thill
ArboristSite Lurker
I bought the Hulkman charger, and that thing is a beast. Have done lots of crazy stuff with it. GREAT unit
:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M41FX48/
:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M41FX48/
NOCO Chargers are Garbage - What's a better brand?
- Thread starter Arbor1
- Start date
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Been using noco chargers and maintainer for years now. Im a big fan. Haven't had an issue with any of them yet. First one the shop bought. It's a 4 battery bank charger/ maintainer. 1 amp output per lead, 6/12 volt. Been keeping group 31p batteries that we keep in stock topped up for years now. I was impressed with it, so I got a g7200 7.2 amp charger. It gets used quite a bit, even use it to charge the kids power wheel batteries at one time. Have about a dozen different tenders going between my place, dad's and my wife's grand mother's house. Mix of noco, better tender and some other brand(s). No complaints there either. Have a big rolling snap-on charger too. It's got a few higher then normal charge settings and does 6/12/24 volt charging, and a few other features I don't use real often. It will act as a maintainer and power supply too. It's pretty heavy and cumbersome so I don't use it often. About 2 years ago, I ditched the heavy Schumacher jumper packs I had and replaced them with noco gbx75 unit. Work got the boost max 500 12/24v version shortly after. I won't ever go back to the heavy duel battery jump packs, that boost max 500 is a beast. Regularly use it to jump heavy equipment and as a power supply. Only down side it it does take pretty long to charge if its dead with the noco charger. Even the little one i got at home has no issues firing up a dead pickup/ Farm tractor diesel. (Biggest I've attempted is a 9L cummins, batteries weren't fully dead though.) I don't mind the usb c charging port on it. Plug it into a laptop charger and in an hour or so it's fully charged. Phone chargers take too long.
Smitty Smithsonite
ArboristSite Operative
Reminds me, I still have my Sears rolling charger / starter. Paid $200 for it in 2001. Still works!
I've got a Schumacher charger from the late 60's that my dad ran for years. After 3 fairly new batteries were smoked, I tested the voltage on it. 23V!! No bueno. Smelled like rotten eggs in the basement! Fried those batteries to a cinder.
I'd wager I could probably get inside there and replace the painfully-simple components of yesteryear whenever the need arises.
I've got a Schumacher charger from the late 60's that my dad ran for years. After 3 fairly new batteries were smoked, I tested the voltage on it. 23V!! No bueno. Smelled like rotten eggs in the basement! Fried those batteries to a cinder.
I'd wager I could probably get inside there and replace the painfully-simple components of yesteryear whenever the need arises.
I have this one as well. It works very well and is recommended by a top small engine repair person on Utube (Chickanic). I was able to start my 7.3 PowerStroke with it. The batteries weren't completely discharged however. I was still impressed by how fast it cranked:
https://www.amazon.com/GOOLOO-GT400...sc=1&msclkid=0661c686ca4b1400b719a18c592fd93a
FWIW I've been using "Battery Tender" brand trickle chargers on at least a half dozen vehicles for decades and never had a failure... lots of these vehicles don't get driven except seasonally... some get driven only once every few years...
I've used pretty much every kind of trickle charger booster battery gizmo there is...
If you have a lead acid battery that's older than a few years you might consider using a desulfinator... before I swapped to Lithium batteries I used to use the PulseTech product (sends a little blip through lead-acid batteries to keep the corrosion from stick to the bars of lead inside the battery)
I thought it was snake oil at first but I used a Battery Tender 750 mA trickle charger and a 12V pulsetech on an ancient roadracing motorcycle from the 90's that hasn't been ridding in over a decade... and I'll go in and start it up and let it get warm and rev it every couple years (I know, not the best maintenance practice) but it starts every single time.... with a lead-acid battery in it that's probably from ~2012 🤣
I've used pretty much every kind of trickle charger booster battery gizmo there is...
If you have a lead acid battery that's older than a few years you might consider using a desulfinator... before I swapped to Lithium batteries I used to use the PulseTech product (sends a little blip through lead-acid batteries to keep the corrosion from stick to the bars of lead inside the battery)
I thought it was snake oil at first but I used a Battery Tender 750 mA trickle charger and a 12V pulsetech on an ancient roadracing motorcycle from the 90's that hasn't been ridding in over a decade... and I'll go in and start it up and let it get warm and rev it every couple years (I know, not the best maintenance practice) but it starts every single time.... with a lead-acid battery in it that's probably from ~2012 🤣
Smitty Smithsonite
ArboristSite Operative
The GooLoo units I have are the GE4500. No complaints so far.
like anything, more complicated = more complicated...
more parts, more functions = more chances for failure...
OP's post had one of those "charge multiple batteries at a time" dealios... i'm not surprised it failed.
I have a 1989 FJ62 toyota that's been sitting on a 1 amp noco trickle charger for at least 3 years... it gets taken out once a year in the not-so-hot-i-need-air-conditioning season... and that simple little 1 amp trickle charger has worked just fine for the last few years.
But compared to a Battery Tender 3/4 amp trickle charger the noco is a tiny little lump of plastic about the size of a pack of smokes (remember when everybody smoked? 🤣) and the Battery Tender is 4x the size and heavy because theres a big metal thing inside to convert wall AC into 12V battery DC...
So... (shrug) simpler is almost always better... your GT4500 is working for you... thats great... I have a bunch of Lithum battery Noco jumpers too... I wonder how long they will last (shrug)
The jumper I use the most... the one that *always* works... is the big 'ole heavy lead acid based jumper on wheels I keep in the shop... its been working since last century (shrug)
I have two NOCO chargers in my poultry barn that have been working flawlessly for 8yrs now and they live in a far worse environment than anything you’ll find in a garage or shop. I have multiple NOCO chargers that I use to maintain batteries in farm machinery over winter and haven’t had a single one die yet.
As with everything these days you could get a turd or two in a row and it sure doesn’t mean the entire product line is complete junk, just that the one or two you got were assembled by the new guy on a Friday afternoon.
As with everything these days you could get a turd or two in a row and it sure doesn’t mean the entire product line is complete junk, just that the one or two you got were assembled by the new guy on a Friday afternoon.
The rotten eggs smell is the classic sign of a selenium rectifier failure. And you're right, simple and cheap to fix with a couple dollars worth of silicon rectifiers or a bridge module, depending on the circuit.
Gonna be one of these 3 circuits:
https://www.elprocus.com/full-wave-bridge-rectifier-versus-center-tapped-full-wave-rectifier/
