If you are searching for the best car battery charger according to consumer reports in 2022 then this post is for you.
I truly understood the concept of Unpredictability the day my car’s battery was dead in the middle of the road.
And after that horrible incident, I never forgot to check whether or not I had the car’s battery charger in my toolkit.
Having a battery charger is always helpful, but having an excellent battery charger not only prevents you from wasting hard-earned money but gets your battery charged and works like new.
I spent hundreds of dollars buying a car’s battery chargers, worthless chargers mostly.
And now, I am experienced enough to easily figure out the best car’s battery charger. That’s why I am here to help you guys to get the best out of your purchase.
In this post, we will be reviewing the best car’s battery charger as per consumer reports.
These reviews are based on our personal experience, testing, and consumer reports. So without further ado, let’s get started.
Best Overall: NCOCO GENIUS Car Battery Charger
NCOCO GENIUS is over best overall product due to its amazing safety features, performance, and wide range of applications.
Its Advance repairing mode fixes build-up in the plates, and spark-proof technology prevents sparks. Don’t forget it can charge 6V as well as 12V battery.
7 Best Car Battery Charger Consumer Reports
I have compiled a list of the 7 best car battery chargers based on consumer reports 2022.
1. NOCO GENIUS Battery Charger
- Charge 6V-12V batteries
- 5 AMPs battery
- Over-charging protection
- Advance repair mode feature
If you have to charge 5 Volts as well as 12 Volts batteries as you have more than one vehicle in your home, and looking for an all-in-one solution, we got a GENIUS solution for you with a NOCO GENIUS battery charger.
Its 6 Volts and 12 Volts battery charging capability are what makes it one of the top options.
Not only does that it have a wide range of applications for wet cell batteries, gel cell batteries, lead-acid, and lithium-ion batteries.
I am amazed to behold that, this car’s battery charger can also be used for deep cycle batteries or marine or power sports purposes.
It is a low-end battery charger and maintainer, it can’t be used for a jump starter. Again, if you want your car to get jump-started using a charger, go with higher ampere charges at least 20-30 amps.
It is an advanced design and features integrating a battery. According to the consumer reports its over-charging support and many other advanced safety features make it one of the hottest choices.
With advanced safety features, it protects against over-charging and prevents your battery from getting damaged.
Moreover, its advanced repair mode feature reverses the damage of not charging the battery for a long time.
If you left your battery on for prolonged hours, there is damage to the batteries, which can only be fixed using modern designed car batteries like GENIUS designed.
Yes, it also got reverse polar protection. In case someone in your family put on opposite cables on charging, there can be damage but not with this charger.
It comes with spark-proof technology integrated so that no one gets hurts even when you don’t connect the charger to the battery first before turning the power on.
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Pros
- Advance repair mode fixes the damages
- Good for 6V and 12-V batteries
- Integrated spark-proof technology
- Can be used for deep cycle batteries
Cons
- It can’t jump-start the car.
2. Battery Tender Plus 12V Battery Charger
- 5 amps battery
- Wide range of application
- Spark protection
- Overcharging protection
If you know nothing about battery charging and maintenance and do not know how to properly use them or check the battery status before charging, I highly recommend the Tender Plus-designed battery charger.
It is a very simple to use, extremely user-friendly option, that’s its stand-out aspect.
As per consumer reports, this battery charger and maintainer is good for any 12-Volt battery. You can take it for bike battery charging, SUVs, RVs, or any other vehicle charging.
Yes, its charging is a little slow compared to high ampere battery charging. It is a 1.5 amps battery charger, good for those who know nothing about cars and batteries and are not mechanics.
For a motorcycle battery of 12-Volts with 80 percent charged, in our testing it took around 6 hours.
The thing I am especially impressed, how accurately it told me the accurate percentage, unlike many other so-called premium battery chargers.
This car battery charger meets all the American standards and guidelines despite being constructed and designed in China.
There is nothing wrong with the products to be made in China, as long as it passes the tests and standards.
It comes integrated with all American standards protection and safety features. It shares spark-proof protection, automatic shut-off feature, and over-charging features well.
