DieHard Microprocessor - Controlled Battery Charger and Tester, 80 Amp Engine Start

Our most helpful positive review

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Works for me, mainly used for Deep Cycle Marine battery so far October 12, 2010

The buttons are easy to understand and use. The cables have been long enough for my needs.  I haven't used an external voltmeter to confirn or deny what others have written.  

I have mainly used this for charging my Deep Cycle Marine battery I use while camping.  The battery powers an inverter I use to run my CPAP and to charge my phone and camera batteries while I sleep.  I've ran my battery/inverter setup many times this summer, one time for 5 nights in a row and worked fine so I translate this as the battery charger has been doing it's job before I leave home.  I expected some fan noise so  I run it in a spare room a day or two before I go camping, no problems.

Once this summer, I used this charger at a powered campsite to keep my car on charge while I listened to my Satellite radio 3 days and half of 3 nights.  I used an outdoor rated extension cord and kept cord connections and charger on top of my air filter and lowered the hood down gingerly to protect power connections and the charger from any possible rain. I have a fairly new car and no gas leaks -  don't know it this setup is for everyone !  Sunday afternoon my car started right up and I drove home no problems, didn't need the jump start feature.  The year before, I used a little 2-Amp trickle charger and my car battery died during the second morning so I had to stop listening to my satellite radio and just recharge my car battery so I could go home the next day !

Our most helpful negative review

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Anything but "Automatic"--A Problematic Battery Charger January 10, 2011

I purchased this unit used from a Craigslist ad in the San Diego, CA area. My experiences with this charger are in line with what other posters have experienced. This unit does indeed need a "babysitter." If you are looking for a "hook it up and leave" type of charger, this is NOT your baby! My experiences reported here are based up four days of working with this charger. I have a couple of classic cars, a motorhome, as well as two daily drivers. The classic cars and the motorhome are not driven enough to keep the batteries near the 100% level, so I was looking for a reliable "automatic" charger. I speculate that this charger "hangs" at various places during the charging process, depending on what type of battery it is hooked up to AND whether the battery is hooked up to a cars charging/electronic systems. I have two spare batteries that I used for a solar system in the back yard. This charger had no problem charging these "unhooked" batteries without any human help. It charged them right up to a 100% level without me doing anything other than the initial hookup. Charging the motorhome deep-cycle battery (two 6-volt batteries in series) and the classic car batteries is another story. This charger would "hang" (in other words, not go beyond) at 67% for the deep-cycle battery and approximately 70% for both of the classic car batteries (both 12 volt wet cell types). What I needed to do is reset the charging cycle as others have reported. For the deep cycle battery, It would not reach the 100% level on the 12 and 30 amp cycles. Only the 2 amp cycle would work to get the battery to 100%! Interestly enough, if I shut down the battery charger (an on/off switch on this unit would have been nice) and rehooked it up again, it would not read 100% charged! It would show 60%, 54%, and sometimes 76%. In other words, this computer chip-controlled charger gets fooled by the electronics onboard your car/RV. It is anything but "automatic"! I must say that charging the two, out of the car batteries was a breeze. It fully charged them just with one hookup. It is when you charge batteries that are hooked up in cars, that problems arise. A short note. This charger will never qualify as a "green" charger." It hums and sounds like it is consuming a lot of electricity (which it probably is) even on "trickle charge--reached (according to the manual) after being at 100% charge level. So, forget about having this as your "trickle charger." Due the issues I have experienced with this charger, I can't give this charger any higher rating than three-stars. It simply never delivers what it advertises. The manual, by the way, is as convoluted as the charger. It is poorly organized, confusing, and sometimes is on the verge of contradiction. In short, this will charge your battery as advertised, IF it is out your car or you unhook either the negative/positive cable before you charge your battery while it is in your car. But if you plan on hooking this up to your car without disconnecting cables beforehand (as most people will do), you will need to BABYSIT it because it is so unreliable--you never know where it will "hang".