Review on Schumacher CR6 Universal Charger Ride by Brian Olson

In general it looks like a good compact charger/container that can be used for other batteries with a set of alligator clips. I have an old Schumacher 1.5A maintainer that I used for the same purpose, but the new design no longer uses the large mains voltage transformer, making it about half the weight. This new one isn't half the size. as fast as 1.5A, which is what I was expecting (without the charger independent swim stage). The current clamp shows 2.05-2.1A dc for a 12 volt SLA battery at 12.5-13.5V. I assume the inside of this device is identical to the 2 amp battery , which Schumacher also sells. Maybe it's top 3A? Not sure, I need to connect o-scope. The circuitry is decent, they use a high voltage rectified stage to pulse current into the battery so the average current is 2A. The surge voltage is about twice the RMS voltage of the battery, but this also depends on the battery. I love how they integrated the output relay, which is important as the output voltage can get pretty high if something goes wrong, so plus a star for that. They also used a thermistor on the heatsink for the output diode, which was supposed to tell the chip to turn off the device if it overheated. The case is not vented, which is good for dust ingress but bad for heat dissipation. The diode will run at around 110F outdoors at full load. It will likely be a lot hotter when it's closed. I'm not sure why so much heat is generated on the diode. At 2A I would expect less than 2W, but additional losses are possible due to the switching frequency used. All in all a good device for the money. I would like to know why it is marked as a 3A charger, maybe it's the average DC for a 6V battery? I don't suggest opening and plugging in the device. The heatsinks are positively connected, so you can get a good hit even with GFCI protection due to the large capacitor.