Customer Reviews

Schumacher SSC-1500A Ship 'n Shore SpeedCharge Charger with included battery clamps

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As my title states, this charger handles all four main types of large batteries: Lead Acid Auto Starter batteries, Deep Cycle Marine, AGM and Gel Cell. You select battery type and size and it takes care of the rest. When you first hook up the clips to the battery and plug in the charger, selecting battery type, it tests the battery and gives you the volts available as well as the percentage that battery is currently charged! Many times I've wanted to know that. You then select battery size and it starts charging. If you select 15 or 10 amps, when the battery is fully charged it goes into a maintenance mode automatically! You can leave the charger running forever - and it won't over charge the battery. Also - if your battery is damaged by sulfide build up, it detects that and runs a cycle to clean the battery and give it life again if it can. Wow. I wonder how many batteries I've replaced that could have been revived or kept alive by this charger?! This is going to save me a lot of money.

I purchased a new 850 cc amp deep cycle battery to use as an emergency power source for my amateur radio equipment (I'm a net control storm spotter for the National Weather Service Skywarn network). This brand new battery tested at 95% charged - so I fully charged it (while using the radio) and it worked fine. Charged up to 100% and went into maintenance mode automatically. Took the charger to the farm and connected it to a dead tractor battery. Showed 11% charged and began building the charge immediately. Was up to 15% in about 7 minutes when I had to leave. I'll have to update this review later to let you know if it was able to salvage that poor battery.

I know of no other chargers that test the battery, charge all types of batteries and can safely be left on to maintain them as well. Go check out the cost of Gel Cell battery chargers - and you'll find this is a deal.

BTW, if you forget to turn it from 'test' to 'charge', after 10 minutes or so this charger will automatically charge up the battery and keep it maintained for you! How easy is that?

As others have noted, the percent-charged reading can be grossly misleading. My experience is that when it shows 100%, you can expect to continue charging for another couple of hours before reaching full charge. Other than that, this charger works well. The biggest consideration with this product, however, is life expectancy. While this charger comes with a five year warranty, you are unlikely to get anywhere near that before it dies. This has been my experience with several Schumacher battery chargers. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing in the way of comparable items by other makers to choose from.

I bought this charger to replace a 15yr. old manual charger that finally gave up the ghost. All I can say is that chargers have come a long way over the last decade and a half. This charger was about 1/3 the price of the one it replaced. It's easy to use and does a great job. I would prefer metal construction rather than the plastic, but given the price, that's a minor complaint. The fan is a bit loud, but I don't sleep in my garage so I don't see that as an issue either.

I've used this charger several times. Most recently to revive the battery in my wife's mini van. It was drained to less than 6v when my kids left the interior lights on. In the past, this would have been a death sentence for the battery, but the SSC-1500A was able to recharge it without any problems. It's been over 2 months and her car starts just fine. Considering it's winter in Alaska, that's no small feet for a battery that was drained as far as her's was.

The SSC-1500A was also able to breathe new life into a portable jump start battery that had recently started refusing to accept more than a 50% charge with it's included wall wart. I hooked the SSC-1500A's clamps to the portable batteries clamps, started the charge and left it overnight. The next morning the portable battery was back to full capacity.

I'll say it again, great charger for the price.

I have lived in a remote cabin for over a decade and use and inverter and battery charger daily for my electrical needs. I have found the Schumacher 1500A charger to last for years of daily use.

My dad is 88 years young and drives once a week to the grocery store. "Sometimes" he will drive twice a week if he gets a hair cut or goes to the doctor.

His car battery was ALWAYS going dead and he would need a jump. This charger is GREAT! He plugs it up every two weeks and in a couple of hours his battery is charged to 100%.

This charger works as advertised. My dad (and I) are completely satisfied. If fact, my dad just said yesterday that every household should have one. That's what prompted me to write this review.

We've had this charger for 8 months and have had zero problems.

The charger works great. Some reviews said it makes to much noise, geeez you don't run this in a library. I have no complaints, it's small size is a plus too.

