Battery Chargers??

What do you think of smart battery chargers? Are there any good ones? I need to bring back some dead 6V batteries.

The smart chargers I have seen are for 12 volt only. If you charge two batteries in series it MIGHT work. You could have one bad and one good battery. Then neither would charge right. I have not had much luck with smart chargers reviving any batteries.

Wallyworld has battery maintainers for around $20, at least that"s what I found a couple years ago. The one I have automatically senses whether it"s hooked to 6 or 12 volts. When the battery is charged it quits charging-- but it"s just a trickle charger to begin with. I rotate mine among a number of batteries, nice to know it won"t overcharge. If yours are "dead" there may be no coming back.

We use Schauer battery chargers at our volunteer fire dept (not sure which model number) that sense the amount of charge on the battery and completely shut off when not charging. I doubt they will bring a "bad" dead battery back but they will recharge a battery if it won't start the truck. (Does that make sense???) We have used them for about ten years with really good results. Before that we were having to replace batteries at least every couple of years. Yes, I know we could have prolonged that some with better maintenance but now our batteries last about six years. We have one over each bay. There are eight firetrucks. Like many small departments we may go a month without a call and then have to go all night for several days.

Ted,

I recently got two battery tenders frm TP Tools , they are right in your back yard (or at least nearby). One is their battery tender plus model (12v) and the other is the battery tender junior (6v). They have the smart functions mentioned here, are small and easy to handle as well as reasonably priced.

Check them out, I have used their products for a long a time. They ship quick.

(quoted from post at 16:17:32 03/24/13) What do you think of smart battery chargers? Are there any good ones? I need to bring back some dead 6V batteries.

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To reclaim batterys I always use a old type dumb charger - my experience with the automatic types is they will do their checks and then shut off. Come to think of it I don't have much luck with the dumb chargers on dead batterys either.

I recently bought ($26.99 @ O'Reilly Auto Parts) a Schumacher, Model SEM-1562A, 1.5 Amp Charger/Maintainer which has become my "go to" charger. It is fully automatic with multi-stage charging and float mode. It senses if the battery is 6 volt or 12 volt and I have had good results on both. My other automatic chargers seem to shut off before the battery is fully charged. This one specifys a maximum charge voltage of 14.8 (12V) and 7.4 (6V) and maintains at 13.3 (12V) and 6.6 (6V).

You have two chances of bring a lead acid battery back from the dead. Slim and none. Especially if it has been dead for a long time and subjected to freezing temps. Batteries, by design, have a short life. With proper care you will be lucky to get 5 years, a few people claim they get 10 years. Letting a battery go completely dead is not considered proper care.

I own a batteryminder charger 12248. It"s only 12v. Check out what it claims to be able to do. I have NEVER brought a battery back from the dead.

The only time I brought one back to life was many years ago, a 6 volt in a 51 Ford I had. I was using it just fine and it just went dead. I figured it had sulphated and shorted out in the bottom. So I dumped all the acid out, banged it around on the ground and washed it out over and over with a hose. Got new acid for it, added a little water to each cell, charged it up, and it ran for more than a year. I wasn't smart enough to know it wouldn't work.
Irv

I have found on machines that are not used during the winter months is to remove batteries and store them in the basement. Recharge a couple of times over the winter.
Don"t know if battery technology has improved the life or minimizing exposure to sub freezing temperatures with a low charge.

Anyway, this has helped me.

I've had several smart chargers and can't get bad batteries back.

Batteries in my cars don't seem to last more than about 3 years. I buy the premium quality from O'reilly auto parts and they warranty them 100%. I can get about 6 years before buying new. I'm in TX and my mechanic says the high heat and lots of electrical components on modern vehicles eat batteries.

I buy the cheapest 12v batteries for my tractors and have some that are 5-6 years old and still work. Same heat but they don't get used much.

I use Schumacher from ww. Just general purpose 10A auto and manual functions.

I had a friend that rejuvenated old batteries for used car lots. I bought several from him and they worked as well as anything else.

He said that what kills them is the sulphate in the bottom falls off the plates as scale, over time, and when the pile gets high enough it shorts out the plates.

He would wash them out with a pressure hose, refill with acid and charge them up. NOW THE ACTION PART.

He was an (out of work at the time) EE so he was no novice to electricity. His charging method was wholesale in that he would get a string of them and with a diode in series to generate DC, he would hook that string across a raw 115 volt line. Well most folks know that charging batteries generates a very violatile Hydrogen gas.

On one occasion he said he had been charging a string for several hours in his charging room and in doing what ever he was doing (I forgot) he accidentally knocked off one of the clips on a battery. BOOM!!!!! He said the only thing that saved his eyes were his spectacles. The rest of his face and neck got a good burning.

True story,
Mark