Black & Decker (Vector?) Battery Chargers

I had asked earlier about your "favorite" battery charger.
Recently I noted that Walmart is now carrying a line of Black & Decker chargers. They resembled the Vector line. Checking the bottom of the box, lo and behold there was Vector's name.
One of the questions I have is does this Black & Decker charger have the same features as the orginally marked Vector chargers? I cannot find anyone who carries the Vector line locally.
Also, I need both 6v and 12v capability with a numeric readout for the charger. Both the Black & Decker and the Schumacher line of chargers only seem to have 6v capabiity at the low and high end of their offerings...and with the numeric readout only on the highest offering.
Finally, I have been testing a Schumacher 2/8/12A 12v Speedcharger for several weeks. I find that I REALLY like having the capability to monitor the battery's ongoing status via the numeric readout and would highly recommend that feature to anyone. After years of watching an inaccurate meter or a series of idiot lights, it is great to have actual numbers to look at. Are they accurate...well, time will tell.
Thanks for any comments or suggestions.
TMT

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

Finally, I have been testing a Schumacher 2/8/12A 12v Speedcharger for several weeks. I find that I REALLY like having the capability to monitor the battery's ongoing status via the numeric readout and would highly recommend that feature to anyone. After years of watching an inaccurate meter or a series of idiot lights, it is great to have actual numbers to look at. Are they accurate...well, time will tell.
Thanks for any comments or suggestions.
TMT

I have the 40 amp Schumacher with the 100amp start function. I love it.
article on it in http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn/ESSN-Oct2005.pdf
-- Steve Spence Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html

Steve Spence wrote:

Too_Many_Tools wrote:
Finally, I have been testing a Schumacher 2/8/12A 12v Speedcharger for several weeks. I find that I REALLY like having the capability to monitor the battery's ongoing status via the numeric readout and would highly recommend that feature to anyone. After years of watching an inaccurate meter or a series of idiot lights, it is great to have actual numbers to look at. Are they accurate...well, time will tell.
I have the 40 amp Schumacher with the 100amp start function. I love it.
article on it in http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn/ESSN-Oct2005.pdf

I don't see it Steve - what page?
The only Schumacher I could find a picture of doesn't seem to have a numeric readout - what's it show? Short of telling you the actual specific gravity of the cells, is any kind of numeric display going to give you any more accurate a sense of the charge status of the battery than a vaguely accurate dial meter? I doubt it, but then I've always wondered how I could tell that a battery was at 50% charge. -- derek

Well, I appreciate the comments so far.
Then again, why not more? I thought this would be a subject others would find interesting...I sure do.
In answering one of my questions, Walmart is now carrying the Balck & Decker line of chargers that ARE built by Vector. The B&D line of chargers have additional features compared to the previous Vector line. I was able to find a Walmart that had the older Vector line and the newer B&D line so I was able to do some comparsions.
One of the new additions is the ability of the user to select the battery type (wet, deep cycle, agm gell cell). So how important is this new feature...you tell me.
Other features that show up in the more expensive B&D chargers is reconditioning/desulfate mode and an equalization mode.
How useful are these?
I note that the older Vector chargers are being sold for just a few dollars less than the newer B&D chargers with more features.
Does anyone have reviews of the Vector, B&D and Schumacher chargers?
Thanks
TMT

I believe that this is the charger that he is discussing.
http://www.batterychargers.com/details.cfm?prodid=SC%2D10000A&catid=2
TMT

On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 20:24:01 -0800, Too_Many_Tools wrote:

One of the new additions is the ability of the user to select the battery type (wet, deep cycle, agm gell cell). So how important is this new feature...you tell me.
Other features that show up in the more expensive B&D chargers is reconditioning/desulfate mode and an equalization mode.
How useful are these?
Not useful for me! On our trip last year, I tried out one of those by

Vector. I use a #27 China-Mart Trolling battery.
The problem I had was that the Vector would reset to 2A and regular battery settings if there was a shore power hiccup.
You see, I was using the Vector as a power supply for a Koolatron cooler as well. The Koolatron draws 4A. The result of an overnight power hiccup was that when I woke up, I was drawing 2A from the battery instead of maintaining it. Imagine this happening on your last night on shore power and your next stop has no shore power. I wanted a fully charged battery. Well, I used some of those $@#% words for sure!
I returned the Vector and got one of these: http://www.batterychargers.com/details.cfm?prodid=SS%2D51A%2DPE&catid=21 works a charm.
HTH;
-- John & Sue '04 GMC Safari '99 Starcraft Starflyer (Shuttlecraft)

Very good point....from my usage I can easily see this being a real PITA.

From what I am seeing, it would seem that the Vector (B&D) and Schumacher lines are the chargers most commonly available in the retail

channel.
One concern I have with the newer smart chargers is they all seem to have small fans....and they run almost all the time. Long term reliability is a concern since none of these are user replaceable. I suspect that the older transformer based chargers will long out live the newer inverter based chargers.
TMT