Why ALL Automotive Battery Chargers Suck
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
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Old ones, good.... new ones, bad..... Why is that such a recurring theme these days????
Made in china, company profits over quality tools or products. Back in the day there was no such thing as a warranty , didn't need one, things just lasted. Nowadays 1 year limited warranty on everything. Limited means your screwed!
Planned obsolescence and price point engineering.
Its the safety sallys..
Open it up and bypass the "safety/ auto" switch.... It will stop turning it off... You can no longer hook it up and walk away over night after doing this, but it won't turn off anymore. I've done it to many of them. Your incoming power line just needs to tie directly to the transformer and you're good to go... but again, no more auto shut off, so you just have to keep an eye on it as you use it. But it won't ever turn off, and that's a good thing.
@@mitchdenner9743 and that's a fact.
Two words Planned Obsolescence
I was fortunate enough to help an older gentleman close out his industrial diesel shop probably ten years ago now. The fella's name was Otto, that was his first name and he and his brother, Thorsten immigrated from Sweden many many years ago. His brother went into farming and did very well for himself and Otto opened his diesel shop and also did incredibly well for himself.
As the day went on cleaning out the shop everything that I showed any interest in, Otto would say in his still thick swedish accent, "load it up, it's yours." He was so incredibly generous that I felt bad because I felt as though I was taking advantage if I showed any interest beyond that point. He was adamant, as was his daughter, who was there, that they were happy to be this generous.
Anyway, I was hauling things out and Otto came over carrying what I thought was a battery, it was a battery charger. He said, "it's old and every man worth his salt, needs an old battery charger! You'll understand one day young man!"
That old battery charger, as near as I can tell was made in the late fifties or early sixties and has outlasted many newer "better" chargers. I was fairly young the day he handed me that charger and Otto has passed on but I completely understand now what he meant by "every young man needs an old battery charger."
They wouldn't let me pay for anything so we came to the agreement that I would donate a couple hundred pounds of dog food to the animal shelter, which I did gladly. Otto loved dogs.
God bless him. When tools are made right, they last more than a lifetime.
@@52Ford great story!!............good tools make the hands stronger.
Love this story. I wish more people would share stories like this.
NOT READING ALL THIS TRAD TARD
So Awesome! You are a good person. He obviously had a good deal of respect for you. I have to say that when you made the daughter statement I was thinking this was going to be another farmer "don't sleep with my daughter joke". I like your story better. Best wishes!
I have a 50 year old Marquette charger that has thousands of service hours. Still going strong. No fancy electronics just lots of power. It has even been used to jump start fire trucks and commercial equipment, And no you can't have it. LOL
Associated equipment makes good chargers. None of that fancy new stuff. Old school transformer based
100% Agreed
Steven, I would look at garage sales for an "old 1970’s commercial battery charger" made in the USA
Any charger with electronics in it will not do what you want it to. As a few have said, check garage sales, etc for "vintage " chargers.....they just work better.
Good luck Steven.
Yes sir, I agree British made, japanise, German or USA / Canada are good, olde school,
We used this charger at my last shop. Built to last. Could bring most "bad" batterries with its automatic mode. Has the low voltage override switch. It can de-sulfate a battery by hitting it with quick bursts of high amperage. Very slick.
I have one of the old-school chargers. The only problem is the windup charge timer doesn't work. It will bring any battery back to life or it will melt it down in the process. It has old-school fuses inside that occasionally blow when all things go wrong. It's ancient technology and I love it! Take care Stephen!
Sounds like it's time to contact *Project Farm* and work some shameless plugs...
Posted link directly to this remark
I have a very vintage Matco battery charger probably 30 years old it has bounced out of the back of my truck bounced down the road hit by a car and still working not pretty anymore but works great
Everything has gone plumb to hell, nothing is built worth a darn anymore!!!
You right, cheap made stuff everywhere, thing is manufacturers don't care about reputation any more just the all mighty dollar.
