 Best Battery Charger | | Review Date: March 8, 2007 | | Reviewer: Jeff Jones, syracuse, ny, USA | This charger is incredible. It will bring up a dead battery in minutes. Also, it is very gentle on the battery and tapers off the charge under microcomputer control. I just brought back a $240 Jaguar battery by reading the instructions and following the guidelines for a frozen battery. It displays charging amperage, battery voltage, and all sorts of error codes which I found very useful.
This was the only charger available at my local Target store so I bought it in a hurry and was pleasantly surprised by the smart functionality. |
it's great | | Review Date: February 18, 2009 | | Reviewer: T Durden, | | This thing is a neat charger. I'm not sure what it does but it adjusts the current as it charges. You can see the current being adjusted on the LED screen so it's kind of interesting. And it beeps and says "FUL" when it's done charging. It somehow knows when the battery is full. And if your batteries are only partially drained, it usually only takes about 30 min to top them off. I love this charger. The alligator clips are just the right size for a small 12v 8ah battery (6lb). I was worried that the alligator clips might be too big but they work just right for my small battery. The seller got the product to me about 4 days before the delivery estimate so they get it out to you very fast. A good experience overall. |
Nice Little Charger | | Review Date: May 6, 2008 | | Reviewer: E. Snow, Escondido, CA United States | | This charger was bought to replace my recendly dead charger. I was originally put off by the slightly higher price but was pleasantly surprised by the features and quality of the unit. There is a led display that keeps you informed of the mode, voltage, and charge state of the battery. The book says it can "recondition" your old batteries but I don't have nearly dead batteries to try it out on. The only bad thing I can think of is the fan is somewhat noisy, but that's actually a good thing, it's kind of a reminder that the charger is and doing it's job. |
modern technology at it's best | | Review Date: April 14, 2009 | | Reviewer: B. Aronson, lake george ny & marco island fl. | this little charger handles a dual agm battery set up in my boat with ease great value as well
BEN |
Full-featured; Good value | | Review Date: July 15, 2009 | | Reviewer: TwistedPretzel, Boston, MA | If you need a fast and "smart" lead-acid charger with all the extra features (like desulfation and equalization), this is the charger for you.
Previously, I had purchased a B&D 2/6/10 smart charger and it works pretty well, but for larger batteries it can take a while to fully recharge them.
This B&D (made by Vector) 2/10/15 is up to 50% faster than that model because it can supply up to 15amps of current in the bulk charge stage (stage 1). But it still utilizes a smart charging algorithm and can supply a charge of as low as 0.6 amps (from my observation on the display when in the float charge stage). It also worked great for a scenario where I had 2 deep-cycle lead-acids wired in parallel.
Unlike the 2/6/10 charger, this charger has a desulfation feature where it pulses current thru the battery to break up the sulfate crystals and (hopefully) restore capacity to older batteries. In my case, I had a "solar" AGM battery which would no longer take a charge with the 2/6/10 charger. So I hooked up this 2/10/15 charger and pushed the "desulfate" button and let it do its thing for the next 12 or so hours. Well, apparently it worked as it was able to get the battery to take a 2-amp charge again. I have not tested the "equalize" feature yet, but overall this unit appears to work well.
The battery clamps are good, too. Concave curved on one side, claw-like contacts on the other. Good for connecting to a multitude of battery terminal types.
The units cooling fan is a bit on the noisy side, but I typically leave this charger outside my house or in the garage, so I never hear it.
It's a pretty fast charger and probably the best bang-for-the-buck as it has pretty much all the features you would ever need at a good price. |
Well designed | | Review Date: August 28, 2010 | | Reviewer: William A. Szabo, Bellingham, Washington United States | | I have not had this battery charger long so I cannot comment on its longevity. However I will say this. It is a well designed battery charger. There are compartments to store all the cables and this makes for a neat design. The design is wonderful. |
First one failed - second one OK so far. | | Review Date: November 23, 2009 | | Reviewer: Gavin J., Ohio, USA | | Unit is good enough to actually buy a replacement - but first one stopped charging just out of warranty. If this one fails it's time to change brands, there are plenty of alternative choices. Features, compact size, and ease of use are very desireable. Absolutely nothing repairable on the inside if it breaks. A high-tech throw-away that otherwise performs well. |
Features, yes; Durability, not so much | | Review Date: January 28, 2009 | | Reviewer: W Coats, Midlothian, VA USA | I've owned this charger (Vector 1088) for a few years, and probably used it 15-20 times. It was a fantastic product out of the box, with ease of use and a range of electronically controlled functions I'd never enjoyed in a car battery charger. The case is surprisingly well-constructed considering it's made of a lot of plastic parts. The touchpad still operates well and is very logically arranged. But over time it's failed to hold up.
It's developed a buzz, starting last year, which is growing worse. I suspect a capacitor in the power supply is going out. It never charged marginal batteries well; it always refused to deal with severely drained cells. And it's been giving me bogus F03 error codes for a while now. The cooling fan started whacking out last summer, and the bearing noise got so bad that I disassembled it to lubricate the fan bearings (cheap fan, seen it many times on PCs). It doesn't like cold temperatures; it acts erratically in frigid weather and I've learned to just remove batteries and bring the whole assembly indoors to get a good charge. Again I suspect subpar electrical components.
Overall I can't enthusiastically recommend this charger, but neither can I un-recommend it if a buyer finds one at a reasonable price. My previous charger, an old-style mechanical Schumacher, lasted a month before it literally fell apart in my hands. I have no idea what to buy next, or if anyone really makes a reliable automotive battery charger anymore. I guess "good" is relative.
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I would give it 2 more stars, if the clamp didn't break so easily | | Review Date: January 7, 2010 | | Reviewer: Weber Lau, San Francisco, CA | | The good points have already been covered by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here. The weaknesses of this product are the fan with too-cheap bearings, and the plastic clamps. When (not if) the fan starts to make grinding noises, it can be fixed by applying lubrication (Google computer fan fixes) to the bearing. The hard part is how to fix broken clamps. If the clamp slips off of the battery terminal, it will "bite itself" hard in a quick snap; this is sufficient to crack the plastic clamp(s), which due to the plastic construction, some parts may fly. Don't get me wrong, the plastic is not thin and flimsy, it appears thick and robust, but just no match for the spring when it snaps shut. It should have been made of metal, such as copper plated steel. |
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