gnappi
Well-known member
WARNING, Long read ahead.
I've seen these at Wal Mart for a while and wondered how good the were. When I found I needed one more charger I decided to try this one.
Discharging a battery to below 60% (12.2 volts on a 12 volt battery) will just show "Lo" on the charger readout for a L-O-N-G time, the time depends on the amp hour rating of the battery. At 3.0 amps (claimed) charge rate and 13.6 V, a large deep cycle group 31 / 105 Ah battery drawn down to 11.5 volts (<20% charge) is going to be a LONG, long wait to completely charge it.
As a maintainer / casual charger (lead acid / AGM only) it's just OK (see On the down side, below) and the display shows you exactly what it's doing. An added plus is it has the solar system type (SAE) DC connectors that the brand Battery Tender uses so it can be readily connected to any battery with this type of cable or, it comes with a cable clamp pair for connecting directly to a battery terminal. The AC cord is six feet long, and the charge cable is five feet long which together both should reach most any battery without an extension cord.
On the down side, aside from the nits above, when I first got mine, the charger threw some very weird codes (no manual came inside the box) on two very good almost completely charged AGM deep cycle batteries, one 95Ah, and another 35Ah. Now with the same batteries connected it works as expected. Another issue... the thing smells, and it runs very warm. The odor is not of PCB material made of phenolic or fiberglass, an overheating flame resistant component, resist etch or wire covering (trust me I know these smells intimately having spent years troubleshooting assembly lines for IBM) it's something else... elusive. Maybe flux? Maybe flux wash? Whatever it is if you're sensitive to odors, leave this one alone, because I've had mine over two months and the smell has not gone away at all.
I figured that a small cooling fan would alleviate the heat, and smell, but the muffin fan I connected to the battery I was charging drew ~450 milliamps and dropped the charge state back to 60% from 70% while charging so I connected the fan to my spare 35Ah battery to force air over it, the result is the smell and case temperature dropped to bupkus. This indicates that the smell is either a natural evaporative process / out gassing of something left behind during manufacturing or an overly hot condition signalling an imminent component failure at some point.
At the Wal Mart regular $19 price it's a good deal but a bit scary at the same time. As it is, I would not trust mine in a hot environment to not self destruct. Ever Start would should do better job of evacuating the hot air from inside the case. I could offer my services in that regard
Would I buy another one? I just may to see if I got an odd one. If I found the same issues, I'd probably bring the second one back.
Up to this point, I certainly would not recommend it. If anyone else here has had one with different results I'd like to hear your observations.
PS, for a frame of reference, on my 95Ah battery when charge was started @12.2 volts (~60%) and it took 7 1/2 hours to charge it fully, not too bad. I don't use that battery any more on my boat so my little 35Ah batteries won't take hit with a big re-charge time, and I could use them the next day if I charged them overnight.
I've seen these at Wal Mart for a while and wondered how good the were. When I found I needed one more charger I decided to try this one.
Discharging a battery to below 60% (12.2 volts on a 12 volt battery) will just show "Lo" on the charger readout for a L-O-N-G time, the time depends on the amp hour rating of the battery. At 3.0 amps (claimed) charge rate and 13.6 V, a large deep cycle group 31 / 105 Ah battery drawn down to 11.5 volts (<20% charge) is going to be a LONG, long wait to completely charge it.
As a maintainer / casual charger (lead acid / AGM only) it's just OK (see On the down side, below) and the display shows you exactly what it's doing. An added plus is it has the solar system type (SAE) DC connectors that the brand Battery Tender uses so it can be readily connected to any battery with this type of cable or, it comes with a cable clamp pair for connecting directly to a battery terminal. The AC cord is six feet long, and the charge cable is five feet long which together both should reach most any battery without an extension cord.
On the down side, aside from the nits above, when I first got mine, the charger threw some very weird codes (no manual came inside the box) on two very good almost completely charged AGM deep cycle batteries, one 95Ah, and another 35Ah. Now with the same batteries connected it works as expected. Another issue... the thing smells, and it runs very warm. The odor is not of PCB material made of phenolic or fiberglass, an overheating flame resistant component, resist etch or wire covering (trust me I know these smells intimately having spent years troubleshooting assembly lines for IBM) it's something else... elusive. Maybe flux? Maybe flux wash? Whatever it is if you're sensitive to odors, leave this one alone, because I've had mine over two months and the smell has not gone away at all.
I figured that a small cooling fan would alleviate the heat, and smell, but the muffin fan I connected to the battery I was charging drew ~450 milliamps and dropped the charge state back to 60% from 70% while charging so I connected the fan to my spare 35Ah battery to force air over it, the result is the smell and case temperature dropped to bupkus. This indicates that the smell is either a natural evaporative process / out gassing of something left behind during manufacturing or an overly hot condition signalling an imminent component failure at some point.
At the Wal Mart regular $19 price it's a good deal but a bit scary at the same time. As it is, I would not trust mine in a hot environment to not self destruct. Ever Start would should do better job of evacuating the hot air from inside the case. I could offer my services in that regard
Would I buy another one? I just may to see if I got an odd one. If I found the same issues, I'd probably bring the second one back.
Up to this point, I certainly would not recommend it. If anyone else here has had one with different results I'd like to hear your observations.
PS, for a frame of reference, on my 95Ah battery when charge was started @12.2 volts (~60%) and it took 7 1/2 hours to charge it fully, not too bad. I don't use that battery any more on my boat so my little 35Ah batteries won't take hit with a big re-charge time, and I could use them the next day if I charged them overnight.
