On 04/24/2016 7:55 AM, Ignoramus7945 wrote:
I have a lot of things, most of which have batteries, and therefore I
have a lot of battery chargers.

My experience with them has been generally negative. The worst are the
so called "smart" chargers.

....

My question is, is my experience unique and atypical, or have you also
had bad experience with battery chargers....

Have lots of "things" here, too, but no real issues that can attribute
to the charger; the key imo is quality battery and maintenance to avoid
running them down in the first place (albeit I do _NOT_ have an electric
forklift or similar that relies on batteries for power; most is the
backup pump system on the manlift that runs off its battery).

Winter is worst when tractors and such don't get much use; do have a
couple of the solar trickle chargers to prevent them from discharging to
the point they can freeze...

Only batteries I have trouble with on a regular basis are the little
U-1's in the lawn tractor; and I've come to the conclusion that I think
they're just cheaply made. I finally bought a pricey Deere-branded
replacement for it a year ago and it's been somewhat longer-lived.

I guess I'd wonder why you're needing to charge externally so often;
I've something like 20 on a rough count not including the light trucks
and automobiles and don't have to charge anything but a few times a year
when I've neglected one as a rule...

The chargers are both just old, pretty inexpensive Schumacher (sp?) from
the farm supply and 30 yr old each at least, probably...

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On 04/24/2016 8:49 AM, dpb wrote:
....

The chargers are both just old, pretty inexpensive Schumacher (sp?) from
the farm supply and 30 yr old each at least, probably...

Which, just seeing your story of the golf cart, guess sorta' goes along
w/ the question/comment--these are far from "smart" chargers altho the
one does have a 3-way function switch on it for
"Conventional/Maintenance Free/Manual" which, afaict, does nothing...

I've never had one w/ any of the later firmware logic in it altho the
little cheapie solar maintenance chargers do I again don't know what it
actually does if anything. They do seem to work and don't boil 'em over
nor drain 'em altho I try to remember to not leave them for months on end.

The biggest issue I tend to have is the development of a leak current
somewhere in either the charging or starting system that will drain the
battery when off. The builtin alternator regulators are a prime
suspect/culprit--just had to replace the one on the little utility
tractor a week ago; it got where it would "stick". Turned out from
Deere the regulator alone was almost $300; a 3rd party new alternator
was under $75 since this little 3-cylinder Yamaha diesel was used in a
lot of gear there's a pretty good market...

Anyway, if there's a problem losing batteries, starting checking for
current leaks to see if there's another problem...

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