Does anyone have any experience with the Schumacher SS-210a battery charger? It can charge 1 or 2-12 volt batteries at 10 amps , or 1-24 volt at 20 maps. Seems to be well protected from the elements as it is designed for marine use. We found them at a local Farm and Fleet store, and bought a pair at $120 each for our 48 volt Comutacar, so hopefully I will be able to report on them in the near future.
http://store.schumachermart.com/ss-210a.html
The store also had some Vector VEC1087CBD chargers on close-out for $25 each, but the additional bulk would be hard to fit in the car, and we weren't sure about how they would take the splashing that might occur if they were mounted under the seat where the stock charger was placed.
Thanks.
Jim, in Western Wisconsin
This charger is a little heavy it seem to me. The charger has no temperature compensation, which I have in my Force electric car and I feel this is real important to have. To make up for the lack of temperature compensation they have lowered the absorption voltage to 14.2 volts which was a good idea. I would like to see what you find as the adsorption voltage,float voltage, and the amperage that it switches from absorption to float voltage at. I am trying a similar type of charger on a golf cart but it claims to have temperature compensation. You can view that charger here. http://www.boatersland.com/minmk210.html
I hope soon we can start a Forum page for all the 12 volt charger that are out there so we can pick good chargers.
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com
We tried out the Schumacher SS-210A charger, and although it did charge the batteries okay, it drew a lot of current. We had the 2 units hooked to a Kill-a-Watt meter, and the charger has a terrible power factor and drew about 138 watts after the batteries were charged in the car and it was indicating fully charged. I think we are taking it back to the store for a refund, as it certainly isn't what we want. Way too inefficient.
Jim
The 138 watts you see on your meter may be the charging of your batteries in a float mode. Check the voltage of the batteries when the charger indicates full, it should drop from 14.2 volt to 13.5 volt. The charger will still be charging the batteries in the Float mode, or some times this mode is called the topping off mode. If you leave it plugged in the watt meter will drop to maybe 30 watts in about 6 hours are so. If it does not it would be a bad charger unit or you batteries are so old they have a lot of internal resistance.
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com
We took the chargers back. They never dropped to anything close to 30 watts, and both chargers were the same. The stock crude charger that came in the Comutacar uses less power to charge the batteries than the Schumacher did. We are looking at some of the more sophisticated chargers with better temp compensation, too.
Here is a charger you might consider. I have the smaller one with only 3 12volt hook ups. It is used on six 6volt batteries that are rated at 290 amp. hour per battery. It works well and is very efficient with temperature compensation. If you have gel cells you might want to pass on this unit. The voltage during charge come up as high as 14.7 volt at 65 degrees. It drops to a float of 13.3 volts when the amperage is 6 amps per 12 volt hook up. This makes it good for large amp. hour batteries.
http://www.boatersland.com/min1824401.html
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com