Customer Reviews

Schumacher SSC-1000A SpeedCharge Battery Charger and Maintainer with 50-Amp Battery Clips

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First, let me say that this charger performs flawlessly and deserves five stars when it is in charging mode. I have used it for three years and hundreds of successful charging cycles on a dozen different batteries of various sizes and types.

However, on two different occasions and with two different batteries (both brand new when hooked to the charger) I left them in "trickle charge" mode. The batteries were part of an emergency communications station that must to be ready at any time with full batteries. This charger burned up both batteries after three months of trickle charging. This mode is supposed to allow a battery to be hooked up indefinitely and maintain it at peak performance. Not destroy it. Other folks in the emergency communications service use other chargers and leave them in trickle mode for years. DO NOT use this charger for that kind of operation.

Battery chargers and I have never gotten along. I actually once sold, what turned out to be, a perfectly good old snow plow truck because I thought something serious was wrong with the engine. The charger showed the battery was good, so I figured it had to be the engine and it was too old and rusty to put more money into it. The guy came to pick it up, gave me $200...stuck a new battery in it, and drove it away. It was a bad charger not a bad battery.

Recently, using what I thought was a more reliable charger, I couldn't get my batteries to fully charge. Rather than blaming the batteries this time, I purchased the Schumacher. I read good things about the brand on the web and took the plunge. I couldn't be happier. This is a hi-tech charger with all the bells and whistles. It is "stupid proof" as well, and lets you know what is going on as it charges. I love it! I am now able to fully charge all my batteries, and the other charger went into the trash. I highly recommend this automatic speed charger.

Build Quality:
* Great build quality. Has the look and feel of a well engineered product, not some cheap stuff.
* I smiled when I lifted it first as it wasn't feather light and appeared to have decent enough weight to it - an indication of a decent power supply.
* This one seems to be rated for marine use and hence should be more resistant to corrosion.
* The connector cables are thick enough and the clamps have enough spring action/grip to them to securely lock on a battery terminal.

Design:
* Very user friendly with direct 1 touch access to most features.
* I liked the case design. Has a neat little pocket to store the power chord and the connecting cables. The chord and the cables do need to be tightly rolled up first before they can fit in the pocket.
* It's got a neat little handle that you can use to hang it up on the wall. Neat design if battery charging is something that you do more frequently and want to have the unit easily accessible, ready to use but out of the way off the floor.

Features:
Well, I haven't used it extensively enough (Used only twice since I got it a month back), but here are some features that were used (and so experienced) when I used the charger:
* Shows level of charge on a battery - both in percentage as well as volts. Big readout makes it easy to read all the numbers.
* Has user selectable 2/6/10 amp charging options - good for most batteries. Would have liked a 1 amp option as well (for smaller motorcycle batteries), but then that's a different product from Schumacher. The 2 amp option, though slightly higher than recommended, worked great for the motorcycle battery though. So this unit really allows charging a wide range of batteries- for motorcycles, cars, boats. Nice to have just one charger around rather then 1 for each type of vehicle/battery.
* The electronics worked just as mentioned. Once I selected the primary amp setting, everything else was handled automatically by the charger electronics. It switched to a trickle mode charge automatically once the battery was completely charged. Neat feature, keeps your batteries from being damaged by overcharging.
* Has a desulfation mode that desulfates a battery. Of the two instances when I used this charger, it kicked into this mode on my car battery which was completely drained and was left in the completely discharged state for quite some time that resulted in sulfation in the battery. This charger automatically detected this state of the battery and desulfated it first and then automatically switched to charging mode once the battery was desulfated and accepted charge. (I will be honest with you - I don't really know the chemistry and process behind this, but I have read that sulfation can render a battery useless)
* Has a cooling fan to keep the charger cool. Not exactly whisper quiet, but not something that's louder than expected (YMMV) for the application.

Reliability:
Have only owned it for a month and used it twice, so can't really comment on long term reliability. But it has worked perfectly on the two instances I had to use it including it's "automatic" features. So, for the price (I got it when it was about 50% of MSRP at Amazon), it's one awesome, feature-rich charger.

Bought the Schumacher SSC-1000A for a "weekender" automobile that spends most the time in the garage. As obligations build up, sometimes too much time goes by between start-ups and significant drives to recharge the battery. The last time, the battery completely died... not even a dim glow of the dome light, nothing, zilch, nada. Sometimes the jumpstart devices don't have enough power to crank a very low battery, so I was looking for another type of solution. The SSC-1000A works great. It's a plug-in machine, feeding off electricity from a household outlet. It's compact and lightweight, about the size of a box of chocolates. Connect the SSC-1000A to the positive battery terminal and the ground post (on the vehicle), plug the SSC-1000A into the power outlet, and the charging process begins automatically. Walk away, and in a couple of hours you have a charged battery! There is a display that can alternate between voltage and % of battery power, as well as a selector for charging rates of 2A (slowest charge), 6A, or 10A (fastest charge.) My 0% battery was resurrected to 100% in about two hours using 6A and 10A. There is another selector to choose between regular, deep-cycle, and AGM gel cell batteries.

The Schumacher SSC-1000A works exactly as I thought and hoped it would. I am most satisfied with the purchase and highly recommend the SSC-1000A to others who might be looking for a similar solution.

Simple and intuitive to use. % of charge in battery, and toggle to voltage is a natural.

I hate fried batteries!
Old type chargers love to fry batteries.
This charger is the best. Besides regular batteries it charges gel type batteries. Great charger!

the charger worked great. it's only flaw is it needs a high amperage boots. my battery was completely dead and i had to use my old charger which had a 50 amp boost. this put enough life in the battery for the 1000a to see a charge and Finnish the job. my old charger wouldn't charge the battery any more but the boost portion still worked, thank goodness. i also use it to maintain the battery as this car sits most of the time.

The charger works well. I needed a charger for my boat and I did not want to spend too much. Schumacher is a reliable brand and is a great alternative to a quality mounted on-board unit ($200). I would highly recommend this product!

I have been making do with an old Sears battery charger for about 40 years. I bought a motor home with 3 batteries and thought I ought to get a better battery charger. Well this one is like stepping up to a full battery maintenance store, you can select the type of battery, it can't be connected backwards (it tells you if you do), it checks the voltage and charge level of the battery and charges at three user selectable levels. If the battery is sulfated it has a fix for that, and it tells you when the battery is full charged as well as turning itself down. I checked and charged all three batteries in my motor home and one in my boat in one afternoon..........amazing! Great product.

Excellent charger that meets today's batteries. ie: can switch between regular (acid) or gel batteries along with excellent monitoring and testing.