Battery Charger - I need a new one - Current Recomendations?

My battery charger finally gave up the ghost and I need a new one.  What's the hot recommendation these days?

Charger or maintainer?  What amperage?  

For maintenance I like Battery Tender, 1.5A

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I need a charger, not a maintainer.  ~ 4 amp ?  Maybe a multi-amp unit?

I got through a lot of used cars with varying states of "dead" batteries.  I need something that car revive the ones with some life left in them.

Give me your recommendations.

Battery Tender makes multi-amp units as well.  I've never had my little one fail to bring a battery back, just takes a minimum of 24hr.

FWIW the slower you charge a lead-acid battery the stronger the recharge.

I have a Noco Genius 10, works as both charger and maintainer. I like it. 

Oh, one more thing that would be good: the ability to charge AGM chemistry batteries.

Slippery said:

I have a Noco Genius 10, works as both charger and maintainer. I like it. 

How long have you had it?  The last charger I bought only lasted 3-4 years before it puked it's guts and took a dump on me.

+1 for the NOCO units (mine is a 5 amp, and I recently bought one of the smaller maintainers as well). I've read reports of them crapping out, but mine's been fine for several years. I ordered several quick-connect pigtails to leave installed on various cars, so it's very quick to hook up, even on cars with covered or otherwise hard-to-access batteries.

NOCO Genius 10

can do lithium, AGM, 12V, 6V, and has a 10 amp power supply as well as a repair mode

I've had mine about a year, and it's been flawless

The repair cycle function has helped improve a couple of marginal batteries by 20 to 30% (based on my digital tester)

The power supply mode is great, for dead batteries and getting them able to be put on a repair cycle

"Current" recommendations.... I see what you did there.

Noco Genius is worth every penny.  Most of them are designed as a permanent install, but that really means very little.  So it doesn't have a handle.  I have a 2-bank Genius in my boat and a 1-bank Genius in the garage.

I have a smattering of other chargers - a Die Hard brand I snagged at a farm auction, an old "lunchbox" Schumacher, and a few battery tenders.  All of them work well, but in reality they could all be replaced with one Noco Genius.

In reply to Everyone :

Thanks guys !  Once again this place delivers !

Looks like I need to pick up one of the Noco Genius Chargers.  Amazon is show $99.  Is that the best (cheapest) place to order it?

Plus 1 for the Nocona genius. 

In reply to Indy - Guy :

It's been several years, but I got mine at SummitRacing.

If you can wait, they tend to be discounted significantly on Black Friday, at least on Amazon.

I like the 6/12V Schumacher chargers with the 2A maintain/30A charge/100A engine boost. I think the newest do lithium too, along with lead, AGM, GEL. First lasted 20 years, current is a least 5.

Yet another vote for the Noco Genius 10.  I've got cars with flooded lead acid, AGM and Lithium batteries.  The charger does it all.  It's also temperature corrected for AGM charging, and the repair (desulfation cycle) has brought back more than one battery from the brink for me.

I have an old Schumacher battery charger that's been great.  They used to be the brand to have, although I don't know if their current products are still considered as reliable.

I got one of these about a year ago - good so far. Supports a few battery types. Have used it to bring back a couple of car batteries with the "repair" feature.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B3CV4S2Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have one of the lunchbox Shumachers from 5 or 6 years ago, and a cheapo H-F one.  I use whichever one I can find first.  They both seem to charge batteries.  I think I like the H-F one because it has a cool old school gauge on it so I can see what's going on.  The Shumacher just charges until the little green light comes on. 

What about high amp chargers?  I need something for programming newer cars, that normally need 70+ amps for multiple hours

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Back in the '50s my dad learned everything there was to know, at the time, about flooded lead/acid batteries. And passed that knowledge on to me. Thankfully, during my main gear head days, not much had changed. 
Had to buy a new charger in 2010 or so, and that was my first experience with a "smart" charger. Most of the time that I needed to charge a battery with it, the battery voltage was low enough, it didn't know it was hooked to a battery, so it would not put out any power to charge it. 
Too "smart" for its own good. 
I assume the newer smart charger like you are suggesting, is better than that, now?

(yes, there are work arounds to overcome its problems, but was easier to toss it on a shelf, and go back to the dumb ones that make you know what the reading on the amp scale analog meter means)

Indy - Guy said:

Slippery said:

I have a Noco Genius 10, works as both charger and maintainer. I like it. 

 

How long have you had it?  The last charger I bought only lasted 3-4 years before it puked it's guts and took a dump on me.

Just over 2 years. 

It charges any battery. AGM, Lithium, etc

In reply to 03Panther :

If the battery is so completely dead that it doesn't register any voltage, you can put the Noco in "supply" mode for a couple of minutes which will charge it enough that it can be recognized as actually being a battery.  At that point you can switch to the appropriate charge mode.

In reply to Berck :

Cool. My older "smart" one did not have that feature! Glad to hear they are learning. Thanks. 

Well, my last working analog charger is not putting out current, so I'll set it with other "one day" projects. 
I need to charge the battery for my winch, so I bought a brand new smart one:

I didn't have time to order the one recommended, 6 Amps will be enough for 80% of what I charge, and although this battery is not down enough to test if the "smart" parts are better than they were, if it will not recognize a very low battery, I need that feature less than half the time. 
I feel like it will be a good value for the dollar.