Just bought one yesterday very good tool to have. My mother's car battery was dead from sitting for over 9 months. It read 3v, hooked it to the Cen-tech it reconditioned and charged now it's at 13 volts.
Mine has sucked from day 1... wouldnt even jump my truck set on boost,40 amp... has never worked great when i need the big part of a charger. My wifes tiny Mitsubishi battery was needed with cables the other morning. Charger set on kil wouldnt even turn over the little v6. Need to get my old one fixed.. i want no safety features... i would rather it melt the battery then not even be able to jump it
I attached this to my completely dead battery and it reconditioned it for a good 6-7 hours and it started charging on its own. Im really happy I got this charger
So how long have you had this unit? Seems to be a lot of complaints about it. Also it said in the instructions that a 40A charge will require and input of 10A but that is hard to believe if 40A at 12v is 480watts. Asking for off the grid reasons
Hi, just picked one up today. I noticed when charging a battery the LED screen looks like it goes into a screen saver mode as a line circles around the border of the screen. Does yours do that too?
Will this work with AGM batteries ? I have a diesel truck trying to find out if this can be used to charge them back up. The instruction manual mentions nothing about them.
There are no settings for AGM batteries on the charger. I used it once unsuccessfully to try to revive a deep discharged (dead dead) AGM from a Mercedes SL. AGM's require different charge rates and voltages. Although the Cen-Tech would likely charge the AGM, the automatic functions for charging may not work as they should and may over charge the battery causing damage. In short, if you want to use it on an AGM you should closely watch it and only on very low amp rates in order to prevent damaging the AGM.
@@bigwrenchgarage1360 Thanks for getting back. I kind of figured this charger did not support them. I seen in the manual for this charger it is only designed for lead acid flooded batteries and not to charge any other type. I knew that agm is completely different technology. My truck battery is lead flooded batteries after all. It is a international commercial truck and they were in a really tight spot almost completely hidden. I will most likely stay with the same battery type. I heard stories of people installing batteries on vehicles that weren't designed for them caused problems.
@@bigwrenchgarage1360Kinda lame. My Snap On charger that’s old as shit will charge AGM. Kinda makes this thing useless in 2023 when most new cars have AGM batteries. Too bad
If the voltage is too low it may not allow a charge and sense a "wrong" (crossed terminals) type error. Keep an old school simple charger around to get the voltage up before using a modern charger. Another trick is to parallel a good battery to get the voltage up to initiate charging.
@@bigwrenchgarage1360 brilliant, I wound up cheating by hitting the 200a start for about 30 seconds, it's now on recon.... if that doesn't work I'll use your suggestion. It was under 6v
Depends on the size of the battery. For example big 29DC marine batteries are 115 amps. This will give an approximate time. Divide that by how many amps you're charging with. Charge Time = Amps / charging rate. So 115 amps /10amp charging = 11.5 hours if flat dead. Regular car batteries are around 50 amps and usually won't come back if fully flat to zero. Say its 25% charged when you start charging and you're charging at the max setting 40 amp which gives an average 20 amps (starts at 40 amp and drops to trickle to finish). Say two to three hours would charge a low car battery on 40 amp setting. Keep in mind that slower charging will keep the heat down on the battery and charger and increase life. I've been happy with this charger. I use it fairly often. Get the big battery tester too (I'll do a video on it) and you'll have a great set of tools to test and charge batteries!
That's mainly withe the gel batteries...like optima.. if totally dead they want a special charger... call them for how to recharge a dead one with a regular charger
Desulfate. Helps restore batteries that have become sulfated over on the lead plates. Sulfate is a salt product of the sulfuric acid. The Desulfate function will help restore the battery if its not so far gone and full of sulfate that it has bridged the gap between the plates.
At the 12 volt 40 amp boost feature, Does your unit charge the battery then cycles off? All the other functions work at consistent charging rate, but when this feature is initiated, the fans start up, volts rise to 14 volts, then fans shut down volts drop to 12 only to rise back to 14 again. All this in the span of 10 seconds in 40 boost function. is this normal on yours? Thank you.
I'm having the same issue and trying to figure out if it's normal or not. I was hoping to use it to keep my E90 above 14v while I updated all the modules, but can't seem to figure out how to keep it charging.
It will cycle to keep the battery life. To much power too fast will cook a battery. When the voltage climbs too high it will drop the charge rate. The charger seems pretty good at giving max power to a battery while protecting it as much as possible. If you had a battery or system that has a big consistent drain, it will likely keep the charge rate up in order to keep the voltage at a charging rate.
