As others have noted, the percent-charged reading can be grossly misleading. My experience is that when it shows 100%, you can expect to continue charging for another couple of hours before reaching full charge. Other than that, this charger works well. The biggest consideration with this product, however, is life expectancy. While this charger comes with a five year warranty, you are unlikely to get anywhere near that before it dies. This has been my experience with several Schumacher battery chargers. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing in the way of comparable items by other makers to choose from.
I purchased a new 850 cc amp deep cycle battery to use as an emergency power source for my amateur radio equipment (I'm a net control storm spotter for the National Weather Service Skywarn network). This brand new battery tested at 95% charged so I fully charged it (while using the radio) and it worked fine. Charged up to 100% and went into maintenance mode automatically. Took the charger to the farm and connected it to a dead tractor battery. Showed 11% charged and began building the charge immediately. Was up to 15% in about 7 minutes when I had to leave. I'll have to update this review later to let you know if it was able to salvage that poor battery.
I know of no other chargers that test the battery, charge all types of batteries and can safely be left on to maintain them as well. Go check out the cost of Gel Cell battery chargers and you'll find this is a deal.
BTW, if you forget to turn it from 'test' to 'charge', after 10 minutes or so this charger will automatically charge up the battery and keep it maintained for you! How easy is that?
Buy Schumacher SSC-1500A Ship 'n Shore SpeedCharge Charger with included battery clamps Now
I bought this charger to replace a 15yr. old manual charger that finally gave up the ghost. All I can say is that chargers have come a long way over the last decade and a half. This charger was about 1/3 the price of the one it replaced. It's easy to use and does a great job. I would prefer metal construction rather than the plastic, but given the price, that's a minor complaint. The fan is a bit loud, but I don't sleep in my garage so I don't see that as an issue either.I've used this charger several times. Most recently to revive the battery in my wife's mini van. It was drained to less than 6v when my kids left the interior lights on. In the past, this would have been a death sentence for the battery, but the SSC-1500A was able to recharge it without any problems. It's been over 2 months and her car starts just fine. Considering it's winter in Alaska, that's no small feet for a battery that was drained as far as her's was.
The SSC-1500A was also able to breathe new life into a portable jump start battery that had recently started refusing to accept more than a 50% charge with it's included wall wart. I hooked the SSC-1500A's clamps to the portable batteries clamps, started the charge and left it overnight. The next morning the portable battery was back to full capacity.
I'll say it again, great charger for the price.So I purchased a Optima battery and I wanted a AGM compatible charger, so I purchased this. It did charge up a brand new Optima cell on the AGM mode, but here's the bad before the good, because there is simply more of it.
CONS: It does not shut off after charging. After fully charging a BRAND NEW Optima battery on the 10 amp AGM setting my 120 volt watt meter (kill-a-watt) indicated this thing was still drawing 77 watts after the 100% full and green charge light lit up.
I thought it may be a glitch so I reset everything, drained the Optima to 90% capacity and set the charger to the lowest 2 amp trickle charger mode( it says trickle right on the control panel of the machine). The watt meter indicated that the charger was consuming 60 watts! I consulted the instruction manual where it reiterates that the 2 amp mode is for maintenance and small motorcycle batteries so I shrugged it off as a inefficient charger and I come back 8 hours later to see that it had finished at 100% and that the charger was still dumping in 60 watts into the battery. I felt the battery and it was HOT!!! The whole 800 CCA Optima battery is at about 110 degrees Fahrenheit and is probably now ruined! I am not too happy with the charger so I placed a order for a Battery MINDer charger.
Now for the PROS:
It did charge the batteries, including a few small lawn tractor batteries that I had written off as heavily sulfated and they would not take a charge. My computerized battery tester indicated full capacity after charging and 24 hours later still indicated full charge showing very good results.
Summary:
While I wanted a "hands off" unattended charger that would not overcharge my batteries, I did not achieve that with this, but this still does charge better than my last Schumacher and it weights less than 5 pounds :o)
Want Schumacher SSC-1500A Ship 'n Shore SpeedCharge Charger with included battery clamps Discount?
I have a classic car and do not have electricity (or solar) access where it is stored. I've been using this charger with it for two years now off and on. I would not call myself a battery expert by any means, but I thought it might be helpful to others to share my experiences.If you have a new battery on a late model car, this is a great charger to have handy in case you run it down (leave the headlights on, whatever). This is probably it's main area of usefulness. It's once you cross the threshold to weak or discharged batteries, or batteries left in old cars, that this unit starts to fall down on the job.
First the pros:
-Fully charges a discharged battery reasonably quickly
-Choose between different amp ratings for recharging, permits you to "trickle charge" or max it out at 15 amps
-Light weight, small size means it'll fit in the trunk quite nicely
-Cable storage built into the box
-Has some rudimentary testing capabilities and can display limited information on the LCD display about battery condition
-Estimates the percentage charged
-Both recharges and maintains batteries once charged
Then the cons:
-Battery testing features are not reliable/accurate. I've had this tester report that a battery was bad when it wasn't and, at other times, report that it was fine when a whole cell was dead. Both cases were tested on a much fancier (think >$1k) battery tester and cycler. I was charging the batteries up just to see if I could get the old car out and going after a 3 month rest.
-Very particular about battery connections. If the readout suggests a battery fault, don't trust it. Disconnect and reconnect the cables to the battery to make sure they're seated properly and try again. The alligator clamps can be clipped on to what appears to be the exact same location but give two different readings back to back.
-Yes, alligator clips. That's all you get. There are no other included connectors, and you can't swap them out for your own. Same for the power cord. What this means is that you'll need an extension cord as well, which is not a big deal, but be aware of this going in.
-Charge percentage readout is deceiving. Don't rely on it at all. It will read out 100% charged, but if you disconnect and reconnect the cables to the same battery, within seconds (to move the charger or cables), the charge percentage can drop as low as 45%. If it were 100% down to 95% or so, that would be perhaps within the range of expectation, but not over a 50% drop. This is particularly difficult to believe when the unit then proceeds to charge on up from that low percentage for another hour or so, steadily climbing towards 100% again.
I think for the money, it's a decent charger. Certainly a step up from the old school transformer ones. However, it smacks of cheapness, which fits, considering it's the model sold in WalMart. It serves well as an occasional rescue charger.
My recommendation for anyone serious about battery maintenance and recharging, step it up a notch and look elsewhere. Granite Digital has some nice units suitable for the garage.
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