To help you easily learn whether the battery is getting charged or not, it got two LEDs lights, easily spot.
The only thing I don’t like about this charger is the low amps. Yes, to charge a 12 Volt battery at 20-percent, it might take a day, and as you know it does not support jump start too.
Pros
- Extremely easy to use and user-friendly
- Two LED lights for charging a
- Wide range of application
- 10-years warranty
Cons
- Not a powerful option
3. GOOLOO Jump Starter Battery Charger
- 1500 A peak current
- 1 Type-C and 2 USB Type-A port
- Compact build
- Good for the car’s vacuum
What is the last thing you expect from your car’s battery? Of course, you don’t want it to be dead in the middle of your journey.
But, if it happens, what an alternative for you. Your average battery charger does not support jump start.
I think if you travel a lot, the better idea would be to buy a car battery charger with a jump-start feature.
Yes, like only jump-start can’t charge and maintain your battery. And only the charger can’t jump-start your car in the middle.
GOOGLOO-designed Car battery charger and jump-start are one of the best options in the category.
It is not just the car’s batteries this charger can charge. You can take it for smartphones, and many other batteries to charge without any issue.
The standout aspect of this charger is its compact build. It looks like a smartphone, and can easily be traveled along without any big issues or trouble.
The standout aspect of this charger-cum-jump starter is its wide range of applications.
It comes with one 15w USB Type-C port, and 2 USB Type-A ports to easily help you charge your laptop, tablets, and mobile phone on the go.
This charger easily powers up your car’s dead battery even in extremely cold conditions. Yes, it got 1500 amps to peak current even in extreme temperatures.
It comes powered with all the advanced features you look for in a modern design jump-started.
Such as smart jumper cables that prevent any incorrect cable connection. With this charger, you would not have any worries about incorrect connections or sparks.
It got rubber covers on each port to prevent sparks or other issues when connecting.
It can be used as a car tire vacuum. It got a 15 Volt output to power your car tire inflator. Easily inflate the tires in the middle of the road, without calling a help.
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Pros
- 4-in-1 device
- Can be used to charge mobile phones and laptops
- 1500 A peak temperature for a jump start
- Rubber covers to prevent sparks
Cons
- Provides half the power through USB Ports
4. Schumacher Automatic Smart Battery Charger
- Two amperes 30A, 100A
- Fully automatic
- Reverse connectivity feature
- Diagnose the electrical problem
If you are in the professional batteries or chargers business or an automobile sports enthusiast, you would know how big the Schumacher is in automobile product making.
Schumacher designed the latest car battery charger it offers a modern designed charger that packs a pretty powerful range of features to help you charge your dead battery.
Looking at the power it comes packed with, it is amazing to witness its size of it. It is good compact, well, not enough to be put in pockets but enough to be taken around in the car trunk or stored in the toolkit easily. Plus, it got a neat handle that helps you take it around conveniently.
The stand apart aspect of this car battery charger is its two amperes range. Yes, you have not seen that feature in any of the products listed here.
It comes with 30 Ampere as well as 100 amperes to easily help you boost your energy level. The low amperes are their t help you top up the battery with the charge like the other ones have.
And 100 amperes are there to help you jumpstart your car. Yes, if you are stranded in the middle of the road with a dead battery, get it out of your car trunk and let it start your vehicle.
Don’t try to forget other safety features like reverse connectivity features. If by mistake you connect the positive clamp with the negative cable and the negative with the positive, it will prevent your battery to get any damage.
It is a good compatible charger that can easily charge standard, AGM, gel, and deep cycle batteries. I find this battery charger extremely easy to use, unlike others.
It is fully automatic, you would not have to do anything manually, microprocessor control everything even the adjusting the amperes too.
It allows you to learn the charge level, as well as diagnose the electrical problems, detect the voltage automatically and help you charge and maintain your battery as quickly as possible.
Pros
- Automatic ampere detection
- Two amperes for charging the battery and jumpstart the car
- Fully automatic control with microprocessors
- Also, diagnose the electrical problems in your battery
Cons
- Sloppy assembly
5. Ampeak Smart Battery Charger
- Advanced conditioning mode
- Automatically detect the voltage
- Over charging protection
- 18 months warranty
If you are looking into buying one of the advanced designed car batteries, I don’t think you can get a better deal than this Ampeak-designed smart battery charger.
