Schumacher SE-82-6 Dual Rate Manual Battery Charger #SE-82-6

Darn, my riding mower wouldn't start last week, just as the grass was ready for the year's first mow. I am a single 47 year old woman who knows zilch about machinery. Since the mower wasn't making a peep when I turned the key, I went with "battery is dead". Every month over the winter I started the mower up and ran it for 5 minutes, but guess this last April freeze finally zapped it. I researched chargers and this one sounded the best for the money. Paid for it on 4/10, used supersaver shipping and got it on 4/13! My Troy-Bilt manual says to use a 12-volt charger on 6 amps for one hour. The Schumacher manual says to use this on 2 amps for 3-8 hours for riding mowers, but I went ahead and set it for 6 amps. When I plugged it in, the ammeter (never heard of that word before, but the manual told me the meter was called that) read 3 amps, which supposedly meant the battery was fully charged. Doh!!! But I went ahead and charged it for 1 hour and, Eureka, the mower started up just fine. This charger is so easy to use. I ran an extension cord out to my shed, clipped the red clip to the positive terminal, the black clip to the unpainted rear end of tractor, put the power plug in the extension cord and waited one hour. Can't beat that for simplicity. (I finally noticed I could flip the mower seat up out of the way of the top of the battery - that's how much of a novice I am.)

I picked a manual charger to use with a 375W inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter to routinely charge deep cycle batteries for an RV. I got the combo for my sister who is not inclined to wire directly off the alternator or car battery, or the need for heavy guage wiring. The 375W inverter is more than enough for the 6 amp setting on this charger. Because it doesn't have all the electronics in it that may need to be reset everytime she turns the ignition off and on, it can automatically resume charging just by switching the inverter on and off, or the key on and off. The inverter is under the seat, and the charger is in the back of a Subaru Forester. She has no electric for the RV, so this combo along with replacing the RV lights with LED bulbs has really made a huge difference. She can go more than a week using the water pump, and even brighter lights, per charge, and then alternate it with her 2nd deep cycle battery having one in the car on charge, while the other is in use. (P.S. She used to only get three days between charges with the old heater bulbs.) The combo charges her 48AH batteries just as quickly as if plugged into a regular AC house source. The 10 amp version of this charger would charge even faster, but it costs $23 more. Just have to check the water levels more often in the batteries when using a manual charger, and keep an eye on the charger's current guage to see when it's finished taking a charge.

Received this from Amazon and put it right to work attempting to revive a battery that went dead over the winter. As I waited for the battery to charge, I noticed the sealed battery had vented itself through its safety valve several times. The battery also became quite hot, more than what was expected. Almost hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold. Upon checking the battery with a multimeter, the multimeter displayed a negative voltage. I spent the next hour double checking everything, trying different batteries, etc. Still showed negative voltage while charging. I decided to inspect the unit (4x torx 15 security screws) and lo and behold, the clamp wires were incorrectly connected INSIDE THE UNIT. It is clearly marked "(-) out" and "(+) out" on the board inside.It seemed to me when I unboxed the unit, that it may have been opened before. However, after reading some of the 1-star reviews here, I am beginning to think it really is a case of extremely poor quality control. This issue would explain a majority of the problems many others have given about shorting out, killing batteries, etc. I'm surprised there isn't a recall on this item. I would never think I would need to check a new item to make sure it was assembled correctly, given other older Schumacher products I own. The unit seems to work correctly after swapping the blade connectors to the proper locations. Time will tell if the battery is destroyed and if the unit lasts much longer.

I had one of these over 30 years ago that I bought at a yard sale as a teen. When I joined the service, I left it behind for my dad to use.Now being a geek, I've got two "Smart", computerized battery chargers. Fully automatic, they do everything but hook themselves up.The one thing they won't do is to charge a totally flat battery. Instead, they insist (via codes F01 or F03) that the battery is bad and that I need to replace it.Just as I was about to pull the trigger and order a new battery for my Goldwing motorcycle (at $100+ on sale), I remember this type of "dumb" charger, popped over here to Amazon, found and ordered this one. Using my Amazon prime, it was here LESS than two days later via UPS.I took it home, hooked it up on the 2A charge rate. Four hours later I took it off charge as I wanted to go to bed. You can't leave these running all night or they'll kill your battery by overcharging it.Then I hooked one of the "Smart" chargers back up. The "bad" battery now had an 85% charge. I left the smart charger on to top it off until morning.It's been a week now and the "bad" battery starts my Wing every morning.Therefore, spending a little over $30 on this battery saved me over $70 just by not having to replace this one battery.p.s. Next up, I want one of those Shumacher 200A roll around units that will jump start/charge anything. LOL

I purchased this battery charger to charge my lawn mower battery, but as per other reviews directions were confusing but I did charge my lawn mower battery on the 2 amp setting which evidently is a trickle charge-- the gauge is confusing as it goes to the bottom when charging is complete rather than to the top at least that is my understanding of how the gauge works