BatteryMINDer 128CEC2: 12 Volt-2/4/8 AMP Lead Acid Battery Charger, Lithium (LiFePO4) Battery Maintainer, and Battery Desulfator

Excellent battery charger/maintainer at a great price ($135). Includes a Temp Sensor that isn’t inside the unit (which can be fowled up by the device getting warm), uses sae plugs, is always desulfating when there is a charge (awesome feature - others only do it when you set them to that mode), and can charge regular, gel and Agm batteries. This may not look like the fanciest battery charger, but it definitely gives every other one out there a run for their money - and a good one at that. You may have to know a little bit more about what’s going on (eg selecting the right amperage - if you’re not in a hurry and the battery is unplugged go with the lowest, or if there is load on it to with the option that is just above the load). I know that desulfation works, Ive used it to recover batteries (although it takes a while) - and this one conveniently analyses and revives batteries over time. My previous Noco g3500 would charge a dead battery and then you’d have to put it into revive mode, but that usually stopped after a given period of time. If a battery is very compromised it can take a very long time & as part of the process the battery will need to be given more charge (as capacity increases). This guy charges the battery fully and desulfates while conducting an analysis every 12 hours. It works well and is a dream to have. In addition it can charge up to 6 batteries at once (I picked up a 5 point sae connector for ~$14) which is awesome for a charger at this price point. The only downside is that all the batteries have to be at the same level of charge (and General condition). Because of that I do like the Noco multi bank chargers, but once again they are much more expensive. Oh, and you can get a longer “at the battery” Temp Sensor if you mount yours to a wall & want to charge a vehicle that’s outside (and there is a light that indicates the general range of the Temp Sensor so you can make sure it’s working correctly). Another great feature is the fact that this is ‘future proof’ in a way. My Noco g3500 has an AGM setting, but it doesn’t put out at a high enough voltage for batteries like the optima. For that you have to get a higher tier charger (in the case of Noco it would be a charger that has “AGM+”). That’s a great feature to have if you ever plan on getting a different type of battery. Regarding parasitic loss - I haven’t tested it personally, but my understanding is that when the device is just maintaining the actual power draw is very low (and can be powered by just the battery itself which is probably where the energy comes from when it is waiting in float mode). All in all, I’m very pleased with the purchase. Wish I had gotten one of these a while back! If you want to be cost conscious just get connectors from other manufacturers (the 3 way cable from them is $35 and the main benefits would be the included fuse and knowing the plug fit together easily). Just make sure they have the right fuse in them. I got an extra set of aligator style clamps by battery tender, but they come with a 7.5a fuse so it would be best to swap the fuse if you plan on using it on the 8 amp setting.

This charger is truly amazing. It's easy to use, and the performance is impressive for its size and weight. The intelligent charging profiles, and the "desulfating" capability (or whatever the pulsing actually does), resurrected my 11-year-old wet car battery. The cranking capacity was still good, but it was only charging to a max of 10.6V (measured after a long journey, and rested 12 hours). The very low voltage caused severe engine misfires, along with many trouble codes, including several "failed" sensors, and a resulting "check engine light". I left the battery on this charger for 7 weeks while on vacation. The battery then consistently held a charge of 12.2V (rested), and the car ran smoothly again, with no trouble codes or sensor failures reported. Since then, I left this charger connected overnight as often as possible to see if the battery would improve any further, but it seemed to have reached its peak. About 9 months later, that battery finally began to die, and I had to replace it. Nevertheless, it was impressive to resurrect an 11-year-old battery! If I'd used the charger throughout the life of the battery, It might have lasted even longer. For reference, a new car battery should hold a charge of 12.66V (after fully charging, then resting for 12 hours). A battery with hard sulfation, which tends to discharge rapidly, may not be recoverable. My battery, though very low in voltage, could still maintain a strong charge, and therefore recovered reasonably well. That battery had a rudimentary hydrometer built in with a sight glass on top to gauge its state of charge. A green dot in the sight glass indicates a fully charged battery, whereas a black dot indicates that the battery needs a charge. Once it turns yellow, the battery should be replaced. My indicator was permanently black until I used this charger. Afterward, it remained green for many months. This is the perfect charger to leave connected over weekends, or whenever the car is not being used, to prevent hard sulfation in the first place, to keep the battery in its best possible condition, and to extend its life to the max. Just be aware that a battery in poor condition, if recoverable, may take weeks to restore, and may never reach its full (like-new) capacity. There is no miracle cure for irreversible damage or corrosion inside.

I have had many NOGO chargers that were all bought within a 1 month period. Every one of them is dead and most took batteries with them. Now way back when, I had a batteryminder, this same unit actually. Forgot it in the rain, still worked. Forgot it in the engine bay and went on a 140 mile roundtrip, worked but needed the cord end replaced. What finally did it in was, I forgot it on top of a tire on my f250 and drove over it.. Funny thing is, it still worked, but was no longer weatherproof by any stretch of the imagination. When I look at the amount of batteries the NOGOs killed plus the price of them, this thing is a huge value. The cord length for both cords is long enough that placement is easy no matter what vehicle you use it on. With 2, 4, and 8 amps of current, the charging speed is fast enough for most batteries. My old batteryminder revived 4 tested dead batteries, usually when i jumped the voltage up on them, hooked them up at 2a current, then forgot about them for a month. This new one has already saved my hydraulic trailer battery, 1 of the batteries on my f250 idi, and a battery that was weak but i kept around for testing purposes. Hopefully it will last me as long as my previous one.

