DieHard 10/2/50 amp. Automatic Battery Charger for $29.99 w/free store pickup

This unit was on sale in July for $27 so it's not priced at the lowest it's been, although by using shop discover the cash back matches that price. It's a good unit as it's automatic, charges both AGM and standard batteries, offers three charging rates.

Quote from nohomers1:
There seems to be alot of confusion over the different types of devices. Let me provide some explanation:

1) Portable battery jump (i.e. Peak 900):. These are a rechargeable battery that you keep in your car and hook up to your battery in the event it died (i.e. you left the lights on all night). It's the equivalent of hooking your car up to another car's battery with jumper cables. You plug the device back into an outlet to recharge it for it's next use.

2) Plug-in battery charger (i.e. this DieHard one): These are battery charges which plug into a wall and generally have adjustable current. They are intended for batteries which are dead or low and need complete recharging (i.e. a car that's been sitting for a few months while you were working on it, a lawn mower battery that hasn't been used since last year, etc). These are also used for completely recharging a dead battery. Remember that a completely dead battery will regain some of it's charge from the alternator in your car, but you ideally want to fully recharge your battery with a unit like this (or many shops will do it for you). I've heard that not fully recharging your battery after it's died and relying only on your alternator causes increased load on the alternator and may cause it to prematurely fail. I don't know how true that is in today's cars.

3) A battery maintainer: These are devices indended to prevent the scenario in #2 (i.e. prevent a battery that isn't being used from completely draining). This is ideal, as you really do not want an automotive battery to fully discharge. They are commonly used for vehicles that are used occassional/recreationally (i.e. motorcycles, vintage cars) or off-season downtime (i.e. lawn mowers).

I have a Peak 600, and have used it countless times. I will probably buy this recharger to use to fully recharge my battery when I return home after having jumped it with the Peak.

Repped and ordered.
I'm not sure whether Discover will give the cashback for store pickup at Kmart

Quote from sdyccyb : Repped and ordered. I'm not sure whether Discover will give the cashback for store pickup at Kmart

They do. Kmart is listed on the Discover Website as well though the Ordering system for both K&Smarts are the same now.

Quote from Katman : This unit was on sale in July for $27 so it's not priced at the lowest it's been, although by using shop discover the cash back matches that price. It's a good unit as it's automatic, charges both AGM and standard batteries, offers three charging rates. Quote from nohomers1: There seems to be alot of confusion over the different types of devices. Let me provide some explanation: 2) Plug-in battery charger (i.e. this DieHard one): These are battery charges which plug into a wall and generally have adjustable current. They are intended for batteries which are dead or low and need complete recharging (i.e. a car that's been sitting for a few months while you were working on it, a lawn mower battery that hasn't been used since last year, etc). These are also used for completely recharging a dead battery. Remember that a completely dead battery will regain some of it's charge from the alternator in your car, but you ideally want to fully recharge your battery with a unit like this (or many shops will do it for you). I've heard that not fully recharging your battery after it's died and relying only on your alternator causes increased load on the alternator and may cause it to prematurely fail. I don't know how true that is in today's cars.

One thing to remember is that letting your alternator charge a dead battery, after it is jumped, can put a lot of stress on the alternator. If you look on a lot of auto parts websites for the product descriptions of alternators (such as on advancedautoparts.com), you will see a warning about how letting the alternator charge a dead battery can make it overheat. We all do it after someone jumps our car and we get away with it. What choice do we have when we're in the mall parking lot or if we're going to be late getting to work? However, it is better to let the battery charger do the heavy lifting, whenever possible to extend the life of your alternator.

Picked one up using Shop Discover. Unfortunately, SD doesn't get the referral when we use the link through Discover. Wish we could have it both ways, My first priority is to save $$, but SD is, by far, my favorite website/forum!
Thanks OP! TU and reps!

Well I just about pulled the trigger last time this was at this price, and I didn't. I regretted it. Bit on this right away. Thanks for the deal!

Looks like it's DEAD for shipping. Still available at local stores, but the nearest one to me is 12 miles x 2 (round trip) = 40 minutes of my time and $4 in gas to pick it up. Worth it?

Quote from zeth006 : Curious. Is this also good for charging car batteries that have discharged after a few months of inactivity? I have the battery tender which I got for $20 on Amazon, but I learned the hard way it can only charge batteries with 8 volts already, so I had have someone at Pepboys use their more advanced charger to charge it part of the way before the Tender would work.

Yes, that's a safety feature, I think. If the charger doesn't see any voltage on the leads, it could mean something's wrong, like
· You're charging your battery while it's installed in the car, and your car has a dead short [thefreedictionary.com].
· The battery charger is plugged in, turned-on and the leads are touching.
· The battery itself has an internal short.

In any of these situations, Sear's lawyers wouldn't you might not want the charger to operate.

Since the charger just has to see that minimum Voltage, all it takes is another ~12V source to start the charging process. Connect the charger to the dead battery and jump it for an instant from a jump box or another vehicle (ignition off recommended). The charger sees voltage and turns on. PITA, works for me, but certainly not convenient. AFAIK, they're all that way now.

I've been looking for an old "unsafe" charger, myself.

Also, you heard right. Using your car to charge dead batteries with kill the alternator, sooner or later. It's just not built for that.

this work on boat batteries?

Good deal. Thanks.

Thanks OP!

I have an old car with the alternator now giving out about 13V. Mechanic said that the diode is 'dead'. I don't really know what that means. The alternator seems to be running fine for now but probably won't last long. Is this battery charger a good thing to have instead of replacing the alternator? Not planning to spend more money on the old car. Should I use this to charge the battery from time to time?

Just picked one up price rang up for 69.99 placed ordered online and 30.00 later I am out the door. Like some people have mention it appears to be good quality.

Seems like a good price. In for one with free store pickup. Tried to get the free Max rewards shipping program someone else posted about earlier, but that code doesn't work anymore. $32.00 with tax, I'm good. Thanks!