Review by K. Elhardt for Schumacher SC-1200A SpeedCharge 12/8/2 Amp Charger/Maintainer/Starter/Tester
Rating:
I was hoping to find the Schumacher model 7000A 2/20 Amp charger to review, but this 1200A is just a variation on the same thing. Looks identical too. After reading bad reviews of Schumacher and Vector it’s clear these companies can’t do anything right. Seems any product that has a microprocessor is programmed by the incompetent. Let me tell you about Schumacher speed chargers.

They won’t charge batteries that don’t already have a significant charge. If your battery drops below 10 to 11 volts, forget it. You’d have to have a manual battery charger as backup for when this won’t charge, which eliminates the need for this thing in the first place. The explanation from the company is that the charger has to feed off the voltage in the battery, blah, blah. The purpose of a battery charger is to charge batteries, period. Then I was lied to by the tech and told if I hold down a certain combination of buttons when plugging the unit in, it would go into manual 2A mode (where the processor doesn’t decide it won’t charge your battery), but I sat there on the phone with him doing just as he said, and turns out no such feature exists. The manual doesn’t mention anything like that either.

The charger is totally unpredictable. It almost always goes into desulfate mode. It has never completed a charge after coming out of desulfate mode, but ends in an error. Needs to be unplugged and plugged back in to start charging again to “completion”. However completion doesn’t seem to get the battery to 100% power, more like 80%, if that. Sometimes it won’t charge at 20A and drops down to 2A. Don’t know why. And according to the manual, desulfate mode can take up to 10 hours. So much for speed charge. Need to get into your car and go somewhere? Well you may need to wait until the next day.

It has a retain mode where the charger can sit there and monitor your battery and charge when needed. Figured I’d just leave the thing on my car almost permanently. But those who programmed the thing don’t understand setting upper and lower thresholds. What it should do is charge up to the upper threshold, then when the battery drops below the lower, it charges to the upper again. I therefore expected it to turn on once a day or whatever. Instead it’s turning on and off every several seconds, with the fan and relay clicking on and off. That’s a good way to ware out the unit in no time.

It has a 70A engine start feature just incase you don’t have enough juice to quite start your car, but if the battery is low enough where the charger won’t charge it, the engine start feature won’t work either.

My last car battery was probably only 1.5 years old before it wouldn’t even take a charge. I’m beginning to suspect the damn charger might be responsible. When going into desulfate mode for instance, I see the voltage climb up to well over 16 volts. I don’t know if that’s good for the battery.

The simple act of charging a battery can be turned into a stressful nightmare with this crappy charger. Stay far away from Schumacher. It’s clear they can’t build a realiable charger, nor does it appear they’ve actually tried out their own products before dumping them onto the public.

Review by W. Sandifer for Schumacher SC-1200A SpeedCharge 12/8/2 Amp Charger/Maintainer/Starter/Tester
Rating:
I bought the charger on closeout at Walmart for $41. The ’smart’ function apparently goes to sleep after the battery charge is complete. I watched the voltage indication on the charger drop below 12, and it never resumed charging. After unplugging/plugging back in, the charger got ’smart’ and showed my battery was down to 80 percent. It took 5 hours to bring it back to 100 percent. The same thing happened on the second cycle (deep cycle boat battery). Last time around, the charger aborted and had to be plugged/unplugged several times to finish the charge. I emailed Schumacher for help and got no reply. This is my second defective out-of-the-box Schumacher charger in a row. This one is going back just as the first one did. If I had left the boat for long, the battery would have run down, and the bilge pump would have quit — not good on a wooden boat. Buy a real charger.

Review by WDT3 for Schumacher SC-8000A Speedcharge Charger/Maintainer
Rating:
The meter accuracy on the SC-800A was within 0.05 volts, and the charging algorithms appear to work well, although they are not described in the instructions.

I observed that the voltage was generally limited to 15.5 for regular, 16.0 for deep cycle, and 14.7 for AGM batteries. The 30 amp capability is in the form of a long timed pulse of about 2 minutes followed by 12 amps for a similar time period, then repeating until the voltage has risen enough that it isn’t required. The amperage isn’t constant, it tapers down to limit the voltage in typical CC/CV fashion, although the algorithm appears to actually be more complex. For instance, on a particular AGM battery it went to 15.5 volts near the end of the charge (95%) with current at about 1.5 amps for about 30 minutes and then stopped (completed). I suspect that this was an automatic attempt to condition the battery. A DieHard 71227 charger (Schumacher makes the DieHard 71227 charger) did the same thing. After three discharge cycles, it stoped doing the “high-voltage treatment”. Also, in AGM mode it went to 15.5 volts briefly during one of the 40 amp cycles. Although the instructions for DieHard Platinum and Odyssey batteries say to choose a charger with

Review by J. Heideman for Schumacher SC-8000A Speedcharge Charger/Maintainer
Rating:
So far so good…..I have only had this charger a couple of weeks. My only use so far was to charge and check several batteries I keep in my barn for the winter. So far I am very pleased with its performance. It seem to work just like the instructions indicate. I have used it on two small quad runner batteries, two spare car batteries, and 2 deep cycle trolling motor batteries. They all went through the initial diagnostic check, and then when I switched it they went into the charge mode. One of the small batteries went into the desulfating mode, then the charge mode and now seems to working better. Charger seems to built very well, and came vey well packaged for shipping.

Review by Chris J. Crash for Schumacher SC-8000A Speedcharge Charger/Maintainer
Rating:
Schumacher SC-8000A Speedcharge Charger/Maintainer

I have had various 12v battery chargers. The ones that I have usually bought were trickle charge types. My first one did not have a sensor and I blame that for killing a 1 year old garden tractor battery. My second unit that I bought for $30 or so had a sensor to avoid overcharging. It lasted 10-15 years but it started to have problems. It just seems to stopped charging altogether when its ‘trouble’ light came on. It started becoming frustrating when all my automotive batteries started to die about the same time and the charge just did not work. Thank the lord that I now have what appears to be a really good unit.

So far I have successfully used the Schumacher SC-8000A to trickle charge my garden tractor battery, jump start my car, rapid charge my diesel truck (which as diesel owners know, has two batteries), and rapid charge an auxiliary battery (an Optima YellowTop). I did try to jump start my diesel truck and it did not work. I only tried to crank it once and I wasn’t sure that it would work. Once you crank it, the unit prevents you from trying again for several minutes. I was not in a hurry so I rapid charged it myself. So far I am satisfied. I am hoping that it continues to work well and lasts a long time. Time will only tell.