Good name name brand 4 stage smart battery charger, easy use for normal charging.
Suitable for lead acid, wet, AGM, gel and VRLA / SLA batteries.
Gripes from various reviews:
Battery capacity is inaccurately detected. i.e. if your 12V battery falls below 6V it detects your 12V as a 6V battery and will charge it up with a 6V battery profile.
If it goes below 10.50v then there is permanent battery damage, and battery will no longer hold a charge for any useful length of time, unless you drain the acid and perform some other desulphation and other tricks to recover it (which often are more hassle than they are worth).
This charger is perfect for anyone that has a car that they drive only a certain car rarely. You can just leave this charger on the battery and be thankful that the car starts straight away, especially with winter coming
I'd probably go a 5W Solar Panel from Jaycar for $30 if that's the only purpose! I have a 60Ah AGM battery in a camping solar generator I built that I keep topped up with a 5W panel, works great!
Not so useful when the car is kept in the back of the garage like most collector cars. I have heaps of customers with Porsches that rarely get driven, we also have a few customer cars in our warehouse, nothing is worse than when someone comes to pick up the car and the battery is dead, we can jump start the car but even once the customer has driven the 10 minutes to home the battery won't have enough charge to last.
The battery cells will calcify if you use it just when it's flat. If you hook it up permanently like what this is designed for you'll need a controller to ensure it doesn't over charge the battery which will then make the rig more expensive than this.
I assume the smart charger has its own regulator. Which is why it is "smart"
I bought one when Sprint Auto Parts had it on sale. It is great for what it does. The 4 AMP is fine for all normal sized vehicles and motor bikes. For buses and things of that nature, you need the 8 AMP version. One thing to note that is a bonus is that these are IP65 rated so you can just leave them outdoors without worrying about it. Just ensure you have a loop in place so water doesn't get to the battery. I leave the boot just popped so a tiny space exists to put the cable through. I then hooked up the battery quick connect terminal so it is easy to remove and connect again.
Don't forget to be careful with the Hydrogen Gas that Lead Acid batteries create when charging, I'd leave slightly more than a gap just to be safe :)
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Looks like these are available again:
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Bosch…?
If your 12V battery falls below 6V, you should probably scrap it and buy a new one. I'm no expert though…