Noco G26000, been using mine a few years now in a dealership. Its 26 amp long charge with a 30 amp boost for starting after 10 minutes or whatever. For testing electrical issues it's great for keeping a battery charged well running cooling fans or fuel pumps but not overcharging. It has a power supply mode that for a completely dead battery will bring it up to a voltage you can then switch it to the intelligent charge mode and recover batteries that show 2-3 volts. The power supply mode will put out voltage without any voltage sense, you can run a smoke machine off it vs having to have a car battery inline. And it's small enough you can throw it under a hood and lift the car on the hoist with it plugged in and charging the whole time.
I bought a Snap On back in the early 80's, 80 amp charge, 550 amp boost, rated for outdoor use, you can set it under a waterfall and charge a battery. Last time I tried to use it the cooling fan didn't come on and I haven't torn into it yet, it also has a switch my BIL broke off but overall I love it and wouldn't use another. When I bought it I was told it was their largest 12 volt, next size up was 24 volt.
Many years ago I helped build a start cart for a shop. It had a similar, but 1990's tech charger and a MB88 Interstate battery on it. We used a marine battery switch to select A(the charger to the leads), B(battery to the leads) or Both, which allowed us to do the start charging a really dead battery and to charge the MB88 in the bottom. This was great because the back of the lot was a good 600' from an outlet. You don't want to know how heavy 600' of 20A extension cord is! We used a white oak 1x2 to store the clamps and 2G wire. The base was made by welding on to a $20 hand truck and we finished it off with a dunebuggy flag so we could find it when someone inevitable started a car in back and left the cart back there. We put heavy duty pipe insulation on all the exposed metal that could hit the side of a car. Later on we added a starter, battery and alternator tester from Snap-On and a trickle charger for the MB80 and a light so we could see from across the shop if the trickle charger was plugged in for the night. This served a shop with about 50 techs, and in the 3 or 4 years I was there it never failed except for one time due to someone who didn't understand they had to plug it in and select Both on the battery switch to charge it at night.
I 100%agree iv had several chargers (all junk) i am now using a 25 year old charger I bought from a yard sale works perfect every time.
Haven't had too many issues from my Rally Smart Charger... bought it a few years ago in the liquidation section of Princess Auto on a trip to Canada. Only issue is that if the battery is completely flat, it marks it as "bad" and won't charge it (like you mentioned). That's why I have a schumacher analog unit that doesn't care about such (slow to charge, but will at least charge it enough to swap to the other charger). I don't use my stuff nearly as often as you do though, so probably not a fair comparison.
The mechanic in town is always repairing those big chargers for the local auto shop school. He says it is easy money 💰 and quick fixes. Didn't say what the problems were with them.
The problem is, they're junk!
Thermal fuse on transformer typically goes on these. I repaired a bunch of them as well.
I have a Solar brand charger (all metal) from 1988 on wheels with jump start feature my Dad picked up at some parts store. Still going strong but 2 years ago I bought a Solar Pro-Logix from the advice of a buddy. It has been really good and saved a bunch of batteries for me so far so I’d say they are worth a shot.
I bought an old little crap of a charger 20yrs ago at a pawnshop, I'm still using that crap of a charger even when its been forgotten in the rain, I thought I overpayed for it at the time, well worth my $20 bucks..
I have a small charger from I want to say the 80s. It's a small rectangle metal box with a needle for voltage and a switch for 2 amp 10 amp and that's it. It has always worked I can touch the clamps together to get a spark. The only problem it's getting rusty.
I have one of the older Schumacher cart chargers. It's all metal with the simple mechanical knobs. Goes from 5 amps to the jump start setting 250 or 350 I can't remember. Bought it new in 2004 and it's still going strong. Gets a lot of farm use on tractors, pickups etc. Those little portable "lunchbox" chargers I've had no luck with regardless of brand.
Associated fleet charger made in St. Louis USA
If I had the money back from the chargers I bought before my associated, I would buy a second associated.
