Sears 200 Amp Battery Charger

[GRivera]

So I just went to an estate sale and made an impulse purchase of a Sears 200 AMP 40/2 Battery Charger 200 Amp Battery Starter. It's pretty clean but the picture looks better than in person. Model number is 141-255-001, Made in USA 1994. I can't find any info on it on-line and I need to learn how to use it as I've never had one of these before.

I got caught up in the moment and paid $60 for this. Haven't tested it yet. Assuming it works- how good or bad was this purchase?

 

[The Cobbler]

if it works, and you need/use it, I'd say it was a good deal
if it doesn't work ... you know the rest

pretty straight forward to use it.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I have one of those from the late 1990’s, I think I paid $79 for it on sale brand new. I haven’t used it in years and haven’t had the heart to trash it. Due to the size I purchased a smaller Craftsman 10 amp charger/50 amp starter some years agothat I used more often. In the mid 2000’s I purchased my CTek 3300 charger and haven’t touched either of the old style ones since. If I need a jump start capability I just jump start off another vehicle.

 

[zendriver]

So I just went to an estate sale and made an impulse purchase of a Sears 200 AMP 40/2 Battery Charger 200 Amp Battery Starter. It's pretty clean but the picture looks better than in person. Model number is 141-255-001, Made in USA 1994. I can't find any info on it on-line and I need to learn how to use it as I've never had one of these before.

I got caught up in the moment and paid $60 for this. Haven't tested it yet. Assuming it works- how good or bad was this purchase?

It says "instructions on the back"

IME battery chargers either work perfect, or they don't work at all, not much in between.

More than I would have paid, but at auctions today, everything sells high, so ya gotta pay the price.

It doesn't look like it was used hard, which is good.

 

[dadsEH]

200 Amp? I reckon you bought a welder.!

 

[GRivera]

It says "instructions on the back"

LOL - you got me there. I just read them and don't find them as straight forward as I expected...

 

[dogdog]

I think these are manual chargers, I have go one that is 50/2/250 or something but with a mechanical timer... it will over charge, boil the water, or warp the plates if you leave it on too long. are you looking for instructions on how to charge your lead acid battery manually ?

 

[GRivera]

I think these are manual chargers, I have go one that is 50/2/250 or something but with a mechanical timer... it will over charge, boil the water, or warp the plates if you leave it on too long. are you looking for instructions on how to charge your lead acid battery manually ?

I thought I needed it for when I kill a maintenance free lawn mower or car battery and want to recharge it, rather than just boosting it. Maybe I'm a dinosaur and skipped a generation of technological advances. I always wanted one so picked up this one. Have these become obsolete?

 

[ChevyEFI]

In the late 90s, I bought one from a Sears hardware store, buying the biggest amperage handheld (not on wheels,) figuring bigger could be better, but I was in apartment mindset. It worked for charging car batteries and electrolysis, as well as testing 12v parts like starters. Definitely worth whatever I paid for it. It was around until it was left in a car that was stolen.

It had 6/12v, manual/auto, and 2/??/?? amp switches. Yours might not be great to leave on a battery indefinitely. These days, I believe a battery maintainer (from HF up to the sky's the limits) can be good for a car with a slow drain you haven't located yet, or a vehicle that sits a while.

And a jump pack might be a more modern solution for starting up a vehicle. I still believe in jumper cables and haven't made the move to acquiring a pack, yet.

For a few weeks ago when I left a map light on, yours would have worked fine. But so would a smaller one. I kind of like a smaller one with auto setting that can be hidden / locked under a closed hood (on a truck, anyway.)

 

[mikegt4]

I inherited an old Craftsman battery charger from my Dad that died about 10 years later. It was just a re-badged Schumacher, most Craftsman battery chargers were. I found that Sears Parts Direct sold parts significantly cheaper than Schumacher. Fixed it and it lasted about 3 months until I forgot to take it off the top of my bulldozer's track after charging the battery. It wasn't repairable after running over it. Kind of looked like a Frisbee.

 

[dogdog]

I thought I needed it for when I kill a maintenance free lawn mower or car battery and want to recharge it, rather than just boosting it. Maybe I'm a dinosaur and skipped a generation of technological advances. I always wanted one so picked up this one. Have these become obsolete?

IMO pretty much obsolete with the advanced automatic chargers, and these sealed lead acide batteries... manual charging and calculating / timing the charge time / and reading the electrolyte to get the battery topped off is pretty much a lost art. especially with these sealed batteries...

if you google that number, a lot of century chargers came up... probably a rebrand... sears used to sell rebranded century stuff for a while...