This charger worked great for the most part. I have had the problem where it gets stuck at 85% and keeps running. When I disconnect it and reconnect it it reads 100%.

Lately it started looking like it was charging but it wasn't charging. There is a relay internally that is undersized for 15 A and it had a burned out lead. I repaired it and now it works like it used to. It is really sad that this potentially great product is cripled by some cheap componenents.

I also have had the fan problem with it being really noisy. I peeled the sticker off the fan and put some Lube-One lubricant in it and now it works fine.

Like I said, this is a great charger when it isn't broken.

I thought this item was a bit pricey for a charger. I was pretty sure that it wouldn't live up to the hype. I was wrong. In particular I was skeptical that it would charge batteries that other chargers said were already charged.

The first battery I tried this charger on had recently been charged by another charger. This charger indicated an 85% charge and proceeded to bring that up to 100%. I have several of the Jump-N-Carry units, which have internal chargers. This charger does a much better job of charging the units and will not over charge the batteries.

I have been very pleased with this purchase.

After a call to Schumacher today, I felt it in the interest of potential buyers to be very careful about application of this product. It is NOT a "marine" battery charger. By marine, I mean one that can be used aboard a vessel (ship,boat) that is in the water. It does NOT have isolation and you will make a battery out of your entire vessel and what will suffer is your underwater metal fittings. A proper marine grade (isolated) charger will cost more initially, but is much less expensive than a new prop or a sunk vessel due to a thru-the-hull metal fitting being eaten away. Just a note of caution.

I have a classic car and do not have electricity (or solar) access where it is stored. I've been using this charger with it for two years now off and on. I would not call myself a battery expert by any means, but I thought it might be helpful to others to share my experiences.

If you have a new battery on a late model car, this is a great charger to have handy in case you run it down (leave the headlights on, whatever). This is probably it's main area of usefulness. It's once you cross the threshold to weak or discharged batteries, or batteries left in old cars, that this unit starts to fall down on the job.

First the pros:

-Fully charges a discharged battery reasonably quickly
-Choose between different amp ratings for recharging, permits you to "trickle charge" or max it out at 15 amps
-Light weight, small size means it'll fit in the trunk quite nicely
-Cable storage built into the box
-Has some rudimentary testing capabilities and can display limited information on the LCD display about battery condition
-Estimates the percentage charged
-Both recharges and maintains batteries once charged

Then the cons:

-Battery testing features are not reliable/accurate. I've had this tester report that a battery was bad when it wasn't and, at other times, report that it was fine when a whole cell was dead. Both cases were tested on a much fancier (think >$1k) battery tester and cycler. I was charging the batteries up just to see if I could get the old car out and going after a 3 month rest.
-Very particular about battery connections. If the readout suggests a battery fault, don't trust it. Disconnect and reconnect the cables to the battery to make sure they're seated properly and try again. The alligator clamps can be clipped on to what appears to be the exact same location but give two different readings back to back.
-Yes, alligator clips. That's all you get. There are no other included connectors, and you can't swap them out for your own. Same for the power cord. What this means is that you'll need an extension cord as well, which is not a big deal, but be aware of this going in.
-Charge percentage readout is deceiving. Don't rely on it at all. It will read out 100% charged, but if you disconnect and reconnect the cables to the same battery, within seconds (to move the charger or cables), the charge percentage can drop as low as 45%. If it were 100% down to 95% or so, that would be perhaps within the range of expectation, but not over a 50% drop. This is particularly difficult to believe when the unit then proceeds to charge on up from that low percentage for another hour or so, steadily climbing towards 100% again.

I think for the money, it's a decent charger. Certainly a step up from the old school transformer ones. However, it smacks of cheapness, which fits, considering it's the model sold in WalMart. It serves well as an occasional rescue charger.

My recommendation for anyone serious about battery maintenance and recharging, step it up a notch and look elsewhere. Granite Digital has some nice units suitable for the garage.