Hey guys my old diehard battery charger crapped out on me. Looking to get a new one any thoughts on them. Looking for a bench top model.


Thanks Dan

 

I have a few of these and have been very happy with them for maintaining and charging batteries both 6V and 12V. I like that they automatically turn off when the sense they are done doing their work, so there is no chance of overcharging.

https://www.sears.com/diehard-batter...1&blockType=G1

 

I have one of these and it works great.
https://www.harborfreight.com/2815-a...ger-63299.html
I also have their big one on wheels.

 

 

 

Thanks for all the input

 

One more for the battery tenders. I bought a case of 6 and leave on year round (mowers, snowmobiles, atv, tractor, truck). They are awesome

 

I need to buy one also, I was looking at the one from HF that you have, Mixer. But I am thought I read on the box that it is not recommended for the gel type batteries ( Optima). I have 2 Optima batteries and love em. I know there is something about the Optimas that if they are fully discharged a standard battery charger won't sense that it is hooked to a battery ("thinks" it is not connected to anything). A car magazine had a article in it about hooking another battery up in series with a dead Optima to get it to charge, which does work as I had to do it once when the brake switch stuck and completely drained a Optima battery on my Cutlass. Anyway that charger is on sale for 29.99 with a coupon. Has anyone had experience with this issue?

 

Greg,
From Optima:
"An OPTIMA battery is an AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) battery, not a gel battery or regular flooded battery. A deeply discharged OPTIMA battery (less than 10.5 volts) will not test or recharge properly if treated as a gel battery or regular flooded battery.
....................under normal vehicle-starting applications, most regular automatic lead-acid battery chargers will properly charge an OPTIMA battery. However, since OPTIMA batteries are frequently used in high-performance applications or nonstandard vehicle-starting applications, there are certain instances that must be given special considerations."

When possible, I have Battery Tenders hooked up to all my equipment. Even the ones with SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) batteries.

 

That is correct, I used the wrong term you're right they are a AGM battery. I think I'll go to Harbor Freight and take another look at those chargers. Thanks for the info Bob.