The worst one I ever had was a Century I got at Sams Club in the late 90s. This thing did 6 and 12 had both polarities ect. After it quietly destroyed my plane , boat, tractor and 2 car batteries discretely in 6 months I tossed it never knowing what it was doing . I suspect it was switching polarity but who knows. In the end I grabbed a Schumacher like the one in the video and it lasted me many years. Finally too many drops did the case in beyond gluing.
Today I’m back to my 1981 Sears I’ve had all along. It still works. 2 years ago I bought a CTEK rejuvenator trickle charger. It does all sorts of magical things to knock the sulphation off the plates. Makes my batteries last foreverrrrrrr🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥. Well on old weaker ones they get about 🤞🏻 a year more life I guess......... I’ve started running it whenever I think to say 2-4 x a year on my newer cars boat mowers ect. The jury is still out but I’m still thinking it’ll be another year maybe more. Worth the $75 yea sure as I needed something that wouldn’t fry my lawnmower batteries like the Sears could. Otherwise it’s slow which is the best way to charge batteries .
its simply a relay inside many of the cheaper ones. the batteries voltage holds the relay on fully energizing the output wires.
on at least n the harborfreight "10/2/50A 12v Manual Charger" you can modify the charger with a switch to override the relay contacts, to have it provide power at all times, if you want to be safe flip a switch to disable it
yep, andrew camarata does just this on a recent video
@@cyoungso that is actually where i learned it from lol
Another thing is the cords may as well be lamp cord
Get a Noco charger. They are very good. I will not purchase a Shoemaker charger. Several failures in the past.
I've got the Noco 4.4 amp 4 bank charger. I've got multiple extensions and ends for it so I can connect to multiple pieces of equipment at the same time. It's not the fastest but, it is the best battery charger I've ever had. I've revived multiple batteries with it to extend their life.
@@flash1259 I think they make some with higher charging rates but the one like you have is kind of a maintainer for batteries that set idle a lot.
@@davidmorse8432 It is slow but, it will charge a dead battery. I've used it to extend the life of multiple batteries that I normally would have to replace. Overall it's one of the best battery chargers I've had. I did have a good diehard smart charger. It was my fault that it went bad. I would forget about it and leave it in the rain. It was the $300 Diehard smart charger.
@@flash1259 The NOCO I have only puts out 750 mA but it works real good on those AGM batteries. I think I will get another one that will put out at least 20 amps. For charging my bigger batteries.
We use an associated battery charger at work for our fleet has not let me down once made in the USA only thing it's not cheap but at -40 Celsius or Fahrenheit in winter it's great to have
I avoid electronic chargers for all the reasons you mention. I like big rotary switches and heavy chargers. Had great luck with Vulcan, Associated and Solar Chargers. If you have to have an electronic model, Midtronics are the best I've used.
Midtronics is made by Exide. Good equipment.
Try one of the Black & Decker battery chargers that I found at Home Depot. I bought one for about $60. I tried it out on a project Jeep ZJ that I kept at my daughters house. Between times that I would play with the Jeep. The voltage would drop to 0-10 volts. I would select the battery conditioning option. Let that run for an hour. Then switch to charge for an hour. Then I could start the Jeep. I was trying to figure out where the power loss was. The battery was new. And if I left it with the battery disconnected after a charge. I could come back a month later. Connect the battery, and the Jeep would start fine.
I bought a second one for another vehicle I store. But drive around once in a while.
I was in this same situation 8 years ago until I purchased a $600 dollar Snap On Battery Charger as a Full Time Mechanic. Works great for me all these years, does 12 Volts and 24 Volts too. Standard batteries are used most of the time, it also does AGM and Gel Cell. Trickle charge and all that good crap. I'm not sure if Snap On still sells it or not but the part number is EEBC400F. I've called Napa sales person in my area and just really never upgraded because my Snap On one still works!!
