Battery charger

[Griflog]

I'm fairly new to boat ownership, and I have a quick question. I have been looking for a reasonably priced battery charger, and have come across an ebay store selling these: 75 AMP. SCHUMACHER DIGITAL BATTERY CHARGER CAR BOAT RV #160218841635. Anyone ever heard of Schumacher? They are selling them for 8.99 plus 18.00 shipping. It's cheap, but will it work? Any thoughts?

 

[raekmike]

Re: Battery charger

grif,

Schumacher is a decent brand. It's been around quite awhile. Not the highest of quality but good for the price. I'm sure you'll get at least 5 years out of it and at that price thats pretty good. The main thing is it's a smart unit that's digitally controlled which that one is. If you can spend a little more I would recommend the Husky brand sold at home depot. It's around $60 and also has a desulfation feature to help keep the plates clean in the battery. It also has an internal fan to keep itself cool and get you longer life from the unit....

 

[drewpster]

Re: Battery charger

I looked at the ad and frankly I would be a little wary. I own a Shumacher charger. The one I have is one of Shumacher's "SpeedCharge" models. (WM1200A) It is decent little charger. I bought mine at Wally world a couple of years ago. It does an ok job if you have plenty of time to get a battery charged up. Shumacher needs to define their idea of "speed".
It works better than one of those old basic chargers we all used to use.
Shumacher says their chargers are "smart" in that they use a computer controlled step process to charge batteries. This may be true. I have had no problem in the way the charger works save one thing. The hook it up and forget feature of the charger is less than completely reliable. I have found mine showing a ERR message a few times after leaving it on a battery for an extended period.
In my opinion a marine onboard charger is the best way to go if you want a reliable charger/ maintainer for your boat. They are a little pricey, but far more reliable than the clip on el-cheapo chargers you can buy at wally world.

A good example

http://www.iboats.com/2_Bank_20_Amp_Charger_2620A/dm/*******.474554241--category_id.216583--**********.915249167--view_id.163755

 

[HONKER1]

Re: Battery charger

I've had a Shumacher charger for 30 years. I am sure the newer ones are better, but mine has serviced me well. I used it for my cars, boat starting batteries and my trolling motor batteries. But I recently retired it to cars only. I installed a 2-bank onboard charger for my boat batteries.
If you have just a starter battery on your boat, I assume your motor has charging capabilities, then maybe you don't need a onboard charger. But if you have more then 1 battery onboard you may want to reconsider you charger needs.

 

[KatDaddyJames]

Re: Battery charger

i dont know too much abouth the big chargers, but i own several of the little 1.5 amp charger/maintainers, use them for winter layup for the bike, mower, and use one year round on the car in the garage. i believe the oldest one i have is about 6 or 7 years old used it on a jet ski to begin with. have never had any problems with them...

James