What's a decent battery charger?

A chauffeured Chinese argues with a pedestrian Indian in New Delhi, about the "correct charging protocol" for programming a Hwang Ho lead acid SMART battery charger. Neither the Chinese nor the Indians build decent batteries. This is why Exide India exists and profits there.

Over on an automotive forum, the following charger seems to have developed a following of loyalists.

https://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2310-Pro-Logix-Battery-Charger/dp/B009RXYU4I?th=1

No personal experience with it.

I do the adjustable voltage power supply thing, modified with more ventilation heatsinking and a better trim pot, but in 2007 I bought a schumacher sc2500a which was only on the market for a year or so before being pulled.

It would regularly decide to go up into the 16.4v range at full output and make it sound as if sulfuric acid was actually boiling inside the battery. The AGM setting largely prevents this occurrence.

I did at one point, modify it with a better fan, but that fan is now on my Meanwell powersupply. Its 12 awg power leads would heat up greatly passing 25 amps, and the copper within the wiring was black when I investigated further.

It now has a short length of 10AWG to circuit board with some 45 amp anderson powerpoles. The voltage reading on the display, always read way lower than actual voltage at battery and the 10AWG modification increased this disparity.

The display no longer works. All the buttons and lights are now lit and the display always reads 18.8v. Kind of a blessing.

It Does still work. I have a separate wattmeter on the outputs, I just have to remember to push one buton twice to set it to AGM( on a flooded battery) and another buttton once twice or 3 times for 2 12 or 25 amps.

Its fan is now a 60MM fan that I pulled from the Smoked cheapowatt (may it rest in pieces).

The schumacher now recharges the screwy 31 which powers lots of cast off 12v items in my meager workshop shed.

It does start automatically after a while when it gets power and is already hooked to a battery, but on the regular setting, and at 2 amps, which tries to as high as 16.4v if left alone.

Sometimes I will parallel the Schumacher and my Meanwell power supply for 65 amps, but I have to dial meanwell upto 15.3v to get it to stay at 40 amps until the battery approaches the 14.7v range.

I was unable to leave the Schumacher alone on a battery back when it was my only 120vAC charging source. It required babysitting lest it decide that 16.4v was required.

NOw the power supply just seeks and holds any voltage I desire. So at some point I need to lower it from 14.7 to 13.6v.

I know in this day and age where everything needs to be automatic lest the human have an emotional breakdown and not be able to spit out "just fine, just fine, just fine" lika a insane parrot, this is undesirable.

The adjustable voltage power supply route is certainly not for everyone as it is a manual charger. But I feel it is way superior than some automatic device being uncontrollable because it thinks it is smart.

Any electronic device which creates heat will benefit from a better more reliable fan. The computer muffin fans available today range from sleeve bearing jokes to rather insane levels of engineering and production.

If fan failure means device failure, then perhaps one should implement a better fan as preventative medicine.

Look up Noctua's offerings.

Tibetan sherpa

Naw I gotta start politely saying no to nearly impoverished people who don't have a choice but buy this garbage and then when it breaks come to me in prayer that I can prestidigitate unmarked optoisolators and comparators and fix it. it's bad enough that it breaks. But when it cannot recharge a battery properly to begin with that sets me off - big time. Rant Snort Snap Fume

Mex, you have to cut back on the loco weed and jumping bean snacks! :)

THE TURKEY! THE TURKEY!

Oh Dang Dang!

I shudda bought a SMART OVEN! Why did I settle for an inferior old-fashioned oven. Or an unsmart toilet or razor, or...

I always get them after they break. Dumbing down means cattle-like acceptance of inferior products or services. If this gizmo was worth snot the Chinese would still be pumping them out. Stuff like likes comes and stuff like this goes on eBay and Amazon.

If the Borg is a jury-rig setup then I'm a Tibetan Sherpa. Harbor Freight offered a good charger but without a timer. Hooking its power cord to a timer is probably the easiest thing a person could do AND IT WOULD NOT BLOW UP AFTER TWO MONTHS. Do ya forget about a turkey roasting in the oven at 375F?

Couple a 36-amp Megawatt to a 4-hour wind up timer. An Intermatic. Ninety bucks including the plastic receptacle box and pair of Romex clamps. 10 gage Ching Chong jumper cables are another what (?) ten bucks? Cut, strip, and fasten to the Megawatt terminal strip.

Is this so hard? Christ I have one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel and I can set this up diddling within 2 hours time. Use Black silicone sealer to safety seal the Megawatt terminal block from prying fingers.

Think 14.8 might be a little too high of finishing voltage? Tweak it back to 14.5. The pot is wide open access on the front next to the terminal block. Don't want 14.5? OK set it to 14.0 and you have exactly the same thing as a an alternator charging 24/7 if you wish. Want 13.3 for storage? Want exactly 14.4 for an AGM battery? Want to equalize? It's all there and the 4-hour timer just about goof-proofs charging. How many thousands percent more reliable is this setup? I'll put it this way, it'll be dancing on the grave of your next five PHART CHARGERS :) :) :)

I'd suggest to get a shop charger with wheels. They are usually built to a higher standard than the small household models and don't cost that much more.

Mex, mine all still work just fine. :)



Four charging my battery bank at near 130a total from the Honda 3000 six years ago.

One of the 35s has just been assigned as my AGM battery charger since it does that just right for that battery's specs.

The problem with the B&D was the fan.
They installed a cheap fan that often (but not always) failed and then the thing overheated and went kaput.
Several of us have had these units for years and they are still working well. Some folks (as have posted here) replaced the fan with a more reliable fan.

For what I need this charger to do, it does it well.
If Mexicowanderer wants to travel north and use his jury-rigged charging system to recharge all of our batteries whenever they need a charge, he is more than welcome. While waiting for him to get north to Minnesota, I will continue to use my B&D as I have for the past 6 years. No battery failures, no charger failures. I'm a happy camper, but apparently I'm also a "dumb American" according to someone on this forum.