@@wnw000 may not keep a consistent high voltage unless there is a consistent high current drain. I keep an old 1970's charger for constant power supply needs. Keep in mind the Centac is a battery charger and not a 12v power supply.
AGM, Absorbent Glass Mat. A regular lead-acid battery is made of lead plates immersed in a free flowing acid solution. Glass mat is made of soaked sponges attached directly to the lead plates. More concentrated power, more vibration resistant.
The Centac 200amp saved another battery today with it's desulfate function. Had a 3-1/2 year old lawnmower battery it brought back from the dead. Great charger! Get the battery tester too...th-cam.com/video/QCjo7RYbalg/w-d-xo.html. The battery tester will show how good or bad the battery is. Easy to use and shows the condition clear as day.
Right! I returned mine after a week of trying to figure it out just to realize is just a POS literally and they wanted to charge me a restocking fee I lit up the cashier told him to bring the manager and right away he removed the fee.
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Just bought one yesterday very good tool to have. My mother's car battery was dead from sitting for over 9 months. It read 3v, hooked it to the Cen-tech it reconditioned and charged now it's at 13 volts.
Mine has sucked from day 1... wouldnt even jump my truck set on boost,40 amp... has never worked great when i need the big part of a charger.
My wifes tiny Mitsubishi battery was needed with cables the other morning. Charger set on kil wouldnt even turn over the little v6.
Need to get my old one fixed.. i want no safety features... i would rather it melt the battery then not even be able to jump it
I attached this to my completely dead battery and it reconditioned it for a good 6-7 hours and it started charging on its own. Im really happy I got this charger
Just an update on the charger. This is great charger, has worked weil and fast. Had it about a year now and still works awesome! Great buy from HFT!
WORKS VERY WELL FOR AROUND THE HOUSE CHARGING, BOAT BATTERY, SMALL CAR ECT. PAID $99.00 ON SALE A YEAR AGO! HARBOR FREIGHT QUALITY IS GETTING BETTER!😉
I purchased one today. July 3, 2022. The coupons for 20% and 25% are up now. You only have until the end of 4th of July to use the coupon.
Just got this same charger at Harbor freight as an open box buy for 68 dollars today.
Does it work. Some of the open box returns I bought were broken
So how long have you had this unit? Seems to be a lot of complaints about it. Also it said in the instructions that a 40A charge will require and input of 10A but that is hard to believe if 40A at 12v is 480watts. Asking for off the grid reasons
Do you have to plug the machine to charge the machine
Hi, just picked one up today. I noticed when charging a battery the LED screen looks like it goes into a screen saver mode as a line circles around the border of the screen. Does yours do that too?
mine must not be working it is brand new only thing it does is charge 10 amp up to 12/3 volts
Will it hold a 200 amp for 15 minutes? I ask because it’s says it will Desulfate to refresh a battery. Thanks
Hi would like to know if this charger would work for a agm golf cart batteries
will this charger do AGM batteries?
What does desul mean with blue lights on recondition
I measured it with an amp meter it doesn't put out 200 amps
What does it put out then?
Have you revived any dead batteries with it?
display button does nothing start stop seems to do nothing, all i've got was the voltage display, and then it just started showing dashes
I can hook up hot/DEAD BATTERY AND IT ALWAYS SAYS FULL..I had 3 years damn good battery
Will it stay in charge mode, and provide power as needed? I need it to resupply battery power while im flashing/re-flashing ECU.
Useful thank you! I have the older style one may have to try this one out next for my at-home charger. Got the snap-on DTAC Elite at work :)
Will this work with AGM batteries ? I have a diesel truck trying to find out if this can be used to charge them back up. The instruction manual mentions nothing about them.
There are no settings for AGM batteries on the charger. I used it once unsuccessfully to try to revive a deep discharged (dead dead) AGM from a Mercedes SL. AGM's require different charge rates and voltages. Although the Cen-Tech would likely charge the AGM, the automatic functions for charging may not work as they should and may over charge the battery causing damage. In short, if you want to use it on an AGM you should closely watch it and only on very low amp rates in order to prevent damaging the AGM.
@@bigwrenchgarage1360 Thanks for getting back. I kind of figured this charger did not support them. I seen in the manual for this charger it is only designed for lead acid flooded batteries and not to charge any other type. I knew that agm is completely different technology. My truck battery is lead flooded batteries after all. It is a international commercial truck and they were in a really tight spot almost completely hidden. I will most likely stay with the same battery type. I heard stories of people installing batteries on vehicles that weren't designed for them caused problems.
