time to upgrade my battery charger...

[aaronrkelly]

I have a basic automatic battery charger, just something I picked up under $100 about 10 years ago. Its working great, but Id like a bit more power occasionally.

I like automatic....but Im thinking about a more powerful wheeled unit.

What I use it for. General charing/starting cars and truck but also need to be able to charge/start motorcycles, atvs etc.

Budget....around $200ish, give or take. The more automatic the better - I have kids and a GF that dont know **** and dont care to learn, so best keep it simple.

What do you have that works.

Aaron

 

[mike93lx]

How about a jump pack in conjunction with your current charger?

 

[xj31]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RXYU4I/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[aaronrkelly]

How about a jump pack in conjunction with your current charger?

Good idea...I have a good jump box so im covered there.

Aaron

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[gatlibs]

https://www.usabatterychargers.com One of these is on my to buy list as an upgrade.

 

[B_Bimmer]

Associated is the best, I would love to see one of those from that site stress tested in a junk yard or auction lot to see how they compare.

 

[unslow1]

https://www.usabatterychargers.com One of these is on my to buy list as an upgrade.

There was a thread here in November that didn't have good things to say.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=408064

 

[cleaner]

Check out CTek chargers, Very simple UI for automatic charging duties.

Their URL is ctek.com

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RXYU4I/?tag=atomicindus08-20

This is my go to charger. I don't recall using the boost. The clamps and cable are heavy duty.

https://www.usabatterychargers.com One of these is on my to buy list as an upgrade.

I have one of these as well. Simple no-frills. Very similar to the charger I remember my grandfather using.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have a basic automatic battery charger, just something I picked up under $100 about 10 years ago. Its working great, but Id like a bit more power occasionally.

Think out of the box !

Stick with what you have and buy Lithium-Ion jump pack. Less than $200 (maybe less than $100 ?) and very easy to use.

There are dozens to choose form. Buy a "name brand" that has a warranty.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I despised storing a wheeled charger in the garage, it was always in the way. I gave it away and got a bench top unit with 50A jump start capacity which has worked fine for me. 95% of my charging is with a Ctek, which take great care of the batteries.

https://autoplicity.com/2764919-cte...MIloHO87KO4AIVENbACh3y-wDxEAQYASABEgJmfvD_BwE

 

[American Locomotive]

Most of the big wheeled battery chargers I've seen don't have good charge rates. They're always something like 2/30/60 amps. 30A charge is a bit much for something like an ATV or lawn tractor battery, but 2A is too low. Plus if you don't know what you're doing, you can easily boil a battery if you set it to the "60A" setting.

Get a separate jump box for starting things, and a decent 15-20A normal battery charger.

 

[Bretny]

The key is to not let batterys go dead. For when they do i have a spare battery and a set of jumper cables. All my chargers are under 10a and never really needed anything biger.

I have 18 pieces of equipment with starting batterys. Lawn mowers to jet skis and motorcycle/quads to excavator. Damn now that i think of it thats alot of batterys. None are left on battery tenders but my generator, that just got a pro mariner last week.