50 year old battery charger

[Geo-TH,In]

I bought charger right after graduating HS over 50 years ago. I've replaced

Power cord. Charging cables and diodes many times. The old girl still works however it can damage a battery if you leave it connected to a battery too long. Ask how I know. So I use a Christmas light timer to turn on for up to 8 hours.
Cover light sensor with tape.

I forgot to take battery out of dump trailer. So I put battery in heated garage and put my 50 year old charger on it for 2 hours. Battery looks much better.

 

[rustyfarmall]

I have one very similar, and maybe a few years older. It's still around here somewhere but I retired it just a few years ago because it wouldn't charge much more than a trickle.

 

[SVcummins]

Those were the good old days when things were made to last

 

[Kansas4010]

I found one identical to it in my dads garage. I decided not to chance it and never tried it.

 

[JMOR]

"Looks" is not everything, Geo. he, he , heeee

 

[Geo-TH,In]

SV.
This charger was made back when you could replace the diodes. Today's new smart chargers everything is an integrated circuit, no parts available.
Rarely have I seen a bad transformer unless it has aluminum wires.
I have replaced the diodes a time or 2 or 3 .

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 16:10:29 01/10/22) SV.
This charger was made back when you could replace the diodes. Today's new smart chargers everything is an integrated circuit, no parts available.
Rarely have I seen a bad transformer unless it has aluminum wires.
I have replaced the diodes a time or 2 or 3 .

ext time, use diode like on left (should say west), instead of as on right. :twisted:

This post was edited by JMOR on 01/10/2022 at 12:22 pm.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Jessie, If I remember, tomorrow I will post a pic of the mother
of all diodes.

 

[Vicinalvictor]

My Dad bought a Sears battery charger like that almost 50 years ago. Been through a barn fire 45 years ago and works as good as it ever did. Everything is original.

 

[gab]

I bought mine in 1976, looks the same except the front panel is red/black and 10 amp. and 6 0r 12 volt.

 

[Goose]

I've had one identical to that for years. Can't even remember when or where I got it.

It still does what it's supposed to do.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

My favorite weighs about 50lbs.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

This is the diode just heating up.

 

[DMartin9N-2N]

Good evening all: Where can I get diodes to repair an old charger that (I suspect) has selenium plate diodes that are bad? When Radio Shack was still in town that is where I would go, but now??? Thanks for any help.

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

I have never tried looking for those original diodes,
but have had success with diodes out of a 55 amp
Motorcraft alternator, if you dont mind a little
fabrication. What kind of charger is it?

 

[DMartin9N-2N]

Hello, Fritz: I am pretty sure my charger is a Schumacher, it is about a foot square and maybe 6 inches high. as well as not charging, it also needs a timer, a spring-wound type. Thanks for any pointers.

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

First of all, Schumacher is still around, try them and
see what is available, assuming you can find a
model number. You may have to go through a
dealer or parts store of some sort. Failing that,
google , electronic parts warehouse, I saw a couple
good ones , one of them claiming to have over
100,000 obsolete parts in stock (sounds like my
kind of place). If you dont see that particular
website due to search engine differences or
whatever, Ill post it if you want it. The stuff is out
there, my son finds vacuum tubes all the time out of
Russia, for his old tube TVs. Post a picture of your
unit, maybe we can figure out what it is.

 

[JWinIndiana]

George, did you buy that at Alt's or Coast to Coast or Sears? Could have been from Ray Down's Massey Ferguson Dealership I guess.

 

[Russ from MN]

I have one just like it, and I just bought another one, 6 amp, at a garage sale. You can never have too many battery chargers when you have about 12 batteries!

 

[SVcummins]

I wish I had kept that charger I bet a guy like you couldve fixed it right up

 

[Naylorbros]

That is a tungar rectifier bulb, not a diode

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I don't remember where I bought it. I
think it was under $20.

 

[Pete in MD]

George,

I have a Sears-Companion 6/12 V charger that I bought new in 1958 which still works perfectly. It's an 8 amp unit.
The only thing I've done is replace the power and battery cords.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Edison's discovery that current can travel through a vacuum didn't turn out to be very useful information until 1904. That's when a British scientist named John A. Fleming made a vacuum tube known today as a diode. Then the diode was known as a valve, because it forced current in the tube to travel exclusively in one direction.

Many years, before solid state TVs vacuum tube diodes were used. They also made dual diodes, 2 diode tubes in one case.

A diode is a device that allows flow of current in one direction only. A rectifier is a diode that is able to convert the current from AC to DC.

Rectifier-diode.....diode-rectifier. What's your point???

 

[Geo-TH,In]

SV
easy to repair the old school chargers and I have a few used parts to repair them with.
Many people love the old school chargers.

 

[SVcummins]

I have one thats not a smart charger had it about 15 years now it gets used a lot I hope it keeps going because it looks like the replacement is a smart charger

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 02:23:22 01/11/22) I have one thats not a smart charger had it about 15 years now it gets used a lot I hope it keeps going because it looks like the replacement is a smart charger

harger don't need no diodes/restumfiers/whatever.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

True redneck engineering graduate
student's project.

 

[Bret4207]

I know this much- Smart chargers are great as far as "hook it up and walk away and don't worry about boiling the battery" type stuff. What they aren't good at is charging a really dead battery or a battery that has other issues, like having some ice in it because it's so low. For that you need a DUMB CHARGER! It may take days, but a couple of amps trickling into a battery will slowly bring things back to where the old girl will start accepting some heavier juice. I still have a a couple of "Dumb Chargers" that I'm not going to get rid of-ever!

On solid state/smart chargers- I have a nice little unit that something has gone wonky in. It's all magic to me, but these days no one will even try to fix them. Thats not a good thing IMO. I'd take a stab at it myself, but 'lektrisiddy and me are like fire and gasoline!

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Georges explanation cannot be improved upon.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

The first generation of smart chargers simply added a control,
brains, to an old dumb charger. Those I could do brain surgery
pm and convert them back to a dumb charger, no longer.
Everything is now an integrated circuit, no repairing.

I'm glad I kept this old girl.

 

[55 50 Ron]

Interesting topic. Someone mentioned Schumacher is still around. True, but they are NOT helpful. I tried to get parts from them for a unit I wanted to repair for a friend. My phone call was answered by someone on a Carribean island (I asked where he was and he stated so) with barely understandable English speech. Said no parts available. I then sent a letter (somewhat scolding!) request to the Schumacher H/Q in Chicago -- useless as they never even acknowledged the letter. There is a place in a St Louis suburb that supplies some parts for Schumacher, but not the essential parts.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I'd much rather have one of those than a smart charger. With a smart charger you have to charge the battery first before connecting it. It will otherwise say the battery is sulfated and turn itself off.

 

[rusty6]

From the comments here it sounds like new battery chargers are junk. Glad all mine are old. I recently acquired an old Marquette on wheels with a cooling fan. Probably around 40 years old. Works great. I've still got a little 6/12 Carter that was my dad's first charger in the late 1960s. Still worked last time I checked.

 

[gab]

My chargers, the big one was lying next to the dumpster several years ago. It needed the fan motor cleaned and lubed, one new wheel, ammeter, clean and dent removal and a little paint.
The 10 amp one has diodes out of a GM alternator rectifier bridge.