DieHard 10/2/50 amp. Automatic Battery Charger

Our most helpful positive review

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The dieHard 10/2/50 battery charger. February 07, 2011

The charger worked great, I loved it and would buy another one. The problem was it slipped out of my hands and a switch came apart. This should not have happened, upon surveying the problem I found that the hold down ears on the switch had not been pressed down enough. The main problem was when I tried to get a new switch I was told that the part was no longer offered, I could not find it anywhere. Yet when I went to the store guess what; there the charger was and still had the same switch on it. to no avail the switch could not be found. The charger was only dropped about two feet from the shelf to the top of the work bench.

Our most helpful negative review

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Men are from Mars, the charger meter is from Venus. May 11, 2011

I've read every review on this charger and what struck me the most was the fact that I appear to be the only person who can't make any sense out of the charger meter. What planet did the designer of this meter come from?

There appears to be charge rates indicated along the bottom of the meter marked 0.. 2.. 4.. 6.. 8.. 10.. and 12, which is a bit strange for a charger that has advertized rates of 2 amps, 10 amps and 50 amps.

Then there is the long rectangular bar at the top of the meter with the left 2/3rds of the bar colored green and the right 1/3 side colored red. The green portion is labeled "2 Amp Rate" and the right (red) side is marked "Start". If that isn't confusing enough, there is a pie shaped sliver of red within the green area, which more or less lines up with the 2 amp rate indicator at the bottom of the meter.

To round out the mass confusion of this meter there is a Charge% line just below the green and red rectangular bar. The markings begin at about the halfway point of the meter needle swing and reduce in value (to the right) in increments of 25% beginning with 100%.. 75%... 50%... 25%.. and zero. These markings do not appear to correspond with any actual positions of the meter needle.

The bottom line... The meter on this charger is just about useless. The only feature of the meter that makes any sense is the green LED located at the bottom left of the meter that glows when the battery is fully charged (sometimes).

Having said all of that... the actual charger works fine. I mostly use it in the 10-amp position and it works well with no fear of overcharging. However, like I said above... the green LED doesn't always light even when the battery is fully charged but the charge rate does drop to trickle even though the green LED is off.

One additional comment about this charger... it has numerous features that are designed to protect both itself and the battery and they work very well, but the charger does a really bad job of letting you know that the charge cycle has been aborted due to a problem with the battery. Maybe the hieroglyphics of that meter are actually supposed to be giving you information but I can't find any references in the manual to that.

The glaring weakness of the meter notwithstanding, this is a very good charger for the money but don't try to make any sense out of what it is doing. Set the charge rate (50 amps has limited application), set the battery type, connect the alligator clips, plug in the A/C cord and walk away. If the battery you are attempting to charge is capable of being charged, this charger will get the job done.