My all time favorite is my Sears 60/10/2 charger/maintainer from the 80's. I try not to work it to hard these days so I alternate between the CTEK Multi US 7002 for charging and the Delran Battery Tender Plus for topping off and maintanance.
Automotive Battery Charger Recommendation
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Originally Posted by xxch4osxx
Originally Posted by Trav
I have the Pro Logix PL2320 for a couple of years now and its been great. Napa has the 2310 on sale now, same unit just lower jump start amps.
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SORPL2310
I have the 2320 as well and it has worked great so far.
Another 2320 owner here as well. It's been fine for the most part, but lately I've seen it not wanting to charge my car battery at full speed (10A setting), despite the battery being heavily depleted. I can see the actual current being pushed is much lower (measured with clamp meter). And if I set it to 20A, it won't even attempt charging. I thought maybe it's an issue with my battery, but my NOCO G7200 charger can push full current to it while the Pro-Logix won't. There are quite a few reviews on Amazon stating that these Pro-Logix chargers don't last much past their warranty period.
![[Linked Image]](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4422/36757187090_43a4e2aaa5_o.jpg "[Linked Image]")
Originally Posted by Trav
I have the Pro Logix PL2320 for a couple of years now and its been great. Napa has the 2310 on sale now, same unit just lower jump start amps.
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SORPL2310
I have the 2320 as well and it has worked great so far.
Another 2320 owner here as well. It's been fine for the most part, but lately I've seen it not wanting to charge my car battery at full speed (10A setting), despite the battery being heavily depleted. I can see the actual current being pushed is much lower (measured with clamp meter). And if I set it to 20A, it won't even attempt charging. I thought maybe it's an issue with my battery, but my NOCO G7200 charger can push full current to it while the Pro-Logix won't. There are quite a few reviews on Amazon stating that these Pro-Logix chargers don't last much past their warranty period.
Originally Posted by Kruse
At the very least, take your old Schumacher apart and look at it. There's really not much to them, the biggest replacement parts would be the transformer and the diodes and you can repair them with cheap replacement parts.
The Scotch-Irish in me makes me want to give that a shot. I have found a parts source and a couple of on-line repair vids, we'll see.
Thanks everyone for the feedback!
At the very least, take your old Schumacher apart and look at it. There's really not much to them, the biggest replacement parts would be the transformer and the diodes and you can repair them with cheap replacement parts.
The Scotch-Irish in me makes me want to give that a shot. I have found a parts source and a couple of on-line repair vids, we'll see.
Thanks everyone for the feedback!
I have found it does some strange things with some batteries like not pushing full amps at the beginning or waiting a while to start charging then trying to recover the battery for quite a long time. That being said these batteries were discharged very low, one was not that old and it saved it, the other was old and it died a couple of weeks later.
Because it does a good job every time I cant condemn it for anything but I will keep an eye on it. My manual floor charger will push as many amps as you want in but its not very battery friendly.
Because it does a good job every time I cant condemn it for anything but I will keep an eye on it. My manual floor charger will push as many amps as you want in but its not very battery friendly.
Originally Posted by Trav
I have found it does some strange things with some batteries like not pushing full amps at the beginning or waiting a while to start charging then trying to recover the battery for quite a long time.
Right now I'm trying to charge the battery in my 530i. I set it to 10A. It started at 10A, but very quickly went down to about 1A and it's been pushing this low current for over 2 hours now... says charge level is at 57%. I can't figure it out, whether it's a wonky battery or the charger.
I have found it does some strange things with some batteries like not pushing full amps at the beginning or waiting a while to start charging then trying to recover the battery for quite a long time.
Right now I'm trying to charge the battery in my 530i. I set it to 10A. It started at 10A, but very quickly went down to about 1A and it's been pushing this low current for over 2 hours now... says charge level is at 57%. I can't figure it out, whether it's a wonky battery or the charger.
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Right now I'm trying to charge the battery in my 530i. I set it to 10A. It started at 10A, but very quickly went down to about 1A and it's been pushing this low current for over 2 hours now... says charge level is at 57%. I can't figure it out, whether it's a wonky battery or the charger.
What's the update on that over the last couple days?
Right now I'm trying to charge the battery in my 530i. I set it to 10A. It started at 10A, but very quickly went down to about 1A and it's been pushing this low current for over 2 hours now... says charge level is at 57%. I can't figure it out, whether it's a wonky battery or the charger.
What's the update on that over the last couple days?
Originally Posted by Garak
What's the update on that over the last couple days?
I couldn't continue charging much longer after I posted this, since I needed to use the car. Not sure if cold weather had something to do with it - it was around 30F at the time. I will try again this weekend hopefully - it should be above freezing.
