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.

[cadillacmike68]

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

Not that far back, but I have an old Sears Diehard charger from some 35 years ago that has 2-15-100 modes, It works great, and it gets plenty of use!
I have a few USB flat boxes and a Halo Bolt for the Boss lady. They work and are useful if you're out and about, but when home that old Die Hard and a cheaper auto-zone 2-10-80 get used.

[TJ Hopland]

Man this is stupid.  Something must be wrong or stuck on on my 73 so when I went to pull it out of the garage today its dead dead.  No problem, I got my super mega smart charger.  Turns out dead dead is another time these stupid smart chargers don't friggin work!  I should just strap the old small charger to this one since it seems like I always need both.   

Last drive when I started it to come home it started slightly funny and then at the gas station I think it seemed like it took a while after the restart for the voltage to come up so I wonder if maybe the regulator has gone wonky and is sticking on?  Will have to explore that once I can get it started and out of the way.

While I am waiting I should have a look at marketplace and see if anyone has anything from the 60's or 70's for sale.  Something with a ungrounded plug and thermal nuke mode.   

[TJ Hopland]

Went back out to check and see if I got enough juice to start it and the charger is in some sort of error mode.  Guess I should have stayed out there to babysit it.

I did figure out one of the problems, some idiot was looking for the garage door opener that had fallen under the seat and turned on the 'dome' light.  I say dome in quotes cuz this is a convert which is also why it wasn't super obvious that a light was on in the garage. 

It seems like the dead dead battery plus the lights being on make the smart charger unhappy.   I turned off the light and used the little charger to jumpstart the smart charger and it finally kicked into warp mode at 75 amps.  Boy does that smell funny, the cables and clamps ain't really happy about that. Seems very strange that even after jumping the charger the first time that light made it unhappy.  At least I assume that was what was making it mad, it was only at like 15 amps.   

Still seems like at the same time I may have an alternator issue cuz it didn't appear to be charging but maybe the battery was still low.  Got the stuff I needed out of the garage and the kids car back on the road along with an oil change lesson.  After a quick break I can go out and see what else may be wrong with the caddy. 

[TJ Hopland]

Yup seems like I just happened to leave the light on the same night I must have popped a diode in the alternator. Thought I picked up a bunch of rebuild kits on sale but they all appear to have been for starters, they were like $3 each so can't hardly go wrong.

At idle it does about 12.7v.  Cruise without a lot of lights or AC its like 13.0 so its doing something but AC and headlights on its like 12.3 so its weak. Wish it was like the olden days when I could just go buy one and bolt it on and it would work for years.  This one probably only has 5k miles on it.