Battery Charger—Which one?

[jbratton]

Question for ya’ll,
Which battery charger do you guys recommend, not only for these cub cadet tractors, but also for a scooter battery, my truck, wife’s car, and other riding lawn mowers?
Appreciate the input.

 

[danderson]

Don’t know that there’s a one fits all. I have a 12 amp for regular batteries and a 2 amp for motorcycle style batteries.

 

[mgwin]

The lower the amp, the better the charge (easier on the battery). Anything around 2 amp or lower would be good on the smaller batteries.
It is kind of like driving a vehicle. If you press the gas pedal down some (2 amps), you will get there in a decent time and your vehicle will be fine. If you were to press it to the floor (12 amps), you will get there quicker, but your vehicle (battery) may not last long at that rate.

 

[kharvey]

I have a 2/10/50amp boost charger. Had it for years, works for me.

 

[jbratton]

The lower the amp, the better the charge (easier on the battery). Anything around 2 amp or lower would be good on the smaller batteries.
It is kind of like driving a vehicle. If you press the gas pedal down some (2 amps), you will get there in a decent time and your vehicle will be fine. If you were to press it to the floor (12 amps), you will get there quicker, but your vehicle (battery) may not last long at that rate.

Explained very well. I appreciate that!

I have a 2/10/50amp boost charger. Had it for years, works for me.

Thanks for sharing! I will look for that!

 

[snicklas]

I don't necessarily have a brand to recommend, but Schumacher is a good brand.

One thing I've found, I would recommend having a "dumb charger" around. I have, well had since it has recently failed, a small portable "lunchbox" sized charger. It was an off brand I bought at Sam's Club years ago, but I have seen the exact same one marked under the Black & Decker name, and I have the large "dumb" welder looking/sized charger from Hazard Fraught.

The "smart" charger, if the battery was "really dead" (I don't know the actual voltage, I didn't measure it) the smart charger will throw an error code and not charge the batery. The same battery, I connected to my big dumb charger, set it on the 2 amp setting (it will do 2/10/40/200 start, powerful enough to boost start my diesel) and let it charge for ~30 minutes. I kept an eye on it, and had it sitting right outside the garage door, just in case. It took that 2 amp trickle. After the ~30 minutes, I connected the smart charger and it took over and fully charged the battery. One of the nice things about the smart charger, is it charges until it's fully charged, not just on, or with a timer. So it's nice to just connect the charger and let it go. They will also do a float charge once it's charged (similar to a battery tender we use on our Cubs). But, during that float is when mine failed, and it I didn't realize it immediatly. I had bought a new set of batteries for my Diesel Excursion. When I buy new batteries, I will fully charge them before putting them into service. I installed them, hooked up my smart charger and went inside. I went back out the next night, and noticed the charger was still running, and one battery had some liquid on top of it. I disconnected the charger, unplugged it, and then reconnected, and it went right back to they was it was, instead of going almost immediately to "full". The way I figured it out, I connected the charger to my daily driver pickup. It had been running for over an hour shortly before I connected to the battery. If did the same thing it had on my Excursion, which is how I figured out it failed. I will always have a dumb charger, since they are just that, turn it on, and it give 12 volts, can be used for testing 12 volt stuff. A smart charger will not supply voltage unless it's "happy" with the battery it sees........ just my experience.

Also, with any battery charger, read the instructions. One complaints with the Hazard Fraught charger I have, that I've read in the reviews, is it's junk, it burned up the first time I used it. I hooked it up, set it to 200 amps, hit the key and it burned up. If you read the manual, it says to connect it, set it to 200 amps, and let it run for 5 minutes before attempting to start. I have always done this, and never had and issue.

 

[mgwin]

There are many chargers to choose from. Probably any one would work.
I have a Vector Smart Charger 2/6/12 amp, but as Scott stated, it has to "like" the battery.
I have a Sears Diehard 2 amp charger which is the "dumb" charger I use when I have a stubborn/very low battery.
I also have a Battery Tender 1.25 amp "smart charger" that works very well if the battery is "liked." This one was pretty expensive compared to the rest.
And lastly, I have a couple of Rayovac 6/12 volt chargers that have alligator clips. These only put out 800 ma. I use these on my smallest batteries which go in my deer feeder, and trail camera. You could use this type of charger on a garden tractor battery, but you would have to let it charge for a few days.
The smaller the battery, the smaller the amp charge needs to be.
We have electric equipment at work with batteries in excess of 3000 lbs. These batteries are charged with chargers dishing out over 150 amps!

 

[zkoester]

I've got two of these Noco and I like them. Works on my farmall H 6v and everything else I have.

 

[tnewman]

I just put a battery in my 1650 out of a motorized wheel chair and l had no problem with it at -30 C for starting any time and has been in for 3yr as l live in northern Ontario.

 

[Beltrack]

Agree with the above. I use Battery Tender brand as my low amp smart charger. It is best as a maintenance charger. For instance, I killed the battery on my 109 Cadet recently and the Tender light took 24 hours to turn to green. I put it on my F-250 truck that was going to be left sitting for a few months. It took 18 hours to turn green. That was a good battery in daily use. Now, I imagine that a lot of that time was due to the onboard computers constantly drawing a little at all times (in other words, if the battery had been disconnected, the green light would’ve come on a lot sooner).

Having bored you with that, I’ll finish by saying that I’d not be without a high amp Schumacher for when I need a dead battery brought back NOW.

 

[jbratton]

I've got two of these Noco and I like them. Works on my farmall H 6v and everything else I have.

Appreciate your feedback! I’ll check them out!

Agree with the above. I use Battery Tender brand as my low amp smart charger. It is best as a maintenance charger. For instance, I killed the battery on my 109 Cadet recently and the Tender light took 24 hours to turn to green. I put it on my F-250 truck that was going to be left sitting for a few months. It took 18 hours to turn green. That was a good battery in daily use. Now, I imagine that a lot of that time was due to the onboard computers constantly drawing a little at all times (in other words, if the battery had been disconnected, the green light would’ve come on a lot sooner).

Having bored you with that, I’ll finish by saying that I’d not be without a high amp Schumacher for when I need a dead battery brought back NOW.

Thanks for the information. Appreciate it

 

[jbratton]

There are many chargers to choose from. Probably any one would work.
I have a Vector Smart Charger 2/6/12 amp, but as Scott stated, it has to "like" the battery.
I have a Sears Diehard 2 amp charger which is the "dumb" charger I use when I have a stubborn/very low battery.
I also have a Battery Tender 1.25 amp "smart charger" that works very well if the battery is "liked." This one was pretty expensive compared to the rest.
And lastly, I have a couple of Rayovac 6/12 volt chargers that have alligator clips. These only put out 800 ma. I use these on my smallest batteries which go in my deer feeder, and trail camera. You could use this type of charger on a garden tractor battery, but you would have to let it charge for a few days.
The smaller the battery, the smaller the amp charge needs to be.
We have electric equipment at work with batteries in excess of 3000 lbs. These batteries are charged with chargers dishing out over 150 amps!

Thanks for sharing. With all these responses, I feel comfortable of what I need and look for. Thank you all.