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Review on ⚡ Powerful Schumacher SC1279 8A 12V Rapid Charger - Supercharge Your Vehicle's Battery in No Time! by Darrin Lucas

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Excellent quality although charge times may be longer than expected

Bottom line I think this is a Schumacher SC1279 12V fully automatic charger and 8A maintenance unit - a great deal. I definitely justified my money, even for one use. Charging my dead car battery took longer than I expected - around 20 hours to fully charge a dead battery. However, the estimated charging time of 3.5 to 8.5 hours given in the user manual is based on a 50% empty battery, while mine was probably almost 100% empty. I bought this device in 2011 to charge my son's dead car battery. Suzuki. He's out of state and I drove his car once a week for about 30 minutes to recharge the battery. I was driving it on a cold winter morning and the engine would not start. The evacuation service came to start the battery, but the mechanic warned me that it was almost empty and that although it can be started from an external source, it will not charge unless I drive the car almost continuously for several hours. or an electrical charger is used to charge the battery. His battery could jump and I drove the car for about an hour. The next time I tried to start it, a week later, it started quickly and I drove it for half an hour, but another week later the engine wouldn't start at all; Not even the dashboard lights came on. So I followed the mechanic's advice and bought this charger. Having never used such a charger before, I carefully read the instructions printed in English and Spanish and found them clear and understandable. They included instructions for both charging a battery still connected to the car and charging a battery removed from the car. I was glad I didn't have to unplug the battery and remove it from the car to use the charger. I was also pleased to learn that the power cord from the charger to the two-prong plug that plugs into the outlet is 80 inches (6'8") long, while the charging cord is 89" (7'5") long . ).The longer length meant there was no need for an extension cord, which the manual warns against using unless absolutely necessary.Following the instructions, I connected the black/negative clip to the car's chassis (NOT the negative terminal on the battery) and the red/positive clip with the positive lead. Then I connected the charger and turned it on. The yellow charge indicator on the unit showed that the battery was charging. After two hours the yellow charging light was still showing that the battery was charging but I wanted to check if the battery had enough charge to start the car. I turned off the unit, unplugged, disconnected the charging cables and tried to start the car. The engine started still didn't come on and the indicator lights still didn't come on. I plugged everything back in and another seven hours later, when the amber charge light was still showing the battery was charging, unplugged everything and tried to start the car again. Again I ran out of battery power and started to worry that the device wasn't working as after nine hours of charging I was still not getting the slightest bit of battery juice. I plugged everything back in, crossed my fingers and let it charge overnight. In the morning, after about 20 hours of charging, the yellow charging indicator went out and the green charging/maintenance indicator came on. Of course, once I turned everything off and started the car, it started straight away. I don't plan on using the maintenance feature, which lets you keep the device on and connected to the battery so it doesn't run out of power after it's fully charged, so I can't speak to that feature, but I'm glad I was able to fully charge a dead car battery in less than 24 hours for the low price. This was longer than I expected as the manual states that with an 8A charger a 50% discharged battery will be fully charged in 3.5 to 8.5 hours depending on the battery rating (CCA (Cold Cranking Amps)). should be charged. The car battery I charged was 100% empty instead of just 50%, no wonder it took significantly longer to fully charge.

Pros
  • Great overall performance
Cons
  • I vaguely remember