[Shop-talk] What is the best trickle charger? (and Harbor Freight Go-Jacks followup)

[Steven Trovato]

I have a Schumacher XC-103 that, like you said, 
won't charge a completely dead battery.  It has 
to sense the voltage to turn itself on.  This 
seems completely crazy to me and I did consider 
this to be a show stopper.  What's the point of a 
battery charger  that can't charge a dead 
battery?  Then I talked to a Schumacher tech 
support guy who told me that if you press and 
hold both buttons down on the front panel while 
plugging the unit in, it will override the stupid 
logic and start charging.  This isn't documented 
anywhere.  With this little bit of secret 
knowledge, this became a useful charger again!  I 
wonder if other brands have a secret bypass feature.

-Steve

At 02:35 PM 11/18/2016, Karl Vacek wrote:

>
>A BatteryMinder requires battery voltage over 
>some threshold before it will function.  Bought 
>a Vector charger a few years ago and it died – 
>it also required some threshold voltage before 
>it would charge a battery.  I have a 1975 
>Schumacher charger on its third and I hope last 
>set of diodes, used for emergencies – it’ll 
>start a completely dead car with a couple of minutes’ boost charge.
>