I have a Schumacher XC-103 like this:
www.amazon.com/Schumacher-XC103-SpeedCharge-Battery-Charger/dp/B004EIBWQ0
I would say it qualifies as pretty good. It is right in your
budget. One criticism is that the "100 Amp Engine Start" feature is
not realistically able to start an engine with a completely dead
battery. As long as you aren't really expecting that, it isn't a big
deal. Also, as seems to be the trend with the latest "smart" battery
chargers, it won't charge a completely dead battery. It has to sense
the voltage to turn itself on. This seems completely crazy to me and
I did consider this to be a show stopper. What's the point of a
battery charger that can't charge a dead battery? Then I talked to
a Schumacher tech support guy who told me that if you press and hold
both buttons down on the front panel while plugging the unit in, it
will override the stupid logic and start charging. This isn't
documented anywhere. With this little bit of secret knowledge, this
became a useful charger again!
I also had a problem with my unit when I tried to charge a 6 Volt car
battery. It charged to over 90% and then magically switched from 6V
to 12V mode and continued to charge as though it was a 12 Volt
battery! I sent the charger in for warranty service. It was over a
year old at the time. The unit probably had this problem from day
one, but this was the first time I tried it on a 6 Volt battery. I
got the unit back and it did the exact same thing. Another round on
the telephone and they sent me a new unit and paid for shipping the
old one back. This all sounds very negative, but ultimately they
were very helpful and made everything right. That's more than I can
say for most companies. Most people will never encounter a 6 Volt
battery. The replacement unit handles them fine.
-Steve Trovato
strovato@optonline.net
At 03:01 PM 11/24/2013, Mark Miller wrote:
>Hi. I am in the market for a pretty good, great in not in the budget, 12V
>battery charger. $50-100 or so.
_______________________________________________
Shop-talk@autox.team.net
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|