Schumacher SC1360 Battery Charger Review

Today will be looking at the Schumacher SC1360 battery charger.  This review will go over all the fine details of what this battery charger has to offer for the everyday fisherman. When I was first looking for a battery charger for my Interstate batteries I had a long list to go through. I spoke to many local pros and some amateur fishermen to see what was the best one for me. In the end, I made my own decision and bought the one that did what I need to do with the right price.

I hope that this review will help you choose the right battery charger for your current situation. It's always good to take somebody else's opinion on something but remember that your situation is different and you need to cater to that. Particularly if you need a marine battery if this will be a good review for you to read.

Features

There are several features that go into this battery charger that you will want to know about. Some of the people have told me they don't like but they do in fact work. I personally haven't had any real problems with this battery charger and it is served its purpose. You should look over the features and specifications that I have and then see if my experience with it meets your needs.

6V / 12V Battery Charging

This battery charger will do 6-volt and 12-volt charging. I personally only have use for a 12-volt charger because that is what by deep cycle battery needs. The best part about this is that it already knows what my battery is as soon as I plug it in. This actual feature can not work if you have a battery that is about to die. I believe it does this automatic checking with the microprocessor by checking the actual voltage when it's connected.

Charge Boost (15 Amp / 8 Amp)

The charge boost is something that's really been super cool but people have told me that it's a bad thing for my battery. it's a stated fact that people believe that a trickle charge of 3 amps is all you need to charge a battery. It will take a significant amount of time to actually charge a battery from empty the full if you do this. I would say about half a day.  with a charge boost of 15 amps or 8 amps, you could be back to ready within an hour or so.

When you put too many amps into a battery to quickly you can break things down and lower the battery life of your deep cycle battery. There are many battery chargers that allow you to do Boost with this fact known. It's only been a year for me and I haven't had any problems yet but I spent these batteries to last five to six years. Right now everything is going well and most of the time it doesn't trickle charge but if I'm within 15 or 20% of full it will try to do a boost to get back quickly. If you don't like this feature I don't see a way to turn it off any instructions or on the device.

Standard / AGM / Gel / Deep Cycle Battery Types

This battery charger will do standard, AGM, gel, and deep cycle battery types.  I'm personally only using a deep cycle battery so I wasn't able to test and verify that it does automatically sends a standard AGM or gel battery type. you do have a selector to choose what kind of battery type you want. I suggest that you follow the guidelines which tell you to do this.

If you try to do a different battery type it will do a different charging sequence which is already put into the microprocessor. This may or may not affect the way that your battery is charged and you should think twice about doing this. They have obviously done their testing on East battery type and how it needs to be charged.

Reverse Hook-up Protection

Hooking up your battery in the reverse fashion is obviously not a good thing. The best thing about this battery charger is that it will try to help you when you mess up. I personally like this because sometimes I make a mistake and I don't want to reap the consequences. otherwise, this is just a very nice feature.

Microprocessor Controlled

Several things are controlled by the microprocessor. the automatic detection of the battery voltage, the type of charging pattern for each battery type, and the use of boost. There may be other things that the microprocessor does but I am not sure of which.

• Connect your battery charger to the battery using the alligator clips. Use the easy method I used to know which plug goes first. When you're adding a plug to the battery you want to use the addition which is the plus mark. You have to do this first before you add the negative table. When you are removing your cables from the battery you remove the negative first which is subtraction. This is an easy way to remember so that when you're out with your car and the battery is dead and you need to do it yourself because nobody is around you won't have to worry about electrocuting yourself

• The first thing you will see is a voltage reading. In the video above I showed you what the reading means. If the reading is above 12.8 you are fully charged. If the reading is between 12.2 and 12.7 you need to charge the battery. That's the reading is below 12.2 your battery is discharged. This is when you want to test if you can actually charge it correctly or if it is no longer holding a charge.

• Select the battery version between deep cycle or cold start (Deep Cycle)

• Select the battery type that you are using (AGM)

• Once the previous steps have occurred you will see the LED screen stay on

• The next reading you'll see is the 12-volt reading. This is the microprocessor verifying that is automatically detected that your battery is a 12-volt battery and not a 6-volt battery

• After a few seconds, you will see a new reading for the battery level indicator. This will show you the percentage that your battery is charged. This is not as accurate as using the voltage in the first step. If you believe that your battery has been charged too quickly from the Boost you can always go back to the process and verify the voltage on the battery is above 12.7

• You will see the screen rotating between the 12-volt indicator and the battery level indicator. This will continue until the battery level reaches 100%.
• The screen will turn off to save energy but it will continue charging. if you click on any of the buttons it will turn the screen back on.
• Once it has reached 100% then you will see it go into a different mode which is verified by the indicator on the very center of the product. this is called maintain mode. it will do a trickle charge to keep it at 100% and nothing more.

Tips

1. My first step would be to make sure you know what type of battery you're using. You can technically use an AGM or gel or deep cycle for your trolling motor. Most people will just get the cheap version which is the deep cycle but you have to know which is which.
2. You should keep track of the percentage of a battery charge when you are charging. There are an automatic shut-off feature and a maintainer but I don't like the overuse those.
3. Make sure not to place your battery charger to close to your actual battery when it's charging. This suggested be at least three feet away and I believe that is true.
4. Make sure there is ample space around a battery charger because the family come on to cool the microprocessor.  If the battery charger gets too hot then you will have some real issues.
5. You can use the hooks on the battery charger that hang on the wall if you want to save space
6. If your battery is dead the battery LED indicator will tell you a specific code to let you know that it is dead or dying. This really means it is not getting a power reading that is 6 or 12 volts from the battery. A faulty battery can also give it the same reading so you'll know when to replace it.
7. If you don't want to use the Boost I believe that you should use up your battery below 75%. if you don't there's a possibility that the 8:00 amp or 15 amp boost will turn on for a specific amount of time. The microprocessor controls all of this and this is what I've seen I love you.

Price

When I went to Amazon to purchase a battery charger I ran across a group of the Schumacher battery chargers. I didn't know which one to get or the reason to get one over the other. But I did notice is that there were three specific versions. One with a 15 amp only one which is obviously too strong. Then there was a trickle charger version of 3 amp with a boost of 15 Amp. Then you have the version I purchase which did three different amperages. I decided to get mine because it had other features that would protect me from doing dumb things.

I purchased this for around $75.  I believe this is a small price to pay for a high-quality battery charger that has three different amperages and many different safety devices. you can probably find this somewhere else or something similar. However, I haven't tested those and I can't tell you if they will work well or not. When you're working on something that's pushing power into another device that holds power you need to make sure that it won't do something harmful. You're more likely doing this in your house or next to your house and you have to be assured that's going to be safe.

Conclusion

As far as it goes with battery charges this is one that you should utilize. Has all the fancy bells for not the fancy dollars. Look above you can remind yourself of what you get for the dollar amount. I know that you can get a trickle charger for much less but that requires more of your time to make sure that it doesn't properly. You don't want to damage your battery but you do want to save money and I believe this is the product that can get you what you want.

If you're worried about the overcharging of your battery because of the Boost I wouldn't be very afraid. A lot of previous versions of boost were very aggressive and the microprocessors that control them didn't do a very good job. I believe there's more of a chance of it being damaging if you over trickle charge.

have any questions or suggestions please coming down blue or run the email I'm more than happy to assist you in any way I can. Also please go to our YouTube channel to see more great content about fishing and to learn about fishing at work. If you are a freshman and you believe you don't have enough time to go fishing please go to the homepage of his website and click on the link at the top. There you will find a system that will help you fix this problem once and for all.