After many years of faithful service my old Christie Battery Charger is finally giving up the ghost. I've ressurected it a time or two in the past. When the original old style plate diodes burned out I replaced them by using the rectifier bridge out of a GM alternator.

Anyway. Does anyone have a suggestion for a decent battery charger? What are you guys using? Its not one of those things I'll use on a regular basis but I'd like to have something decent without spending a fortune (famous last words, huh?

Thanks
Bobby

 

Bobby, I am using an old Schumacher Elect. 3 amp charger and like you would like to up grade to a larger unit. I like this old one as it still has the 6 V and 12 V setting. Good for troubleshooting and testing the 6 volt systems. Takes a while to charge a battery but gets the job done. I have been looking at the roll around models at Northern Tool and Sears. Kinda expensive but if it is anything like my old one, will out live me.

Gil

 

I got lucky, when my old charger died. I looked at the Sears flyer in the Sunday paper, and an upright (probably now obsolete) DieHard model 71231 [rotary dials for timer and power settings, the newer 71230 only has a toggle type switch]was on sale for 80.00. With my sears card it was another 10% off. I've been using it heavily ever since. Only caveate I have about it is the power cord doesn't like -30F weather.

 

Bobby; Look in you news paper for Industrial auctions and such. I bought a FLEET 100 amp Booster charger for $50 It will start a car or slow charge a 6v 12v 18v or 24v over night. It was used but works great.

 

I think I might try another band-aid on this old Christie. The thing is a million years old (well, maybe 40). I bought it in the early 80's from the Snap-On tool dealer who had taken it in as trade. Its an old stand up model with two dials; one for the timer and one for 6V/off/12V.

I looked around a bit today and I don't think I want one of those little hand held portable thingies...I want something with some ooomph!

Any electrical geniuses in the room? Either the internal circuit breaker is completely worn out or something in this things guts is drwaing to much juice. Everything turns on fine, but after a second or two of charging it clicks off.

Rusty, great idea on the ads, thanks

Bobby

 

Wow this is a timely post cause my charger did just the same thing this weekend. Turns on runs a second or two and clicks off. Mine is a Silver Beauty model 8266 and I hate to replace it as it has served me well over the years.It has 6v 12v 24v setting fast or slow and 300 amp cranking boost.If I knew what to look for I would have a try at fixing it. Hope some of you electrical gurus can help. Mark

 

Bobby,

I bought a Schumacher SC-1200A from amazon a few months ago and have
used it 2-3 times and think its great. It`s one of those electronic types.
Highly recommend it. It was on sale when I bought it. Check it out.

Gary

 

I bought a little El Cheepo Chicago at Harbor Freight. Mainly because my neighbor, that lyin', stealin', cheatin', Chebby Seller, Kurt Anderson, keeps borrowing it to power the winch on his trailor.

But, when I need to use it, it has a 6V 6A charge, a 12V 6A carge and a 12V 2 amp trickle charge for those over night slow charge things. It has auto shut off, is about 10"x 6" x 2" and was $17.95 (on sale)! It's small, inexpensive (if not disposable) and does all the jobs I need it to do while sitting on top of the tire.

 

I bought one of the cheapie Shumacher 2-10-50 amp from Wally World about 10 years ago and it's still going strong. It has been used extensively in my line of work.

 

I bought the small Die Hard charger from Sears. ($30) It maintains the battery without over charging it. I also bought the large roll-around model from HF. It was on sale for $85 bucks plus I used the 15% off coupon from their ad. It has the oumph to start a car either on 6 or 12 volt. So far I am very happy with both. Jag

 

Wow, lots of choices.

I guess I'll probably end up buying one of the smaller ones. I had to run out of town this week so I won't have a chance to tear the cover off my old Christie roll around. Hopefully I can patch it back together (again).

I guess one of the plusses for the smaller hand carry units is floor space. It would be one less thing to trip over in the garage

Bobby

 

Bobby, that's just an excuse to build a bigger garage.

 

Bobby,

Those old Chargers are fairly simple. It might be worth your while to have some analog local volt-head poke around on it with a Multi-meter. It may be something like a relay that is really cheap and easy to replace.

Then you can go another 40 million.........

 

Hey, just wondering what you ended up doing for a six volt charger? I used to have a B & D (Sears) 6 & 12 V years ago but I/m not sure were it ran off too, I dont think I will use it a lot so maybe just the $30 sears one would be fine for me, or maybe even the HF (Cringe) one?

Thanks

Josh

 

Josh,

So far I haven't done anything. I am a master at procrastination!

Its a combination 6V/12V charger. Right after I got the thing (years ago) it quit charging. I tore into it and found the old large plate diodes were burned out. I replaced them with the only diodes I had at the time. I took a rectifier bridge out of a GM alternator and wired the diodes into the charger. Woohooo, it worked great for about a decade. about 2 years ago I had to replace the rectifier bridge again...LOL

I think I'll tear it open and try my hand at putting a band aid on it as I can't bear to get rid of it. I'll probably alxo buy one of the small batter chargers with the maintainer option also.

Bobby