Schumacher Electric Fully Automatic Car Battery Charger & Engine Starter - 6V / 12V Battery Charger & Maintainer - for Standard, AGM, Gel & Deep-Cycle Batteries - Reverse Hook-Up Protection - SC1281

Bought this as a Prine Day deal on a whim. Turns out I needed it just a few days later. Works great and diagnosed my battery very quickly. Easy to use and automates most features.

Just received my new charger a few days ago and it works pretty much as advertised. Based on some reviews I expected it to be rather loud but, while you can certainly hear the fan, it’s no worse than a PC case fan and not a bother at all in my shop. The unit itself is solid with good leads and decent clamps. The display is great with bright and easy to read LEDs although I haven’t tried it in direct sunlight yet. The lead storage hooks on the back should be a larger with a place to lock the clamps on but it’s better than my previous charger that had no storage at all. Although I haven’t used them yet the jump start and alternator test modes should be useful.The one complaint I have is really with the instructions. The charger is advertised as being compatible with deep-cycle marine/RV batteries and it is but neither the manual nor Schumacher website give any information on what settings to use for them. The settings are limited to Standard, AGM, and Gel with no specific deep-cycle choice. My previous charger, a very old analog Schumacher, had a two position switch, one for a standard battery (labeled SLI for starter, lighting, instrument) and the other position for deep-cycle but this one doesn’t. The manual has a convenient description of standard (wet cell), AGM, and Gel battery types but only mentions that AGM and Gel batteries are often deep-cycle while failing to mention that many deep-cycle batteries (including my own) are standard wet cells.So, what selection is best for wet-cell deep-cycle batteries? Schumacher’s answer is to use the AGM setting for all deep-cycle batteries including wet, AGM and Gel. Seems that it would be a simple addition to their manual and they might also want to consider changing the control to read AGM/Deep-Cycle.BTW, be careful of answers provided on Amazon. I received three answers (so far) to the question about deep-cycle batteries I posted, each different. One correctly identified AGM as the appropriate setting but another said Std and the third claimed it was all automatic. The charging process is fully automatic but the charger does not automatically identify the battery type. I checked this with three different types of batteries I had on hand. Each time the charger correctly identified the battery voltage but defaulted to AGM and 30amp charging regardless of the actual type of battery (Std, AGM, or Gel) or initial charge so be sure to correctly set the battery type and your desired charge rate. The default to 30amp/AGM is mentioned in the manual so there is nothing wrong with my charger. The charger does automatically transition to charged/maintaining mode once the battery is charged.The other possible issue I have is that when I started to charge an AGM battery at 6/2 amps the display showed it as being 79% charged. After about 15 minutes of charging that progressed to 80% and then 81% when it suddenly jumped to 100% and the charger went into charge/maintaining mode. According to Schumacher the big jump was typical but she couldn’t explain why so I’m not sure if the battery is 100% charged or if it’s actually only 81%. I’ll see when I actually get around to using it.

This is so easy to use, My Husband ha a stroke and can't do much anymore, so it is up. to Me, I love this charger ir works great, was easy for me to charge My MDX the size is easy for anyone to pick up and carry and to charge any battery for a long life off charge. All people should have one , You never know when it is needed

Works well, as advertised. Decent price. Lightweight and compact. Auto charge and quick charge are both nice features. Easy to read and tell charge state and when finished trickle mode. Cables and cord long enough to have some distance from battery being charged. Good brand, hopefully it lasts a long time.

No problems with it, with so many functions, I had to read through the owners manual. I put it on my lawn mower the night I got it, and monitored it, saw it was charging, by morning the battery was full and it was in maintain mode. The box was pretty beat up, but I brought a “used, like new one” so I figured that may be the case. The unit itself works great though.

Reliable results from a trusted name. Worked like a charm, fully charged my almost dead battery back to life.

Extremely dangerous battery charger. This charger is in BOOST mode by design when it is first turned on. I was disappointed and worried to see this when I first used it but of course I selected the lowest setting to gently charge the battery. I walked away and although I didn’t know it at the time, the electricity momentarily went off and came back on. This resulted in the charger beginning again in BOOST mode which within a short time made my battery explode. I heard a loud explosion, found the mess and noticed later that the electricity had blinked off in the house and shop as evidenced by the clocks losing their settings. If I had been standing by the vehicle, I could have been blinded. Before someone thinks I did something wrong, I assure you I did not. I’ve used battery chargers for decades having spent much of my working career as a professional mechanic and as a drag racer and engine builder. It took a stupid engineer to design a battery charger that boosts by default upon startup. The vehicle the battery exploded in was my tractor and thankfully not a car with shiny paint. Still, I had a mess and I still have no paint and a rust and corrosion problem even though I did my best to neutralize the acid. Again, the battery charger was connected correctly and I immediately switched it from boost to the lowest amperage setting which is where a charger should begin by default, NOT on boost! I finally got to speak with a person at Amazon after much wasted time and effort and was told there was nothing he could do. After much conversation, I told him I would then proceed to seek damage compensation whereupon he claimed to have asked for and received an ok to grant me a refund. I bought this charger in good faith because it is a well known brand and I trusted Amazon to gladly refund or replace if necessary. I was wrong on both counts. I will never place an order for another battery charger but will instead try one out in a store or buy one in a store and test it to be sure it doesn’t come on in boost mode. If it does, at least I can return it before I use it. Be safe, people. Some products are engineered with stupidity even if they are well known brands. Also, I always try to buy American and union made products but we can’t trust anything. I would rather give it a negative number of stars. It doesn’t deserve one. Good luck and try to be safe.