You got lucky with this one, I got it out of the box and it didn’t work
@@bigwrenchgarage1360Kinda lame. My Snap On charger that’s old as shit will charge AGM. Kinda makes this thing useless in 2023 when most new cars have AGM batteries. Too bad
Anyone had theirs say wrong and not charge. Yes it's a 12v battery on 12v 2a setting
If the voltage is too low it may not allow a charge and sense a "wrong" (crossed terminals) type error. Keep an old school simple charger around to get the voltage up before using a modern charger. Another trick is to parallel a good battery to get the voltage up to initiate charging.
@@bigwrenchgarage1360 brilliant, I wound up cheating by hitting the 200a start for about 30 seconds, it's now on recon.... if that doesn't work I'll use your suggestion. It was under 6v
Can I leave a battery charging overnight?
No it sucks dont waste your time or money
does it turn off automatically, or tell you when battery is full? tia
Yes
How long does it take to charge the car battery when its dead?
Depends on the size of the battery. For example big 29DC marine batteries are 115 amps. This will give an approximate time. Divide that by how many amps you're charging with. Charge Time = Amps / charging rate. So 115 amps /10amp charging = 11.5 hours if flat dead. Regular car batteries are around 50 amps and usually won't come back if fully flat to zero. Say its 25% charged when you start charging and you're charging at the max setting 40 amp which gives an average 20 amps (starts at 40 amp and drops to trickle to finish). Say two to three hours would charge a low car battery on 40 amp setting. Keep in mind that slower charging will keep the heat down on the battery and charger and increase life. I've been happy with this charger. I use it fairly often. Get the big battery tester too (I'll do a video on it) and you'll have a great set of tools to test and charge batteries!
won't ?!!
Had a craftman lasted 20 years had hf lasted 2 years thunder road auto
How the F is not charging a completely flat battery a safety feature?
Battery chargers sense a flat dead battery as a potential dead short. They will not charge in order to prevent a possible fire.
@@bigwrenchgarage1360 I did not know that, thank You BWG
That's mainly withe the gel batteries...like optima.. if totally dead they want a special charger... call them for how to recharge a dead one with a regular charger
What's DESUL means
Desulfate. Helps restore batteries that have become sulfated over on the lead plates. Sulfate is a salt product of the sulfuric acid. The Desulfate function will help restore the battery if its not so far gone and full of sulfate that it has bridged the gap between the plates.
does it have to be plugged in and charge
At the 12 volt 40 amp boost feature, Does your unit charge the battery then cycles off? All the other functions work at consistent charging rate, but when this feature is initiated, the fans start up, volts rise to 14 volts, then fans shut down volts drop to 12 only to rise back to 14 again. All this in the span of 10 seconds in 40 boost function. is this normal on yours? Thank you.
I'm having the same issue and trying to figure out if it's normal or not. I was hoping to use it to keep my E90 above 14v while I updated all the modules, but can't seem to figure out how to keep it charging.
It will cycle to keep the battery life. To much power too fast will cook a battery. When the voltage climbs too high it will drop the charge rate. The charger seems pretty good at giving max power to a battery while protecting it as much as possible. If you had a battery or system that has a big consistent drain, it will likely keep the charge rate up in order to keep the voltage at a charging rate.
@@wnw000 may not keep a consistent high voltage unless there is a consistent high current drain. I keep an old 1970's charger for constant power supply needs. Keep in mind the Centac is a battery charger and not a 12v power supply.
What does AGM mean?
AGM, Absorbent Glass Mat. A regular lead-acid battery is made of lead plates immersed in a free flowing acid solution. Glass mat is made of soaked sponges attached directly to the lead plates. More concentrated power, more vibration resistant.
The Centac 200amp saved another battery today with it's desulfate function. Had a 3-1/2 year old lawnmower battery it brought back from the dead. Great charger! Get the battery tester too...th-cam.com/video/QCjo7RYbalg/w-d-xo.html. The battery tester will show how good or bad the battery is. Easy to use and shows the condition clear as day.
Alguien tiene el owner manual de este centech
Mine is junk
Check out the Harbor Freight Viking 4amp charger th-cam.com/video/ybFXyOJUbos/w-d-xo.html I"ve had it for a while now and works awesome!
The worst battery charger ever made. I can't give it away.
Charger is a POS! I hate mine!!
Right! I returned mine after a week of trying to figure it out just to realize is just a POS literally and they wanted to charge me a restocking fee I lit up the cashier told him to bring the manager and right away he removed the fee.