Customer Reviews

Vector VEC1088A Smart Battery Charger (2/6/12 Amp)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've always been a bit of a nerd when it comes to battery chargers. And while this charger doesn't monitor the temperature of the battery as it charges, it certainly manages a good job nonetheless.

Recently I noticed dwindling capacity from the battery in my 2001 Audi S4 Avant ... go figure, it's been cold out in Michigan lately and this is the stock battery that has suffered several complete discharges on accident. Being a non deap-cycle design, letting it sit dead for 24 hours or more at a time is murder on it's lifespan. Its capacity was down to about 25% measured with a state of the art battery tester.

I had the choice of either purchasing a new battery- ~$90 my cost, or buying this charger for $50 at a local Wal-Mart. Not having a good multi-stage charger presently (My prized yuasa charger died a year ago)- I inspected this one carefully. It's "reconditioning" feature drew my curiosity.. and knowing I could return it if it didn't work, I figured what the heck.

My old battery now is up to 80% capacity after 48 hours of reconditioning. It does take a while, each cycle takes 24 hours beyond a normal charge. But, I'm impressed. This isn't some lame surface charge or slow trickle charge, it actually desulfated some of the plates on my battery.

Pros- small, lightweight, heavy gauge clamps and wires. Internal variable speed cooling fan and switching power supply exhibit proper battery charger construction.

Cons- too light. The wires weigh more than it does almost, so it's very easy to 'pull' the charger off of whatever you set it on, possibly making it fall to the ground and damaging it.

Summary: The packaging has a hailstorm of technical information that most buyers aren't going to read, including screenshots from a Fluke scopemeter showing waveform generation comparisons. I think most Wal-Mart buyers are going to look at the $50 pricetag and buy the el-cheapo $19.99 5/50A analog charger and move on, making this excellent product eventually dissapear due to lackluster sales. If you want a good charger, buy this one while it's available. It won't be around forever..

I have purchased two of the VEC1088A chargers, the first about a year ago. With its high frequency switch-mode power supply technology it is very compact and light for a 12 Amp charger. The desulfation mode appears to work well. I had a 5 year old car battery with a green 'eye' state-of-charge indicator. No matter how much I charged this old battery, it would never indicate "green" for "full charge". Using the Vector charger, I ran the desulfation mode twice (two days) and then charged the battery. The charge indicator window on the battery returned to green, indicating that the specific gravity of the acid in the battery was back up to 'full charge' state. One caveat ... the charger has circuitry that prohibits reverse connection and also avoids sparking during hookup. This circuitry requires that the battery have some residual charge so the charger can sense a "real battery" is connected. This charger will not initiate charge on a completely dead battery. To charge a completely dead battery you must initially charge the battery for a few minutes with a 'dumb' charger, then hook up the Vector. With the 12A charge rate, this charger will charge a battery enough to crank a car in only a few minutes. I was impressed enough with my first charger to buy one for my brother. He's been equally impressed. I recommend it.

I was surprised how well this unit worked for it's size. It has a top line of features, easy to use, light weight, and even has a pocket in the rear to hold the cables. The 12 amp max charge rate may be a little low for for someone who needs a boost type charger, but for deep cycle batteries(which I have)this charger is very ideal.

My Personal Thoughts:

- Charger has automatic shutoff which is nice, but battery chargers can't tell if the acid is bubbling over or if the battery is too hot.

- The unit also has a cooling fan for itself, which you can point at the battery if you're worried about gas buildup during charging. Obviously doesn't help if your garage is really small and sealed up.

- Car starting feature is nice. But it's not a booster unit (no builtin battery), so it's not portable if you want peace of mind.

- Threshold for its "float charging" feature should be adjustable. As should the threshold for regular charging.

- Charger maintainins constant current well. But, on a unit that is listed as having a 2 amp mode, will maintain 2.7 amps instead. If you want the amps listed on the sticker the charger should give just that and no more. Factory manuals encourage low amps, so the amps should stay low, unless you set it into the tens of amps.

- Cost of charger can be anywhere around 20-40% the cost of a new battery. If you want to only keep your car for around the normal life of the battery then this charger is economical. Otherwise, you will buy another battery eventually and already will have spent money on this charger too.

- Nice, high-quality aligator clamps. Good construction. Nice cable pocket in the back of the unit.

- If the charger is smart enough to know how much charge the battery has, why can't you ask the unit? Well, that must be the more expensive shop version.

- If you set the battery type to wet, then activate the desulfate mode, the unit will desulfate and then automatically switch back to automatic charge mode, but then forget the battery is wet, and set itself back to gel. Maybe it's safer that way?

- Alternator test mode is nice if your car only has a battery light on the dash and no voltage gauge.

- Open/Shorted battery cell check is nice. Other than using a hydrometer, it's hard to know if you have a bad cell and the charge on the battery is low.

- Overcharged batteries are supposed to give off a bad egg smell. It'd be really nice if, based on what's in those vapors, a charger could smell that and shut off, instead of just watching voltage all the time. (I know this one is a little off)

This review is for the 2/10/20 Amp version, but my guess is that the technology is the same.

Everything I read on this charger told me it was the best I could get (reviews, the user manual, the product description, etc.) However, they (I bought two) simply would not consistently shut off when done charging my deep cycle marine batteries.

I have fairly large batteries (one series 27 and two series 29) and am not sure if that has something to do with it. They get stuck at about 3.2 amps and don't shut off; one night I went to bed and one battery was at 3.2 amps and the next morning it was at 5 amps and the battery was hot and boiling over (not so SMART!). The other battery had been fully charged and the charger shut off. I switched chargers and batteries around and could not find one charger or one battery that it consistently happened on, so it can only be the charger's design. Yes, my batteries are fairly new and I maintain the water level religiously.

Beware if you have bigger marine batteries...the first few times you try any of the Vectors make sure you are home and can check on them now and then to make sure the charger shuts off!

I have basically the same charger made by Peak (exact same design and look) and used the desulfate feature periodically on my previous car's battery. The battery lasted me 10 years despite having drained it completely on several occasions and having left the dome light on overnight numerous times. It's not the fastest charger but it's probably better for the battery. I only wish that the desulfate feature could run more than 24 hours at a time. Sadly the desulfate feature doesn't seem to work in my current car (a Prius) unless I disconnect the battery and I had the battery die after 5 years.

This is a great smart charger that has many functional features. The only thing that makes this charger a challenge is that it is too smart! It will not charge a battery that is completely dead - and there is no way to override it. However, in fairness to the product, if the battery is that dead it likely will need to be replaced soon anyway!

Great charger - fair price, and great warranty! You cannot go wrong!

CHarger died after a few batteries were charged.

Maybe I just got a lemon from the factory. Dunno. Did everything

according to the book, and the POS died on me.

I had to return this charger only after 15 minutes of use. Not sure what went wrong with the charger. But after using it for 15 minutes it shut off and never turned on again. I don't know if it suffers in the heat of Los Angeles. The replacement they sent me went out in the same amount of time. I tried the two chargers on two different batteries and two different outlets. I wanted to make sure it wasn't the battery or the outlets causing the outage. It did not matter. It felt like both chargers overheated and burned out only after 15 minutes of use.