I have 2 very basic chargers with a power level and a timer dial and that’s it. They work flawlessly for years
I do have 2 Battery chargers for years in use and both work like a champ and never failed me.
Schumacher SE-4225 is a beast and charging with it weekly Car's and Truck batteries no problem even up to 200AMP direct charge to start an engine no problem.
I use a vintage battery charger to get the voltage high enough for my modern fast charger to finish the job. The vintage all metal battery chargers seem to last a lifetime but often do not have the fast charge option. It's stupid that I have to use two chargers to get the job done.
Get an associated 6002b charger. We have one at work that dates to the 70s and hard telling how many tractors and combines it has started. It gets used like 3 times a day everyday on the dealer lot. The ones they make today look identical. I hope they are the same and just as good!
Hearin' ya brother,
They are crap,the old 1950's one's are great.
I think ALL digital "smart" chargers are garbage. Went through two of them and finally found a manual charger with a 2/10/25 amp switch, an ON/OFF switch and an acid/AGM switch. It simply works every time.
I bought a Schumacher PSC2030T ProSeries a few years ago, very compact heavy duty charger , all metal construction. Hasn't skipped a beat.
This is funny! I bought a little 3-amp 12 volt charger from Sears sometime on the '50s--the cheapest one they offered. I clamp it on, listen for the hum, and leave it overnight. I keep wanting one of these new fancy chargers, but this one just won't give up.
If it works more than a day or two, you can always take to back cover off and put some nuts and washers on those wheel bracket screws to secure it better.
About that voltage cutoff for newer chargers, some of them will have a bypass so you can charge a battery with low voltage. The parts store that I work at just got a new 4 way trickle charger a couple months ago. I had one battery that had almost no voltage (somewhere around 0.5V) that the charger just refused to charge, and I couldn't do the trick with the jump box because both set of clamps wouldn't fit. I ended up finding out that holding the start button for a few seconds bypasses the 1V low cutoff. I still agree that the new chargers suck though. We had used one of the schumacher 10 amp chargers off the shelf when our big charger had bad cables, and that thing quit after a month or so.
I got the NOCO battery charger G26000 a about 2 years ago and It has been working great for a battery charger. It will take longer then other battery chargers to charge the battery but I feel it will do a better job and is safer for the battery. As for jumping cars and trucks off I use a NOCO GB70 for jump starts.
Most batteries only want six amps or less. More than six amps for most batteries is damaging. IMO that charger is huge & I'll stick with my CTek 7002. IDK the best jump-starting option for huge trucks but it may be more reliable to use dummy/spare batteries on a cart.
I bought one from harbor freight 10 years ago and it is still working !!
Brother Cox I got an older one a Napa I got from a friend over 10 years ago and it has gave me no problems at all it's been left out in the rain you name it I wish you the best of luck with this one my friend
In my experience as long as your 7.3 and 6.0s batteries are full when you go to prime, the batteries alone are more than enough to get them started. Only time I ever needed a battery charger was when it had 1 bad or both bad batteries the customer refused to replace. I put a 6.7 starter and new battery cables on my 7.3l so it cranks super fast and gets primed extremely quickly when I have the oil system apart. Even when it sits for a month or two, it primes and starts in 3 or 4 seconds. When I've tried to start them after sitting on other trucks it'll take almost a full 15 second crank cycle to build enough oil pressure
I only ever seem to work on 7.3's with batteries that are older than Betty White.
@@StephenCoxfixit oh I worked in orange county California so it was a bunch of rich snotty people that "cant afford" new batteries until they can 30 minutes later
Noco , i got a charger/maintainer on my John Deere 2130 , x360 and a Chevy Surban, but were machanics go wrong , especially when working trucks and heavy equipment , they need a charger at also act like a power supply to vheicale
My old Sears charger works great and I bought it 2nd hand.
My roll around battery charger is about 4 years old. But it’s a manual charger. Not an electronically controlled one. I love it and use it consistently.
