What's new
By:
Filters

Recommend me a quality battery charger

I've also got one of those old school analog chargers that just shove voltage into dead batteries. It works great when my noco won't recognize that it's connected to a battery.

If it's too dead, then yeah, no saving it, but it's nice to have one of the old transformer chargers that don't give a shit to compliment one of the smarter chargers that do seem to care.
 
maybe the solution is to not buy a battery charger, and instead buy a decent sized bench power supply, set it to 16v and hook it up.
 
Muckin_Slusher said:
NOCO---good.

Battery Tender---bad.
Click to expand...

I've had a Battery Tender I've used on my motorcycle over winter for twenty years. No idea on the newer ones, though.

I've got one of these NOCO's wired into both my diesels: https://a.co/d/0QDDUSo

With the dual batteries and irregular use, it's nice to just plug them in and top them off without hooking a bunch of stuff up.

posford said:
DERAIL: I've been thinking about setting up a brodozer flush mount plug on my diesel that runs a battery maintainer and the glow plugs for the winter months. This charger looks up my alley on that. You have experience with it?
Click to expand...

I did that for the NOCO and glow plugs. Put a pair of these in the bumper: https://a.co/d/1k2t0aG
 
Get an Optimate to condition your batteries, they work like magic on most batteries.

Battery Chargers Archives - OptiMate

optimate1.com optimate1.com

To be clear, these are not a charger that you can jump with, these act more like a trickle charger to slowly charge the batteries and recondition them while doing their thing.
 
87manche said:
I have a stanley 25 amp. It works well.
It has a boil the shit out of it "recondition" mode that appears to ignores the battery state of charge/voltage and just hits it with 16 voltsish.
Click to expand...
I decided to try this version.

So far, it did a standard charge on a low battery fine. From about 8V to 'full'.

The start mode so far appears to be beyond a joke. I tried it on my dead battery cruiser with 6.0L LS engine. Just ticks but no crank. I've been trying the recondition mode and regular charge for the last two hours. Not much time on it but it was one of the deader batteries.

Since I don't want to burn the cruiser down, I'll try my third battery that is 'junk' over night and see what happens.
 
87manche said:
maybe the solution is to not buy a battery charger, and instead buy a decent sized bench power supply, set it to 16v and hook it up.
Click to expand...
I've saved a ton of lithium packs with BMS doing this (at the correct voltage)
 
SHARPMACHINE said:
^^^^ What does BMS mean? For the dummies in the back row.....
Click to expand...
As 87manche said Battery Managment System.

Lithiums have issues if they are run too high, too low, too hot, or get out of balance from the other cells in the pack. Some cells even have a basic cutoff inside them that disconnect the terminals if the cell drops too low. Any name brand power tool battery will have a BMS.

There is usually a way to reset the protection, but many chargers don't have it. Often its hitting it about half a volt over the full charged level for a minute, then back down to charge voltage. Even worse when you have one cell in a pack that zeroed out. With a power supply you can put just the right voltage on it or isolate one cell and bring it back up. We've had some special battery packs at work that idiot contractors ran into the ground, saved $600 and a half a week downtime by reviving the packs manually.

I dont want to safety nazi, but at least do some reading on voltage levels, how BMS works, charge rates, fire protections, etc before you try this. They can and will catch on fire or explode if mistreated. The energy density on cells is amazing but that energy has to go somewhere if it gets angry
 
Lifepo4 doesn't burst into flames, but they can get fried and vent if you're not careful.
 
If you do go with new batteries, don't go with optima. The only thing that keeps my optimas alive is having them plugged in to a tender all the time
 
Mother in laws ancient die hard battery charger checked out. I didn't feel like fixing it, so I gave her my stanley 25 amp johnny and bought a dewalt 30 amp.
it was open box and $75

So far it works and acts just like the stanley. Probably the same shit inside.
I've used it a few times and had it hooked up to the wife's volvo in programming mode for 5 hours feeding a constant 6-10 amps into it, so it's good for basic car programming.
I liked the carry handles and case/feet better on the stanley. I like the cord management better on the dewalt. They both have cheap shit cable clamps that are going to suck after a few years and the minimum conductor sizes to do it.
I like the extra 110 outlet on the dewalt so I can plug a laptop into it since I often use it for car programming.


I still break out my big ass modded server power supply for major things.
 
OHV Wildcat said:
Is this what your Stanley looks like? Because I have an identical looking Black and Decker that reliably doesn’t do shit. It always immediately claims my dead batteries are fully charged and goes to “float”. I’d like to have a ignore battery state of charge and apply 16v for an hour setting, so I’d maybe buy one if I got the wrong one or something.

If mine is just messed up, maybe it’s worth rolling the dice on another one.

A8B2CFBA-7DE6-4C1D-BB49-A5A6CA690DD0.jpeg



I have an old-school type charger by Rizk. I’m also not a fan of that. It will do exactly what I just described, but it weighs 70 pounds and is generally frustrating. As in, it cost a lot of money, but the cord holder things are the shittiest thing I’ve ever seen, and every time I use it I’m reminded I was a sucker for “buy American, even when the product is retarded” thing.
Click to expand...
Im not impressed with mine either.
 
well mine's been doing battery charger things fine for like 3 years.
so dunno?
maybe the new ones suck.
 
Noco genius 1 Amp, the dinky $30 jobber. Brought back two dead flat (walmart lead acid and optima red) from cars with a draw.

Took ~48 hours each. But I'm happy with the results.
 
Fuck, for 12-volt car batteries left out parked in winter for 90 days, disconnected from car harness. Bring inside to warm up and charge over night. Subject is a Conventional 12-volt Interstate Group whatever a Ford V-6 explorer has.

DeWalt

or

Noco Genius 5

Sincere thanks. :beer::beer::beer:

Apparently I thrrw out my $65 Vato Zone 8-uyo old one because it wont charge a "dead" battery. Gave an error code. Honda CRV or and Explorer. I would like to make one more purchase of a bench top that can accept and charge a "dead battery" It shouldnt be this fucking hard. :confused: WHAT THE FUKK GOOD IS A BATTERY CHARGER THAT WONT CHARGE A DEAD BATTERY !!!!! GREG !!!!! :lmao:

:flipoff2:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh