List Price: $249.00
Sale Price: $153.23
Today's Bonus: 38% Off
Just got this charger recently so I haven't had a lot of time to evaluate it. I like the fact that it is waterproof as some other brands of marine chargers I looked at were not. The charger seems well made and works as advertised. I know some people have taken issue with the fact that the charger switches banks every 5 minutes when charging but this seems a better situation to me than a typical 15 amp, 3 bank charger that only gives each battery 5 amps max. I say this because during the initial charge the batteries will accept the full 15 amps during the five minute sequence and that should help with mixing electrolyte and desulfating the plates, while guarding against heat and boil-over. The Schumacher has true 3 stage (bulk--adsorption--float) charging and the overall charge time seems at least as fast as the typical 15 amp total, 5 amp per bank charger. All in all I am happy with this charger. I have another Schumacher that is over 30 years old and still going strong. While that kind of reliability may be an unrealistic expectation, it makes it all the more likely that this charger will end up being an outstanding value.
Schumacher SS-15A3-OB Ship 'N Shore 15 Amps 12V Automatic On-Board 3-Bank Charger
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Internal cooling fan makes god-awful noises right out of the box (lots of starting/stopping, speeding up/slowing down), which I can live with... but the evidently cheap little fan was not up to the task and died within a couple of months. Pulled it all out of the boat, sent it back under warranty, reinstalled the repaired unit, and, guess what... the same thing happened. The case never gets hot so I just ran it with the non-functioning fan. Kept all three batteries topped off OK for a couple of years.Now I get a red indicator saying one of my batteries is bad. Removed the battery and had it checked at the parts store. Battery is fine. Swapped the charging leads among my three batteries and the charger now says ANOTHER battery is bad (the problem is with the #3 bank in the charger). Doesn't seem to be charging on the third battery now. I don't have time for this crap. I'm just going to pull it out and go with a different unit (Minn Kota maybe).
This is just a cheapo, unreliable unit. I've had several Schumacher products in the past and was pleased with them, but this one is junk.
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