Snap on battery charger is only $800 and get a promo and more like $650-700. They are awesome and well worth the money. Great for flashing as well. Definitely one tool that’s worth paying the money for.
For 200, you can get the 70 amp converter charger from Progressive Dinamics , I mounted one in my boat a year ago , and has been working 24/7 since that . Is 3 stage charger , and like pc PSU size .
I have had the same battery charger for 40 years....still working great
I used to have a really old, but good one! It just disappeared one day sadly
Just bought a new battery charger used it once. Had to return it and got another one. It's similar to the one you have in video. I bought it at O'Reilly's. And it does not have the sensor of low battery
LCD screen goes out and everything else will follow I just threw one a few days ago ... I feel your pain
I'm with you. None of these newer battery chargers work well. Best to find an old school, simple charger that is in good shape.
in most cases with a healthy battery if you hook up an old school charger to the battery and it puts out say 100amps the battery will only draw what it wants. in most cases that will be no more than 10 amps (depending on the size of the battery). you cannot force 100 amps in to a battery that does not need it, unless it is shorted.
I got an old Craftsman charger at a yard sale 7 years ago! I wheel it around the garage and it works great! This new stuff is horrible!
Andrew Camarata circumvented that voltage regulation from normal battery charger in one of his recent videos 👍
Do you have the link to that video or the title? I looked on his channel but I couldn't find it.
th-cam.com/video/5olpi3NbLzs/w-d-xo.html @10:30
@@jsmith1156 Thanks, you're awesome 👍
@@jsmith1156 thanks. I didn't have time to look up that video.
Andrew is a whiny douchbag
Thanks. All modern battery chargers tend to be SMARt types. They have condition sense, voltage change and current change, comparator sensors, last but not least they use micro controlers . All of these parameters compete and often result in no charge current. All you need is a transformer rectifier and a kitchen timer and if that does not work you dump the battery.
Don't know if you can find one but look for a used Sun Electric charger. My dad's old automotive shop used one for 22 years and when he retired he brought it home and used it for another 10 years until he left it out in the rain for a week.
Yes get you a snap on charger I’ve had it for a year and love it. I bought it after my Napa brand one gave up the ghost after 10 years and I bought two more that didn’t last two months.
I've got a schumacher. It's 10 years old. It works still. Must have got a dud 😂 it jump starts, with three charging modes.
The reason modern battery chargers don't charge dead batteries is the fact that the cheap electronic diodes they install in them at the factory need a certain level of voltage/current to turn on if the battery is already discharged below that point it does not turn on to start to charge. A work around I've used is to connect another good battery with a charge of at least 6 volts still left in it and the same voltage capacity in parallel with it to get the charger charging after a few minutes disconnect the good battery. This is not to be done unless you fully upstander what you doing. Red to red or plus and black to black or minus sign.
The best one we have found hands down. Costly but we use them out in the field and hold up great. No fancy buttons. You set it to do what you want and leave it.. Associated 6002B Battery Charger
CTek or Telwin for me!! Also I got some ancient huge heavy station, working great! But had to move on because.. times changes and new batteries are strict with new charging tecnlogies : (
My shop has had that Napa charger for about 2 years and so far so good
I have a 1976 Craftsman 6/12/24-volt battery charger. It has trickle charge, and four additional charge positions as well as a jumpstart mode. It is controlled by a mechanical timer. It is made of steel. My “friend” used it years ago and accidentally had it connected to a screwdriver and melted the screwdriver, when he turned it to jumpstart. It still works fine! The NAPA store I shopped at knew my friend and always said he could break an anvil with a rubber mallet.
I guess I am lucky to have gotten a good one back then. We had a body shop and garage. We rebuilt motors and transmissions, so we used the charger a lot! I don’t remember what I paid for it but I don’t think it was more then one hundred. I do still have my snap-on MIG welder purchased about the same time period, and it still works fine.
Buy an associated have had one for several years in a shop environment great chargers
They seem to be fairly popular on Garage Journal, downside is cost - most of their models seem to be in the $600 range...
