Schumacher XC103 SpeedCharge Battery Charger with Engine Start

• 100 ampere engine start for emergency starting
• Self-adjusting, variable charge rates for everyday charging needs and maintaining your battery in peak condition
• Charges and automatically desulfates and restores car, truck, RV, farm equipment, AGM, gel cell and deep-cycle batteries
• 3 amp maintain/5 amp slow/12-30 amp fast charge
• The charger automatically determines whether the connected battery is a 6 volt battery or a 12 volt battery

The charger works great at charging up my auto car batteries. For a nearly dead battery (0.9 volts), it did not seem to charge as it should for the initial charge (shut down after a while and said it was at 80% charge). I then charged a 2nd time (actual charge at startup was then 40 %), and it charged it correctly. Most batteries charge within 1.5 hours time for autos. The LED yellow lights are very hard to see in the sunlight (they should change the color of these). My only complaint is that the clamps are low quality (cheap) and they should charge a few more dollars and install heavy duty (stronger) clamps.

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I really wanted to like this charger: Schumacher XC103 SpeedCharge Battery Charger with Engine Start. On paper it seems to do everything I need. The big problem is that it keeps generating an F06 error code when charging on the Fast Charge Rate setting. The manual says this means "The charger detected that the battery may be getting too hot (thermal runaway)." and that "The charger automatically shuts the current off if it detects the battery may be getting too hot or the battery may have a shorted cell. Have the battery checked or replaced." This means the charging is stopped before the battery is fully charged.

The charger generates the F06 code on two different brand new batteries. Also, if I use the Slow Charge Rate setting the same batteries charge just fine so I do not believe that the batteries are defective. There must be something wrong in the charging logic for the Fast Charge Rate setting.

I tried several times to get Schumacher customer support to help me resolve the problem. The Schumacher support staff is useless. They kept sending me the section from the manual that describes the F06 error code. I already knew this information; which I carefully explained on my initial e-mail to Schumacher and on all subsequent e-mails to Schumacher. They persisted in not answering any of my questions, but just resent the F06 error code section from the manual. When I finally insisted that the charger must be defective Schumacher finally agreed to replace the charger with a new or refurbished charger. Since I just bought the charger a refurbished charger was not an option in my opinion.

Another annoyance is the poorly designed cord storage system. Both the AC and the charging cables are very stiff making them difficult to coil. I'm not sure why the cables need to be this stiff. My old charger had cables that were much easier to coil and stow. In addition the two posts provided for cable storage on the back of the unit are totally inadequate for the task; they simply cannot hold both sets of cables (they barely hold just the AC cable) and it's way too much trouble to try and coil the wires around these posts. The only solution I found was to not use the cable storage posts at all and simply coil the wires. I then used a piece of twine or a velcro strap to keep them coiled (all in all this is a nuisance).

Based on thes problems and the extremely poor customer service, I regretfully decided to return the charger to amazon.com for a full refund.

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I purchased this due to needing to replace an older unit . I have a very short commute and in the winter My car doesnt get driven enough to

mantain a full charge on it's battery. I Used this for the first time the other day and it brought my dead DieHard Gold battery back to life after having left my lights on overnight. total charging time in the fast mode was 1.5 hours. I have used this in trickle mode and starting mode and all work perfectly .

Highly reccomend this item

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Purchased this for all battery charging on my farm and for the trolling batteries for my boat. This charger is super fast. It automatically tells you what voltage the battery is and what is the percentage of charge on the battery.. Could not ask for a better charger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I needed something that could recharge batteries and i did not want to have to worry about over charging. I also wanted something that was automatic so anybody could use it. This products meets that! I hooked it up plugged it in and an hour later my dead battery was charged. I left it connected for about 5 hours to really get a full charge and the charger went into maintenance mode. Love the product.