MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You describe an old MANUAL charger without timer. They are not allowed to be sold anymore in too many states.
For shorter excursions, a smart battery charger will wheeze out just enough power to limp by. For top charging or restoring a full charge, they are as useless as **** on a boar hog. Try to opt for a pay-for added guarantee on a smart charger. Then all you will be stuck for is the shipping costs when it ignites or plays dead.
Chargers that do not have a built-in timer are extremely stupid. And anything that claims to be automatic or smart is NOT a battery charger -- it is a Tickle Me Elmo grade joke.
I do not agree. A particular battery charger does what it does. It is a tool. "Use the right tool for the job." The chargers Mex hates so much are not all the same for the same jobs, but they are not all suitable for each part of the "charging profile" to bring a battery from 50% to 100%.
Many portable smart chargers are "just fine" for doing 50-90s while camping. Many do not have enough amps, so they require too much gen time to do a 50-90, but you can use more than one at a time to add their amps.
Getting a battery from 90 to 100 or even from 97 (when many automatic chargers shut down) to 100 requires a different sort of charger. A different tool to do that job.
Finding a charger that will do it all, no matter what the job is, with enough amps to do it by itself, is close to impossible. (PowerMax adjustable voltage LK models come close though). You might have to use one charger for one part of the job and another for another part of the job.
If you try to use the wrong tool for the job, then of course the only thing to do is blame the tool! :)
These are not "tickle-me Elmo" chargers for instance: (add up their amps as shown and that total is what was showing on the Trimetric as going into the battery bank --maxing out a Honda EU3000is)