I second the associated recommendation that's what they used at the farm I worked at they're a great product and take a beating!
The mac tools battery charger works amazing. Dont have to get the mac branded one either. Been in a our shop for probably 2 years now and works good
Check on that century charger I had one that did that where it would kick in and off. What the problem ended up being is the internal automatic breakers when bad. They burned up and tripped excessively easy.
Nothing beats a friendly neighbor and a set of jumper cables 🙋🏻♀️ . Once you add up the cost of all the pieces of garbage you tried your better off Getting the big expensive one $1,500 snap on !
I just threw one of those away with the Scumacher label on it after about 14 months, what a pile! Third Schumacher in 5 years, I'm done with Schumacher. The screws fell out of the handle and you have to take the cover off to get to them and it quit charging the other day. Threw it straight into the scrap bin.
I bought the smart tech one off Amazon and it tops my battery at 79% but doesn't go into maintaining mode/ charged even tho it's not charging past 79% and it's been charging on the 6/2 amp setting for almost 3 hrs?
Well scratch Schumaker off the potential sponsorship list.
Looks like a fairly good unit. Does it have a de-sulfate function ? Thanks JwgK
Look UP GYS battery chargers they done some fantastic chargers that will recover totally flat battery's as well as doin battery maintainer units this will allow you to keep the key on without the battery going flat
I had gotten that same style charger, I think from nothern tool, and it was pretty decent. Even left in the rain twice and it still worked. Did break the front plastic foot tho. I keep a noco genius charger in my service truck that someone gave me, works ok. Doesn't put out enough amps for trucks and equipment tho, slow charge, 26amps
I have big heavy duty Schumacher that does trickle, regular, and even 75 amp jump. Has a nice gauge on front and it must be 15 years old. We use on all of our Town Cars and such in the fleet. But it is big like your new NAPA charger. It should give you many happy years of service.
I build my own chargers with microwave tranformers, ac to dc diode, and few other parts. New ones are built to keep from burning up a battery, but not for desulfating batteries.
Idk if you have a Thisens down there (similar to tractor supply) but I’ve had similar issues with chargers and that were I got the one I have now. Three years so far with no issues metal case physical switches same price range as the Napa can’t remember the brand name
From what I understand the "sensing" is to prevent shorting out the clamps.
Not sure how truthful that is.
I had the same luck as you 3 store bought battery chargers in 2 years failed me, so i decided to build myself one using more reliable parts. I built mine from an old computer EVGA 650watt PSU and a highly rated 6v/12v/24v 50amp solar charge controller i picked up for $25 on Amazon. The PSU I already had laying around from old PC I had and was rated for 54amps MAX on the 12v circuit. I wired the +12v to the solar input on the charge controller, then installed a pair of battery clamp cables on the battery output side of the charge controller. Then I installed it all on a PVC Junction Box I picked up for a few $. This little setup has been going strong for 7 years now since I built it. Depending on how dead the battery is, it will automatically ramp the voltage and current into the battery and maintain it once its fully charged. I use this 24/7 currently hooked to my UTV while its sitting in my shop to maintain the battery, but i did upgrade it so the jumper cables plug into an anderson connector now and it has battery tender plug wired to it also, because the battery tender i was using on my UTV died on me, so i cut the cable off of it and used it on my DIY battery charger. The other nice part of it is you can use 240v also since the computer PSU accepts both 120v and 240v input power.
Time to learn about electricity. Most commonly, you convert AC electricity to DC by using a rectifier or transformer. You then adjust the output for your needs. (Yes, diodes are better, but I am keeping it simple.) The adjustment includes "safety" systems that prevent output unless it sees something like 9v in the battery to be charged. (manufacturors don't think you should be charging batteries that are below "x" volts. Simply add terminals that feed direct from the rectifier. As an alternative, you can use an old computer power supply to generate 12v, at very low amps. Adding that will "trick" the "smart" charger into thinking the battery has 12v and can be charged.
