Need a battery charger to be able to use your battery charger?

[TJ Hopland]

How did we get here?  Like 40 years ago I bought I think its a Century brand little brick charger.  Its manual, not even a timer like 5a6v and 2 or 10a at 12 and a 50amp start.  After that one I bought I think another Century that had an auto mode and was like 5-20-100 start.  I think that one only lasted a few years then I went back to the original one. 

More recently, maybe 6 years ago now was walking past the clearance section at the home depot and saw this fancy dewalt branded cart style one for at least half price.  Its got a million modes and features but can charge at like 60 amps and I think 200-250 amp start boost. Oddly weighs less than the antique that has like 1/4 the capacity. 

This thing works fine (except when its broken which has happened several times) if you are out working on the car and the battery goes dead but if you have a car you have not used for a while that has gone pretty much totally dead it won't even slightly charge it it just goes into some sort of recondition mode which I have tried leaving it on for days and it still doesn't do anything. 

IF I break out the antique and let that go for an hour or two I can then hook up the dewalt and it may or may not then charge it.  Most cases I have eventually got em charged and they ran at least the rest of the season if not several seasons.  I have heard similar stories from other brands so it doesn't seem like its just the model I have.   

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

The
I bought a simple Sears charger back in 1962. Over the years I've bought new and more powerful, more complex chargers that for one reason or other simply quit working. Over the years countless times, I've gotten ready to throw the old one out but didn't, and now today if I need a charger that's the one I go to first. Call me old fashioned but I like things that work.
Greg Surfas

[Jeff Rosansky CLC #28373]

Yah, they need a little tickle of power to know it's connected to a battery.
It's so smart, it's dumb.

[Suntuned]

The best Battery chargers are the old ones!  I have repaired @ least a dozen for myself and other people and I use a 1956 Marquette Port-O- Fast on wheels that my father purchased new and a 1974 Sun BC 160 when i want to charge a battery fast or for cranking,  other wise i use several 5 amp or 10 amp brick type chargers when i want to charge them slowly or over night. I use a 5 amp Western Auto battery charger to charge my AGM battery's  It works just fine & they are fully charged  never had a problem using it to charge them, frankly I think its BS you need the special charger for AGM if you charge @ a low rate your fine 2-5 amp. I have had newer chargers with there fancy circuit boards and so called smart charging and they don't last more then 3- 4 years, and if the battery's stone dead they wont charge it. At one time I collected 12 different brands of battery  chargers all made in Minn.

[TJ Hopland]

Sometimes going to engine start mode seems to make em slightly dumber and force a little juice in but at least on mine to get it to try and charge again I have to disconnect it from the battery and power so it goes through some sort of a reset mode.  Even that doesn't always work so that is where I find myself having to get another good battery or the little dumb charger.

[Carfreak]

Nice Sun equipment is still out there. 

Picked these up on Facebook Marketplace (separately) more for the character than to use but they are still functional.

[Lexi]

My old Mastercraft charger which I bought new in 1976 still works as it should after nearly 50 years. I guess all of these glowing reports on the old time chargers mean something. Clay/Lexi

[Jason Edge]

The thread reminds me of my 20V DeWalt Cordless Batteries and their chargers. I have a couple of tools that will completely discharge these batteries to the point the "smart" chargers do not think therE is a battery in the charger. The quick and easy solution is to run two jumper wires between a fully charged battery and the fully discharged battery.  Just connect the B+ to B+ with one wire, and B- to B- with the other wait about 15 seconds, disconnect and put the dead battery on the charger and voila ... it senses the battery and charges it.