My team is looking to purchase a new battery charger for our batteries but with so many options we were looking for some good recommendations. We are planning on having a total of 6 batteries and being able to charge them all would be a definite plus.
The options we have found include these but any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Harbor Freight Viking
[Noco Genius G4](https://no.co/g4)
We have two of these three-bank chargers from AndyMark. Great for six batteries, and the SB-50’s are already installed! Would buy again.
Have to agree. We switched from 6 individual chargers to these last year. Absolutely love them. We made a small battery cart and take them everywhere. No issue at all.
Ditto on this. These make keeping things tidy on a battery shelf (or battery cart, in our team’s case) nice and simple. I’d suggest numbering the three status lights with labels or tape, and doing the same on the corresponding connector.
We like the AutoMeter BUSPRO-660 battery chargers very much:
http://www.autometer.com/buspro-660-agm-optimized-smart-battery-charger-6-channel-120v-5-amp.html
Chop off the alligator clips and install matching SB50 Anderson’s for your batteries.
We’re partial to the Battery Tender 10 bank charger/maintainer. If you pay anywhere near the asking price you’ve wasted money though. We paid about half that which puts it about even with two of the chargers from Andymark, but you can charge four more batteries.
https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/dbt021=0134
It’s actually ten individual 2 amp charger/maintainers in one package. Works great, and by the time that we get to battery five or six number one is ready to go again.
We actually use 2 andy mark chargers and one of the Buspro chargers. We’ve never had a problem.
Zoro has the 10 bank charger for $599 and there is a $15 coupon off that you can get as well. CarID has it for $530 + $20 shipping.
This charger seems to support maintenance charging multiple batteries on a single port… anyone tried that?
Thanks for sharing. This looks awesome!
We worked out a deal with our local batteries plus and got it for around 400 if I remember right. We’ve had it plugged in almost nonstop for three or four years without issue aside from the vent fan filter needing cleaning. If I had to get another one tomorrow, I wouldn’t hesitate.
We built a three battery charging racks around the AutoMeter BusPro-660 AGM chargers out of 80/20 1010 T-slot. Each “rack module” holds 1 charger and 6 batteries. They can be stacked and bolted together to charge and maintain up to 18 batteries at one time or split up. We usually just take 1 or 2 racks to competition.
For the longest time (since I was on the team) we have used the Battery Charger, 3 Bank, 6 Amp, Dual Pro RS3 with SB-50A Connectors (am-2026) and having either bad batteries or just a bad charger we replaced it with one of these CHARGE IT! 4512 12V (12/6/2) Amp Smart Charger and we were so happy with it last year that we are planning to have three of these in our pit this year. We haven’t had any problems with the Charge It so far.
I prefer chargers with no buttons and very clear red and green lights, and no other lights. There are very few on the market that meet this criteria. The user should not have to do anything. It should be idiot proof. The Dual Pro RS3 that AndyMark sells meets this requirement. We bought one from somewhere else, installed our own SB50 connectors, and have been very happy with it.
Most of the time, we run two AutoMeter Bus Pro 660 Chargers, and overall, we have been very happy with those as well. We did have one charging station in one charger fail on us. We were able to trace the problem back to one tiny surface mount resistor that had burned itself out, resulting in much higher resistance than it should have had. We replaced it, and it’s been happy charging again since.
One thing to note with this charger - about 4 years ago in Waterford their generator at an event spiked. It blew every fuse on the charger. We replaced them all with standard fuses and they all blew again on being plugged in. Turns out you need slow-blow fuses. Standard won’t work. I strongly suggest getting a supply since we couldn’t get them quickly when we needed them.
Speaking of, I happened to find this on Amazon’s Black Friday deals. Excellent price, although it looks like it’s only active for a couple hours.