Learn me - Battery chargers

After running my battery down yesterday by leaving the hood up and not pulling out the underhood light, I've come to the realization that I need a new jump box (number of uses between recharges is getting smaller and smaller) and some means to keep the batteries in the other POS I have sitting around charged up when they aren't running/down for repair. Can I get away with a cheap craftsman metal box type (and risk boiling good batteries) or should I spring for a Schumacher battery cart with jump start capability ($$$) or settle for something in between. What say GRM?

I made judicious use of Harbor Freight coupons and discount prices to buy one of their portable jumper packs for $50 a while back. This has supported all of my adventures using lightweight Batteries in racecars and only getting a few cranks before battery death. At home I use one of the $5 trickle chargers from harbor freight as well when the car is sitting. I'm sure there are plenty of other good opinions out there but this has been the cheapest route for me...

I've got a spare Optima on the workbench and a set of jumper cables. CTEK 2000 charger keeps it (and all the other weird batteries in the fleet) happy.

I have a two-and-a-half year love affair going on with this:

BatteryMINDER

It's a trickle charger with a pulsing action that desulfates the plates. Or that's what they say it does.

All I know is, we have 8 cars plus an electric-start generator, and only 3 drivers, which means several cars that don't get a lot of love drive-time-wise. Once every 3 to 6 months, I put the charger on each car for a couple days. Haven't bought a battery or missed a start since. We have a 2006 and 2009 car that are both still on their original batteries.

Schumacher sucks balls. Sorry, but I worked for that bastard for over 5-years and if you want the epitome of why American manufacturing is in the E36 M3ter, look no further than people like Don Schumacher. This is a man who closed down 3 manufacturing plants in the midwest and moved all of it to Mexico, and at the same time bought out his main competitor - Exide - while flying he, his family, friends & crew around the country in private jets/helicopters and funding a top-fuel dragster team. Where do you draw the line between "good business" and "greed"?

And FYI their product, while not great to begin with, has very much gone downhill since the mid-90's. Your best bet is to find a vintage battery charger used(of pretty much any manufacture, many of them are just re-badged Shumacher's anyway) - if it's still working, chances are it was well-built and will continue to last.

I have a jumpbox which everyone should own but sometimes you just want to charge a battery even if it's an AGM, for that I have the Ctek.

My old Jumpbox still works, just have to charge it more often. It's got at least 4 years on it and i'll probably just get another one from Sam's Club(900 cranking amps generic Stanley brand, pretty sure it's made in China by Vortex or some other company, 49.95) Really want info on battery chargers, not a fan of Schumacher either (i think he and Lucas sponsoring damn near all the top fuel field have done more harm than good, even though some would argue it's all thats keeping NHRA afloat) so unless somebody has a convincing argument to get a Schumacher i will probably try a C-Tek, or maybe Battery tender if they have a model that does more than trickle charge.

Since you guys are all poo-poo-ing the Shoe I won't mention my Schumacher float carger and go straight to my other. Battery Tender all my other chargers are catching dust on the back shelves...

Batteries are too dang expensive nowadays to mistreat. All my batteries get their turn on either the Schumacher or the Battery Tender each month. Discharging a lead acid battery (or AGM) below a certain point takes a bunch off the capacity and useful lifetime.

It would be nice if I could get something that can actually start a car for those times when the jumpbox is dead/charging, but that capability adds $$ and is kind of redundant if I keep the jumpbox charged up. But..Murphy's law dictates that level of redundancy in my world..

I use a $25 Battery Tender Jr on anything that sits. At that price, just grab one for each thing that you don't want to die. I put it on the seasonal things like the motorcycle and the jetski and tractor.

Then for jumping, grab a PowerAll. It will jump a full-sized car 20 times easily on one charge, stays fully charged for months and months, and is tiny. At $99, grab two and keep one in the car. You can also power and charge USB devices and it comes with tips for all kinds of phones and stuff. I am a HUGE fan of these things.

Just ordered a Battery Tender BT Plus 12V from Advance Auto Parts online, used the 35% off order over $50 coupon and got it for $46 after tax. Will pick it up at my neighborhood store on my way home from work. I'll get a new jump box soon (hopefully just before my old one dies), definitely intrigued by the Powerall deal. Thanks for all the feedback!

I have:

A Battery Tender Jr. on the E30.
A CTEK on the GTO.
An $8 Harbor Freight charger on my mower.

All seem to do a perfectly good job of keeping batteries charged.

In reply to pinchvalve:

wat. that powerall thing looks awesome.

You can get one of the bigger big temperature compensated float charger/"battery tender" and keep all your idle batteries on it wired in parallel.