the week when im in company truck, personal have extension cords run to them

 

[6PTsocket]

i had wired a "battery tender" trickle charger in all my cars, so during the week when im in company truck, personal have extension cords run to them

I have a couple of the Battery Tender Plus chargers. They are 1.25 amp but they are better than a "dumb" trickle charger; they are a 3 mode, temperature compensated chargers. I leave my lawn tractor on one all the time. They are good for maintaining car batteries but just the right size for charging the lawn tractor and portable generator. They do fine with sealed or AGM batteries.

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