Ring Automotive 12A Smart Car Battery Charger for Vehicles Up to 5.0L: Compatible for All Battery Types, Black

I needed a 'Smart Charger' that would be able to cope with different sized batteries, i.e. Ride on Mower, Caravan, 3.0 litre Diesel Car and HGV. It would also need to be able to diagnose the Battery Condition, check for Alternator Faults, Starter Faults, be suitable for 'Start/Stop' vehicles and maintain Optimal Charge Levels.This unit appeared to tick all the boxes at a very reasonable price and as an added bonus, it has a Memory function that will retain the vehicle and audio settings whilst replacing the battery. I must admit that I am most impressed! It appears to be Very Well Constructed, Knock Proof and with a clear and concise Illuminated LCD Display. Other reviewers complain about the manual but I found it pretty straight forward, well, apart from 1. You need a magnifying glass to read the tiny print under the pictograms. 2. Poor Instructions for the 'Retain Memory' Procedure (see below). It must be noted that this is NOT a Fast/Rapid Charger! It charges your battery slowly and carefully to optimize the battery performance. Simply press 'Auto' or select your preferred charge settings. There is also an excellent basic instructional video on the Ring website.EDIT..... As the instructions are so poor with regard to the 'Retain Memory' Function and I could find no information on the web, I have shown them here: Connect the charger to the vehicle battery terminals (ensuring that you can still access the terminal nuts), plug the charger into the mains, Select Memory, Disconnect and remove the battery from the vehicle (ENSURING THAT THE CHARGER IS CONTINUOUSLY CONNECTED TO THE VEHICLE'S BATTERY LEAD TERMINALS, PLUGGED INTO THE MAINS AND 'MEM' IS FLASHING ON THE CHARGER), Carefully fit and connect the new battery. ONLY THEN can you switch off an disconnect the charger.

This is one fine battery charger.It has brought two old batteries which I thought were ready to be thrown away back to life, which has saved me over £300 in my solar power DIY project.The unit is fairly compact and very light. The functions are extremely useful, especially the CCA and battery life tester modes.The backlit display is very easy to read and although there are many functions on the device, after 5 minutes of pressing buttons, it was very simple to operate.The instructions manual does the job okay but it could be a little better at explaining how to access some of the functions.The trickle charge and smart charge functions are great at charging and keeping the battery topped up without having to worry about over charging.It charged an 80Ah 720A battery from my old Porsche 911 with almost no charge to 100% charge over night. The battery was so badly discharged that it would not register on a couple of cheaper chargers that I tried before.Overall, a very good investment and despite it's more expensive cost, I definitely recommend it.One word of warning though, the unit has a fan that kicks in when pushing AMPs into the battery. It might irritate some partners if you leave the unit to charge a battery in your kitchen over night! ;-)

This is a very useful piece of kit. I leave my battery on trickle charge in the garage when car not in use.It charges to 100% and then cuts out so Ieave it on charge when we go away and using my wife’s car.I only do less than 3000 miles a year in my car so need a reliable charger.This is my second charger. Make sure you keep the receipt and register the charger with the manufacturer.It’s guaranteed for 5 years.

Great bit of kit, Does a proper job at recovering a flat battery.Two things I noted in using it.1. All the fancy settings are probably never going to be used by a normal home user. All the option are a little "one-time wonder".The main button which is charge it as fast as you comfortable can until its full again, is probably all that will really be used by most. I looked at the more confusing Amperage options and after some googling about, found that anything above 2amps will potentially shorten the life of the battery with the highest liable to buckle the internal cell plates!So again, probably just the charge it until full option and maybe the trickle charge over winter one for people like myself with Motorbikes that might stay off the road over winter.2. While it is running (and this is more for the over winter trickle charge type option) the screen stays lit all the time. There might be a way to switch it off, but I noticed it on a few times when I checked back over a number of days and it makes me feel like it would be consuming unnecessary power by doing this. I would like to see it drop the back light after 10 minutes or so.Otherwise a good piece of kit albeit with a strangely placed rear hook that means it hangs at 90 degrees. go figure.

Good product on both car and motor bike Lithium ion battery lots of use full features but after 3years of ocational use became unreliable and has now stoped working. Disapointed at such a short life foe a expensive product. Buttons on panel became unresonive. Had only light use . Contacted manufacture but was told uneconimic to repair.

Excellent charger but you'll need to read the instructions to understand what all the symbols mean, it's not very intuitive. Once you understand the menu is split between charge or test mode, and then each of them is split into 4 sub-modes depending on what you want to do, it's quite easy after that, but so is riding a bike once you've learned how to do it. They could have put a basic functions tree diagram with words on the casing somewhere so you know what you're doing, instead of a dozen cryptic symbols.Still, very rugged, very capable, I'm sure I'll be using it for years. It's got a cooling fan that kicks in most of the time, it's not silent. It's quite big and chunky too, but most high-current chargers are. Certainly does the job of charging and maintaining a vehicles electrical system perfectly.