Warning - Schumacher Battery Maintainer - Design Flaw
12-18-2011, 12:19 PM
#41
Safety Car
Member Since: Mar 2009
Location: Northeast MA & Mad Beach FL
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Maybe not everyone with a Schumacher has this problem or has experienced this problem.
Most reputable maintainers have a safety feature in case of a short circuit of some kind to shut down the charger.
But if the manufacturer says it's normal for the charger to shut off for what ever reason and then not recover and keep charging afterwards, what good is that
Maybe I'm missing something, but I was under the impression the whole point of having a battery maintainer is for storing a vehicle or just keeping the battery maintained.
I have the Battery Tender Plus and whether it's a power failure, or a battery drain, it recovers and continues working to keep the battery fully charged.
I'll go out to the car during winter storage and tinker with the interior or try out a few new CD's.
After an extended time in the car, I'll see the Battery Tender go into Charging mode if the battery drains below 100%.
That's how I would expect any brand charger to work
Most reputable maintainers have a safety feature in case of a short circuit of some kind to shut down the charger.
But if the manufacturer says it's normal for the charger to shut off for what ever reason and then not recover and keep charging afterwards, what good is that
Maybe I'm missing something, but I was under the impression the whole point of having a battery maintainer is for storing a vehicle or just keeping the battery maintained.
I have the Battery Tender Plus and whether it's a power failure, or a battery drain, it recovers and continues working to keep the battery fully charged.
I'll go out to the car during winter storage and tinker with the interior or try out a few new CD's.
After an extended time in the car, I'll see the Battery Tender go into Charging mode if the battery drains below 100%.
That's how I would expect any brand charger to work
12-18-2011, 02:38 PM
#42
I don't think the "opening the door thing" has anything to do with it. It has done this "flashing red light thing" on me twice now in the past few weeks. Once on my Impala and once on my Vette. And I never touched the car or opened the doors and the red lights came on...... It did this a few days ago on my Vette, so I just unplugged it and plugged it back in. And it started charging again. After an hour or so, the green light came on showing it was fully charged, so I unplugged it and let it go. So, I am thinking that when the charger senses that the battery is fully charged, that it accidentally shuts off. I have one more battery to charge (that is completely dead) (78 Vette) in a few days, so I'll put it on that car and see what happens. Also, when I use it on my 78 Vette, I leave the door open all of the time because the battery is behind the driver's seat. So, I have to leave the door open all of the time to keep the door from crushing the cord. And I have never had an issue with it on that car. So, maybe it's just something on the newer cars that causes it. I'll see.
Last edited by Jimmy W1; 12-18-2011 at 03:01 PM.
12-19-2011, 03:23 PM
#43
OK. Last night about 2 a.m. I put the battery charger on my 1978 Vette to charge it up. It wasn't completely dead as I expected it would be, because the interior light came on when I hooked up the charger. I went out this morning about 11:00 a.m. and it was still charging. I went out again about 45 minute ago (2:30) and it was fully charged with the green light on. So far, no flashing red lights. I have had the door open a couple of times. And it looks like it is OK. So, maybe something on the C6s are causing them to act funny? I don't know. I had the flashing red lights happen twice with newer cars, but nothing on the 78 so far. I'll leave it on and see what happens.