This is my 2nd BatteryMINDer product (1st is Model 2012). My 2012 was used on our 4 cars for a couple of years with great success. I bought a few extra of the harnesses to permanently connect to my batteries, and then rotated charger for full weekends on each of our cars. Our batteries were always healthy and happy, even though some were well beyond the typical age where they needed to be replaced. We went full-time in a new 40' 5th Wheel mid-2016, and I learned early on that the cheap Converter/Chargers on almost every rig manufactured in the U.S. are pure junk. They don't charge at the proper voltage (typically around 14.8V temperature compensated for FLA batts) and they don't stay in Absorbsion mode for 2-3 hours after reaching 14.8V to still push Amps in, which is what is required to get batteries truly charged up. I found this new model, the 128CEC1, and looked into the specs. I saw that there was a setting for Odyssey/PLT batteries that had a charging voltage of 14.7V, which is quite a bit higher (and better) than the typical 14.4V that most other chargers are set at. I also noticed that the 128CEC1 keeps charging at 14.7V until the microprocessor sees that the battery is full to the point where it is accepting 0.10V change per hour. In my mind, this is a huge leap forward in charging algorithms for these types of chargers. As batteries get closer to full, they start to self-taper the amount of amps that they will accept. Almost all battery chargers stop charging at the Constant Voltage stage long before the batteries get fully charged. This charger, however, keeps charging at the full voltage (14.7V in my case) until the battery is so full that the change per hour is down to a miniscule 0.10V. That is a big deal. I bought it, and turned off the circuit breaker in my rig that powers my Converter/Charger. I have outlets in several outside compartments, so I mounted this charger in a nearby compartment and ran the cord into the battery compartment. I had installed the heavy duty 15A harness onto my battery bank (2 cheaper Interstate 12V Marine batteries), hooking the + to battery #1 and the - to battery #2. I plugged in the 128CEC1 and away we went. It has been 4 months now, and my circuit breaker to the rig Converter/Charger is taped down in the OFF position. The 128CEC1 has kept my small battery bank healthy and happy. We are plugged into shore power all the time, so the small 12V loads that are used (LED lights, smoke detector, propane detector, C02 detector) are less of a draw than what this charger is capable of handling. I did a Hydrometer test (the only true way to check cell health of wet flooded lead acid batteries) and all cells are totally healthy and measure properly. Water levels are fine. I will add that customer service is pretty bad. People are nice, friendly and helpful but it takes awhile typically to get a person on the line, and emails and voicemail messages are not returned promptly, if ever. Also, I noted a little quirk that I am trying to set aside some time to figure out. If you unplug the charger or unplug rig from shore power, and the 128CEC1 is still left connected to the battery (ies), it shows connected on the face of the charger. When you plug the charger back in or go back onto shore power, the charger reverts back to showing full charge and in Float mode. IMO, it should start off with the initialization readings and go through all of the various testing modes and then start at the proper charging cycle based on the battery voltage. The simple workaround to that is to simply disconnect SAE connection for a short while, plug it back together, and then it goes back into initial testing mode and starts charging at whatever level is appropriate, and then it works fine. Interesting quirk...

Good enough deal, the thing pretty much does everything for you so very easy to use, and I'm not sure about "thickness" but sure, it's the thickest charger money can buy. Anyway in all seriousness, it actually does work. It's already brought back two very sulfated batteries, so it's paid for itself twice, but please understand that this thing takes time to work on badly sulfated batteries Like, up to two weeks. The ones I did seem to be happy with about a week on the charger straight, so this is not going to be an overnight fix for sulfation, but it will charge your battery overnight. This is not a professional desfulfator! It is safe, and slow. Professional units are very costly (>$1,000) and can easily bust a battery wide open if you're not careful, this one you can hook it up and forget about it, for that reason I recommend it to anyone.

Listing should show that this charger is not for Concorde batteries. It is written on the box, and through a link to download the owners manual. Return was handled without problems and have now obtained the correct charger.

I like this model, I have another Battery MINDer with less options and it has performed admirably for years. I tried to hook two batteries to that one and it quit working, so I purchased this one as a replacement. I later found out that the original one had blown a fuse in the fused cable that attaches to the battery, now I have two BatteryMINDers. When I got this one, one of the cables and the owners manual were missing. Sent that one back and got one that hadn’t been used and returned. Very nice quality chargers…both of them. I would highly recommend either of them. Pricey, yes, but you get what you pay for.

I recommend Battery Minder products for anyone looking for trouble-free Battery maintenance. This unit was purchased to replace the one that has maintained both my pickup & 18 wheeler for over a decade. But after a closer inspection I found the 15amp fuse on the lead to my 18 wheeler had blown and once replaced my old unit functioned flawlessly. I have several other vehicles using Battery Minders and all are excellent quality products.