Auto battery charger vs manual charger

Alls ya need is a little battery tender. It holds bulk mode (14.6-8v) for 4 hrs no matter if the battery is already full charged, then sits at 13 .3. It never says full, and never shuts off. It has the red and green lites, but I'm watching a digital voltmeter on the dash of my boat.

Here is the manual for the charger I got. Its a little pricey but its sealed so I won't be getting moisture and dust in it .
I have had a lot of trouble using and storing them in the barn seems like they corrode and burns them out. The one I bought is the single 5 amp it works good I can leave it charging without worrying about it. Thanks

You can use the equalization mode on the VEC to get to full on the battery. I do when i dont have time to babysit the manual charger. It does take longer with the VEC.

beemerphile1 wrote:
I imagine the manual charger is better if you want to babysit the charger and battery. I am basically lazy so I prefer the automatic. If it shortens the battery life a bit - so be it. I do have the VEC 1093DBD.

I have three of them and see your point of view.

The manual that I linked to is better at giving one a good readout on battery.

This manual charger requires no baby setting as I pointed out above. Just run it at 6 amp rate and check it in a few hours or the next day. If you are charging a 400 ah bank you should be good to go 245.3 days without checking it. Just set it on 2 amps on a 75 ah battery and you should be good to come back in 453.7 days. :)

Today there are not many who have put thousands of hours of charging with a manual charge. We rack up 6000 hours a year with the OEM manual charger in just the MH. :)

I imagine the manual charger is better if you want to babysit the charger and battery. I am basically lazy so I prefer the automatic. If it shortens the battery life a bit - so be it. I do have the VEC 1093DBD.

When my manual charger died I bought the VEC1093DBD charger bsed on BFL13's recommendation. I use it for a rapid charge (40.3 amps), after it says full I use the old converter that came with the MH Magnetec 950 that charges at 5 amps for a couple of days. That extra float seems to provide another couple of days dry camping without recharging.

We own 4 automatics but this is my go to charger for refreshing the charge.

It is simple. It is a requirement if you own automatic chargers so you can make the automatics work on a very discharged battery.

On a 12v auto/tractor battery I can set it on 12v/6 amps over night. If it has tapered down to a 1 amp rate I have a known healthy battery. If it stops tapering at 2-3 amps I know it is a sick battery.

I forget and left one on at 6 amp rate for about a month a couple years ago. Just had it load and SG tested at Interstate Dist a couple weeks ago. He said it was built in 2006 but still load tested well with balanced SG readings. From that I gather you do not have to baby set a manual charger charging at a low rate.

Now if the battery is at the end of the life cycle and will only taper to say 3 amps a month later (days actually) it would be fried along with the charger I expect.

Automatics have their place but not as your solo charger from my experience. Now what I think is ideal is to put the automatic in Desulf Mode for three 24 hours cycles with the manual charger on 6 amps for the first day and 2 amps for the next two days.

With a 12v battery if it has not tapered to 1 amp after 24 hours or less depending on its starting SOC (starting state of charge and size) I will run it on the two amp rate for the next two days to see if I can recover some run time capacity.

Dying batteries should be replaced soon if in mission critical applications like driving across the USA.

No they are like that. The automatic shut off is set at about 97% SOC. To get a full charge on eg a pair of 6s as a 12v bank, you need the manual to climb to the 15+v range. That means you need to be there to shut it off.

You could use the auto type most times and just use the manual once a month to get to full SOC as an approach.

The VEC1093DBD charger is neat, where it does normal auto charging but also you can set it to Equalize to 15.7v, and it is auto in that too, so you don't have to watch over it and it will get the 100% charge done by itself with no worries.