What's the update on that over the last couple days?
I couldn't continue charging much longer after I posted this, since I needed to use the car. Not sure if cold weather had something to do with it - it was around 30F at the time. I will try again this weekend hopefully - it should be above freezing.
Tried it again today, while it was 40F outside. Battery was at 12.1V. The Pro-Logix estimated the battery was at 48%. It started at 10A, but almost immediately started ramping down to about 1A. Then I tried my Noco G7200 charger - it started ramping current up to about 5A, and then it stopped, and then restarted again, ramp up current, and stop. Weird.
Now, this battery is 5.5 years old and it was deep cycled before, so it's possible it's a problem with this battery.
Now, this battery is 5.5 years old and it was deep cycled before, so it's possible it's a problem with this battery.
Forgot to mention, the G7200 has a repair function that according to the manual pushes 16.5V to the battery for a period of time in order to reverse sulfation and stratification. Not sure how safe this is (don't want to cook the battery), but on the other hand, it might be worth a try since this battery appears to be on its last legs anyway.
I can get Schumachers basically for free, but I've bought 8 of these (or the version that was available at the time, the oldest of which is 20 years old, the newest is 1 week old) instead: Battery Minder
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Forgot to mention, the G7200 has a repair function that according to the manual pushes 16.5V to the battery for a period of time in order to reverse sulfation and stratification. Not sure how safe this is (don't want to cook the battery), but on the other hand, it might be worth a try since this battery appears to be on its last legs anyway.
My Ctek 4.3 manual says to run the recondition once a year or after deep discharge buy I've never done it, somewhat afraid to.
It also says frequent use of the recondition can cause water loss and reduce service life of electronics.
Forgot to mention, the G7200 has a repair function that according to the manual pushes 16.5V to the battery for a period of time in order to reverse sulfation and stratification. Not sure how safe this is (don't want to cook the battery), but on the other hand, it might be worth a try since this battery appears to be on its last legs anyway.
My Ctek 4.3 manual says to run the recondition once a year or after deep discharge buy I've never done it, somewhat afraid to.
It also says frequent use of the recondition can cause water loss and reduce service life of electronics.
It may be worth a try. It's had a bit of a hard life already. How's it behaving if you try to charge it after it's been used a bit (i.e. a bit of alternator charge and maybe a bit of heat getting into it)?
I tried the repair mode yesterday. According to the manual, it can take up to 4 hours. 5 hours later, it was still running. I shut it down as it was getting late and I did not want to leave it overnight. It looks like the charger was just pulsing low amounts of current. Voltage was around 13V.
Well, I guess it was worth a try, even though it didn't pan out.
Another update: I had the battery tested by AutoZone. They said the battery was good, but needed to be charged. It was at 60%, according to their tester. This was after I drove the car for over an hour that morning. Ambient temp: 33F.
How can the battery be "good", yet be at 60% SOC and refuse to take charging current in any decent amount?
How can the battery be "good", yet be at 60% SOC and refuse to take charging current in any decent amount?
What voltage is your charger seeking?
How many amps is it accepting at that voltage?
Not knowing these figures is like saying i need to get to spot x. But dont know where it is or how fast i will go to there. But the green light says i am already there.
The voltage you see after starting to he engine is not the same as once it warms up. Low voltage means few amps flow
How many amps is it accepting at that voltage?
Not knowing these figures is like saying i need to get to spot x. But dont know where it is or how fast i will go to there. But the green light says i am already there.
The voltage you see after starting to he engine is not the same as once it warms up. Low voltage means few amps flow
Originally Posted by wrcsixeight
What voltage is your charger seeking?
14.8V
Quote
How many amps is it accepting at that voltage?
1.5A
Doing some more reading into the owner's manual of my ProLogix 2320, the strange behavior I observed last week may have been the charger's attempt to remove sulfation (recondition mode). This time around, it's behaving normally, or more like it used to.
What voltage is your charger seeking?
14.8V
Quote
How many amps is it accepting at that voltage?
1.5A
Doing some more reading into the owner's manual of my ProLogix 2320, the strange behavior I observed last week may have been the charger's attempt to remove sulfation (recondition mode). This time around, it's behaving normally, or more like it used to.
Is this thing trying to drive you nuts intentionally? So, if the charger is behaving more normally now, is it actually getting it up to a full charge?
Originally Posted by Garak
So, if the charger is behaving more normally now, is it actually getting it up to a full charge?
Yup. Today it did.
So, if the charger is behaving more normally now, is it actually getting it up to a full charge?
Yup. Today it did.
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