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(ET) name names: battery chargers



Now that you've got me straightened out on small chargers for my AA and AAA batteries, I want to get something for my larger batteries. :-)

I'd LIKE to be able to charge car, E-T, and gel batteries, 6 and 12v, with a charger that will be smart enough to do each of them appropriately. Don't want it to take forever to charge, but speed isn't a priority.

After studying the archives and doing some research I've found some fairly expensive chargers that would fit the bill, but very few that are less than the $100 limit I'd LIKE to have.

One that seems like a good fit--though 6A is max current--is this:
http://store.schumachermart.com/sc-600a.html.
It says it will do AGM's but doesn't mention gel's. (It's larger version the SC 1000A--which won't do 6v--has a selector button labeled AGM/gell, so I'm guessing choosing that mode works for either one, and would be the same on the 600A?) Schumacher tells me it uses 3 stage charging--current, V, then float. And, it's less than $50.

IIRC, some had concerns about inadequate max current. I do have a couple old chargers with 10A capability, if that helps.

Appreciate any thoughts you have about this one, or others I might have missed.

Thanks.
Thon

On a related note: WHY are so many chargers so expensive?? Are the parts themselves that expensive? I would have thought with modern electronics and technology this would be fairly cheap to do??