BLACK+DECKER 25 Amp 12V Battery Charger/Maintainer Bundle with 6V/12V Battery Charger

I LOVE this Charger/Starter.This review is based on a setup I have for my Sprinter van. I am using a Kodiac Generator from Inergy (which I would have included a link to but it does not seem to be available on Amazon right now). I am a 71 year old "gal" who has converted a Sprinter Van into a camper and am traveling the country, finally seeing everything I meant to. I have a Kodiac "solar generator" that I like and 400 watts of solar panels on the roof. But, sometimes the weather and my electric usage doesn't keep the house battery charged enough and I manage to "forget" that I have decided to use the engine battery for some extra juice...resulting in no way to start the engine in the morning. As long as the Kodiac has at least one "green light" (of 4) using this charger has been a piece of cake to get the van started. It even worked once when the Kodiac was in the "brown light" stage. Because, even with virtually no power, the Kodiac seems to have just enough juice to give this batter charger enough 110v through it's inverter to charge my engine battery, just maybe 5 minutes, and it starts, no problems. Done this in below zero weather. Done this many (yes, I am that forgetful) many times first thing in the morning. I have been doing a lot of cold weather camping this season. I do not like to use the gas heater while asleep, so I am using a very low wattage electric blanket (a game changer) which is plugged into the Kodiac. Sometimes, if the Kodiac is not fully charged, I plug the Kodiac into the cigarette lighter to keep the charge up, especially if watching TV, reading, etc. Sometimes I forget and fall asleep; wake up next morning and no engine battery. Within 5 minutes I have the hood up, an extension cord from the Kodiac to this Black and Decker charger, and the charger connected to the engine battery...and five minutes later this item's "battery charge" button shows the available charge for starting at 14. volts and I can start the engine right up. Some very kind people have stopped to help when the see the hood up. And they walk away amazed, mumbling "I've got to get me one of those". It does not hold a charge, that's not how it is designed, but with the least trickle of 110v, in a couple of minutes you're off and running. I love it. I have tried other things, some costing two and three times what this does, they couldn't handle the needs of starting a diesel. This little buddy, as long as you have an inverter and a trickle of 110v, starts it right up. I've done this for myself and others at least 2 dozen times so far (I am not the only forgetful person) and it's been flawless. I have also used it to charge stand-alone batteries before putting them back into seasonal service on lawn mowers, boats, snowmobiles, and off-road vehicles. It works. I am not techy. I have used it very successfully. You are supposed to plug it in before you connect the contacts to the battery. Remember that, otherwise, it may seem "off". Usually, it figures it out but can confuse a non-tech like me. I struggled with converting this van into a camper...had lots of dead battery mornings. This is now two years later and I still have the original engine battery. This little puppy is keeping it in great shape, and me on the road. Of course, not everyone carries their own 110v system. Even so, this is a great unit, even just for bench charging. Enjoy!

Where do I start.I bought this unit to replace a older black and decker smart charger that lasted through over 10 years of abuse charging my mower and convertible during the winter along with the odd charging of a family members low or dead battery.I figure it lasted so well I would stick with the brand.I am not disappointed in that decision.This unit puts that old unit to shame.I have taken a couple weeks to put it through its paces before reviewing and man it has been good.First I put it on my convertible and not only does it charge fast but the float charge feature is much better on this unit.On the older one it would bounce from full off to float sometimes if the voltage was not exactly where it wanted it.This unit goes to float and can trickle at a much better rate there by causing less cycling and noise from the chargers fan going on and off.I was dubious of the reconditioning feature but decided to give it a shot since battery was no longer holding a true full charge usually maxing at 12.3 to 12.4 in cold weather.After running the recondition cycle 2 times for 24 hours each the battery now holds at 12.8 rock solid.This was great so much so I am now running a couple cycles on my truck just to keep the battery healthy.The alternator test feature is really not needed as all it does is test for 14 volts across the terminals when the car is running and anyone can do that with a multi meter.Ok now for the bad or should I say annoying more than bad.You can't say have the battery charging or on recondition and press the voltage button you have to first press the button for the process it is currently doing to stop it then press the voltage button then press the voltage again then press the button for what you had it doing again to resume.Not rocket science but would it have been that hard to make it so when you press the voltage key it shows the voltage then goes back to charging or conditioning I mean even the ten year old unit could show you the voltage then revert back to charging on its own.Problem two the charge clips and the power wires are way too light duty the gator clips are small and mostly plastic I look for these to be the failure point and have to be replaced with some metal ones after short time.The power cable is lamp cord size and ungrounded very disappointing since my old unit was 10 amp and had a very heavy three prong grounded cable on it and this one is 15 amps and has this little cable not to mention after running over night I checked and the socket gets pretty warm for such a small plug.All that said(sorry for rambling)I like this unit and when money is available may upgrade to the 25 amp unit which from what I have seen online has a much better set on battery clamps and power cable.If you are looking for something for occasional charging this will work great but if like me you will use it more than occasionally spring for the larger 25 amp units if not for charge speed then because it is a bit more robust.P.S. Don't bother with the jump feature is is very hard on the battery and if you read the fine print it is a VERY short boost time then the unit has to cool off for for quite a while telling me it is putting alot of strain on its components.Not to mention if the battery is super low the charger wont sense the battery correctly so it wont let you charge or boost the battery anyway.Just jump it the old fashioned way then put it on the charge when it has enough voltage for the charger to sense it correctly.