Top positive review
14 people found this helpful
Needed to charge an AGM battery and the 'start engine' function works flawlessly
By West Texas on Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2019
My Optima battery requires a special charger. Very expensive. This is the inexpensive option and it works great. I needed it as I had a parasitic drain that I hadn't been able to trace down. (I've since found and resolved the issue.) This charger will charge a battery that has lost it's charge down to nearly four volts. I've used the repair option and although it is not always successful on an old battery it has repaired batteries that we use for the electric driveway gate (regular 12 volt car batteries) and the lawn tractor.The other day my sons truck refused to start. He thought it was the starter as there was just a click and the engine didn't even breath a sigh. He checked his battery with his cheap voltmeter and it said he had over 14 volts. (That can't be right. Kinda high.) Truck wouldn't start. I checked with my good voltmeter and got over 12 volts - more accurate. Truck still wouldn't start. Maybe it really is the starter. I pulled out this charger and checked the voltage. Just over 10 volts. Truck wouldn't start. Which was correct? I don't want it to be the starter. I left this charger hooked up to his battery and punched the 'engine start' button. Ninety seconds later I had him give it a shot and the truck fired up. I guess the charger was the most accurate volt reading. My son went and bought a new battery. (He had to get to work and didn't have time to repair the battery - with this charger.)This charger is and does what it claims. It will charge that AGM Optima. It will repair many worn out batteries, even though it does take a day or two, and that can save you a couple of hundred $$$. (Nothing can repair all worn out batteries.) The engine start capability works flawlessly. The alternator check function works great although it doesn't check the built in voltage regulator. Just a fact.Of course, this same charger is available under different brands with the only difference being the color and the name stamped on the front. Just find the best price and get it.July 2020 update: From five stars down to two.I only paid $60 for the 25 amp charger and I guess I got my monies worth. It worked great while it lasted, but after a year and a half it's useless now. I guess I was more fortunate than most people. When I check a batteries voltage the charger can't seem to make up its mind as I watch the value go up and down. No matter what voltage a battery has, when I try to charge then the charger immediately goes in to FLO mode. Engine start just goes into FLO mode too. Recondition is the only thing that seems to work anymore and I'm not sure about that.I did have another brand of 'smart' charger that I had to return immediately as it just didn't work. Now, no more Stanley's for me. I don't want a 'smart' charger at all anymore. Can't someone market a 'dumb' charger that will charge AGM batteries?
Top critical review
39 people found this helpful
Disappointed
By twamane on Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2021
1) I left my interior light on in my van overnight. It would not start start the next morning. According to this charger, the battery had 5.7 volts.. I pressed the charge button and charging began. I came back about 20 minutes later only to find out this charger had switched to battery recondition. I could not find anything in the instructions that said this charger is supposed to switch automatically to the recondition mode. I knew my battery was good because it was only about 7 months old and I had never had a moment's problem with it before leaving the light on all night. I rechecked the voltage and found that this charger had taken my battery down from 5.7 to 4.2 volts and would not charge it and would work on the battery recondition mode. I had a smaller 8A smart charger from Harbor Freight so I connected it. It charged this battery just fine and automatically after charging it, it switched over to the "maintaining" mode. 2) I next tried this charger on a motorcycle battery that read 10.9 volts. At first the Stanley charger charged it with no problem. It charged it up to 12.3 volts. So I decided to put this charger on the recondition mode and afterwards charge the battery again to perhaps get it up to at least 12.6 volts since I hadn't used it in several months. The Stanley charger ran in the recondition mode for over 50 hours--it never shut off so I had to stop it. I then tried to charge this battery again and this charger charged it for 1 second (sic), switched to recondition mode for 1 second by itself, back and forth non stop. I disconnected it and reconnected it--it did the same thing. I had to use my 8A charger again and it charged it with no problem.I've noticed the voltage reading on this charger often varies from the reading on my voltage meter. Few times is it the same. I can tell there's a problem with the reading on this charger because I can disconnect it from a battery and immediately reconnect and check again and on this 2nd or 3rd attempt, it will sometimes read what my voltage meter reads.Contrary to the instructions, the battery recondition will start on it's own any time it feels like it no matter how many times you push the charge button to get it to charge. And contrary to the instructions, the battery recondition does not stop on it's own after 24 hours. This charger will run in recondition mode as long as you let it. On yet another battery, it ran for over 48 hours and did not automatically go into charging mode as the instructions said it would. And it wouldn't even charge the battery afterwards after I pressed charge even though the battery started off with 10.5 volts. After having 3 of these Stanley chargers, 2 for myself and 1 I gifted from the onset, one of two things was happening, it was either charging the battery for a moment or not charging the battery at all and going into a continuous recondition mode. What I'm guessing is that your battery has to be in perfect, like new condition. And it still might not charge it then whereas the other smaller, cheaper smart charger I had would charge my batteries.I purposely turned on my headlights on my truck and ran the battery down to check the engine start function. I was surprised--that part worked! I did not check the alternator check function.If you're lucky enough to get the manufacturer on the phone to ask questions, they may not have the answers. As far as a warranty, you have to pay for the shipping and insurance to get it there if they approve the return and perhpaps even to get it back if I recall correctly on them shipping it back. And there's no guarantee when they get the charger that they're going to replace it. From talking with the manufacturer, I concluded spending more money to send it back was even a gamble.From my experience, the negative reviews are worth reading. if you want to disregard the negative ratings as I did thinking perhaps that person just ended up with a bad one, as I thought, just make sure you're satisfied with it before the first 30 days are up and if it works properly, hope it works longer than 30 days.. As I mentioned earlier, I had two of these chargers for myself. Neither worked well nor did they work the way the instructions said they would.
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