Schumacher SC1279 8A 12V Rapid Charger

The bottom line, in my view, is that this Schumacher SC1279 12V Fully Automatic Battery Charger and 8A Maintainer is a great deal. I definitely got my money’s worth even from just one use. It did take longer to charge my dead car battery than I expected – about 20 hours to fully recharge the fully-discharged battery. However, the estimated 3.5 to 8.5 hour charging times listed in the user’s manual are based on a 50% discharged battery, while mine was probably close to 100% discharged.I bought this unit to charge the fully-discharged car battery in my son’s 2011 Suzuki. He’s out of state, and I’d been driving his car once a week, for about 30 minutes each trip, to keep the battery charged. One cold winter morning I went to drive it, and the engine wouldn’t turn over. A towing service came out to jump-start the battery, but the mechanic warned me that it was almost fully discharged, and that while it could be jump-started, it wouldn’t recharge unless I drove the car nearly continually for several hours, or used an electric charger to recharge the battery. He was able to jump the battery, and I drove the car for about an hour. The next time I went to start it, a week later, it started up promptly and I drove it for a half-hour, but a week after that, the engine wouldn’t turn over at all; even the dashboard lights wouldn’t turn on. That’s when I took the mechanic’s advice and bought this charger.Having never used a charger like this one before, I carefully read the instructions, which were printed in both English and Spanish, and found them clear and straightforward. They included directions both on how to charge a battery still connected in the automobile and on how to charge a battery removed from the vehicle. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to disconnect and remove the battery from the car to use the charging unit. I was also happy to discover that the power cord, from the charging unit to the 2-pronged plug that plugs into the wall socket, is 80” (6 feet 8 inches), and the charging cable is 89” (7 feet 5 inches). The long lengths meant there was no need for an extension cord, which the instructions caution should not be used unless absolutely necessary.Following the instructions, I connected the black / negative clip to the car chassis (NOT the negative terminal on the battery) and the red / positive clip to the positive terminal. I then plugged in the charging unit and turned it on. The yellow charging light on the unit indicated that the battery was charging.After two hours, the yellow charging light still indicated that the battery was charging, but I wanted to see if the battery had recharged enough to start the car. I turned off the unit, disconnected it from the outlet, removed the charging cables, and tried to start the car. The engine still wouldn’t turn over, and the dashboard lights still wouldn’t go on. I reconnected everything and then, after another seven hours, with the yellow charging light still showing that the battery was charging, disconnected everything and again tried to start the car. Again, I got no power from the battery, and began to worry that the unit wasn’t working, as I was still not getting even a little juice from the battery after nine hours of charging. I reconnected everything, crossed my fingers, and left it to charge overnight.In the morning, after about 20 hours of charging, the yellow charging light had gone off and the green charged/maintaining light was lit. Sure enough, after I disconnected everything and started the car, it turned over instantly.I am not planning to use the maintaining function, which allows you to leave the unit on and connected to the battery to keep it from draining after it has been fully charged, so I can’t speak to that function, but I am delighted that for the low price, I was able to fully recharge a totally dead car battery in less than 24 hours. That was longer than I expected it to take, as the manual indicates that with the 8A charging unit, a 50% discharged battery should be fully recharged within 3.5 to 8.5 hours, depending on the battery’s CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) rating – but as the car battery I was charging was around 100% discharged, not just 50%, it’s not surprising that it took significantly longer to fully recharge.

It's compact and can be hung by the hook up out of the way. Schumacher has been in the automotive service tool industry for years and has a good reputation for being dependable.

I purchased this and connected it to my bus; the batteries had rundown in it , and I was going to be gone during the winter. I left not knowing if it was working or not. I returned almost two months later and was very pleased to see it had recharged the batteries , and was now in maintenance mode.

Is a good charger/tender. The older model I had was better, had a screen letting you know what charge battery was at and if battery was good. If battery fully dead takes 8 hours so is realy slow but still good. Had to get new one since loaned old one and never got back. Seams good construction cables are little shorter then old model as well. Maybe higher price one might have longer cable. Works for me but might not for someone else

Great product

Bought to maintain an rv battery but it worked great charging a low car battery as well. Definitely worth getting for either purpose

Simplicity. I just wanted a simple, straightforward battery charger that would safely charge and maintain the battery on a car that is not used very often. This one fit those requirements and the price was reasonabble.

It is advertised as a charger and a jump starter which is true as long as your car battery fails and is close to an electrical outlet, not true if battery fails where there is no outlet nearby then it's just another tool you can't use.