Hi, I have a schumacher charger similar to this one that I purchased used, not working. The previous owner messed around with the wiring inside. Would anyone be able to do a video of the internal connections at the transformer, switch, rectifier plate and circuit breaker.
I have an old century charger, probably 30 yrs. old/ that has 6v, 12v, 18v,&24v capability with a boost for every volt setting. There's not a smart circuit in it, but charges anything dead or not. Wouldn't swap for a dozen new ones.
ive had terrible luck with Schumacher as well
Get on eBay or keep your eye out for a farm sale and go get you an older charger that'll throw some sparks.
slowride55
The problem is there aren't any farms left where he's at, they've all been subdivided years ago.
My dad still uses a older Craftsman from the 90's he found in the garbage. He use to work for waste Management.
I don't know, the cheap walmart battery charger I bought years ago has been working and never failed me, used it hundreds of times and I haven't been nice to it at all and it still keeps going.
I’ve got the one from Snap-On. Use it nearly every day. It starts our semi trucks and other heavy equipment no problem.
I've had good luck with NOCO genius chargers. Enough they are the go-to installed changer on 12v equipment. Worth the money
Steve, funny stuff, kind of. It's frustrating but kudo's on keeping upbeat. I'm a retired Firefighter and our stations used NAPA standup units and had real good success. Hopefully you will to. I have an old craftsman 2/8/50 that I have dropped several times, it's super rusty, can barely see anymore black paint and it works flawlessly. I do have another small reconditioning charger that I bought a year ago from Aliexpress in China and it works well also. It just gets pretty hot so I wonder how long it will keep going. It's a FOXSUR 12V 24V 8A Automatic Smart Battery Charger, 3-stage smart Battery Charger, Car Battery Charger for GEL WET AGM Battery
I have an old Schumacher battery charger that I bought from Costco probably 20 years ago and it still works fine when I need it.
We still have an old school sears/craftsman roll around battery charger. Think it's 30 years old beat to hell but still works
You can check out Associated Battery Chargers . They have several professional models . They have been around for decades . Read their warranty on the model you are considering . I remember Sears had a dealer level tester / charger from SPX/OTC , which Bosch owns . It had to cost way over $ 1000.00 . Speak to each manufacturer and tell them you use the hell out of it and expect it to work .
He's right, all new chargers are junk for liability reasons. If you want a new charger that actually works get something like an Iota DLS45 (other brands are fine too). These work GREAT. Since they are not sold as consumer battery chargers they are allowed to function properly and are very capable chargers. They're small too.
You should see the Grizzly Cold saw I just bought for my business. It had casting sand and steel bits in gearbox. Grizzly said "yeah that's normal, we had that for years with no problem. The inside was machined with die grinder for clearance rather then properly machined with mill.It goes on. This is a 3phase Industrial machine meant for production mind you. Its $1700 before shipping (on sale made in China). What a let down. I cant begin to tell you what else happened.
Used to be a grizzly fanboy, no longer. Quality plummeting while prices double
I have a very old battery charger and it works great. It has the a meter on it so you can see the charge and help to show if the battery is dead.
Try going to a flea market or trades day like the one in Canton. If they don't have one, have the traders keep an eye out for one.
You need a time machine. I've got a small, automatic charger I bought in the mid 80's for $25 (sale) and it has a 40 amp boost. Even a completely dead battery on this for 20 minutes will start with the boost. It's not a "pro" model but it's fit the bill for me for almost 35 years. I've thought about getting a larger, wheeled model but honestly, I could never justify the expense as this one's done the job so well. I like how I can take a horribly discharged battery that should be toast and I can hook it up to my charger for a week or so and the battery will completely recharge at a rate so low that it won't even show up on the charger's meter. You might want to go hunting on Craigslist, garage and estate sales for an older, better made model.
How many batteries do you charge? Are these things running constantly?