This charger works with a 12 Volt car battery, don’t try to use it with a 24Volt battery.
I loved the way this smart-designed battery fully automatically functions. It easily charges your battery and switches between different modes without any big issue.
According to consumer reports its automatic detection system is very impressive. This system automatically detects the battery, its voltage, as well as capacity.
Plus, this system automatically detects the best charge rate for the battery so that your battery gets the best deal.
I loved its advanced reconditioning mode feature. This feature is actually beneficial for that battery that has been left on for several hours. This helps the battery and reverses the damages to improve the overall health.
Its LCD is very intuitive. This display helps you know the charge level, and its health, and makes you charge this battery on time.
It also got a huge range of safety features like overheating protection, short-circuiting protection and reverse connectivity protection.
I am sure if you like giving a try to advanced designed batteries, this would be on your next buy to list.
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Pros
- Fully automatic operations
- Automatically detects the battery voltage and capacity
- Automatically tune the best fit charge rate for the battery
- 18 months warranty
Cons
- Very weak display
6. STANLEY Battery Charger
- 25 amp charging
- 75 amp jump starter
- 3 stage charging
- Alternator check
If you love to use high-power engines and looking for a charger to help you not only top up the batteries with charging but jump-start whenever needed, go with STANLEY designed battery charger.
With this powerful 75 amp jumpstarting power it can wake up even a tank within seconds. Not only the jumpstart, but the charging speed of this charger is commendable.
Within a few hours, it allows you to get a fully charged battery with 25 amp charging capability.
The stand-apart feature of the charger is its 3-stage charging. It automatically switches from fast to top off and trickle battery charging to provide you optimized performance without damaging your health.
The charger comes with the capability to not only charge up the battery but to recondition the battery’s health.
Yes, it repairs the sulfate buildup that forms on the battery plate to provide you with a longer runtime.
In our testing, we found the LED screen display with intuitive icons very helpful.
Even if you can’t read, the icons help you learn the current status as well as the level of the battery.
Pros
- Three modes of charging
- Easy to use
- Intuitive screen design with icons
- Charger and a jump starter
Cons
- The float mode that prevents overcharging is not reliable
7. BLACK+DECKER Fully Automatic Battery Charger
- 15 amp power
- 40 amp Jump starter
- 3-mode charging
- Over-charging protection
Those who are into power tools, as well as electrical and electronic gadgets business, would know the brand BLACK+DECKER. It is one of the leading brands around the globe, producing qualitative products.
Its car battery charger plus jump start is another mind-blowing product with an amazing range of modern features laid out on the clean and easy-to-read interface.
It provides a 15 amp battery charger that instead of letting the user choose the charge level automatically reads the current and determines the right amp for the battery.
Like any other modern car battery charger, this charger comes with safety features.
Over-charging protection, reverse connectivity protection, and battery health diagnosing are some of the amazing safety features.
And if your car battery is dead in the middle of the road, it got a 40 amp jump starter. Yes, that can easily start your engine and help you start your journey again.
With 3-mode of charging, from fast charging to top-off and trickle charging, it takes care of your car’s battery.
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Pros
- 3-Stage charging
- Comes with two amperes models
- 40 AMP jumpstart engine feature
- Repair mode that fixes the damages
Cons
- Check this work right away on the arrival, some quality control issues
How to use a car’s battery charger?
Before moving on to the features and aspects to look into buying an in-car charger, let’s look at how to use a car’s battery charger to get the right benefits.
Electrical devices and gadgets have to be handled with utmost safety and precautions. Here even the tiniest mistake can lead to big problems.
The first thing I like to advise you about is, don’t let the current flow through the charger and then connect it to the charger.
First, connect your charger to the battery, and then turn it on, or you may end up with sparks in the cables. I experienced that myself, and I would not like you to have a similar experience.
But the question here arises is what to connect what. I mean people confuse the clamps.
It is very simple, you need to have a careful look. Connect the positive with the positive and the negative with the negative.
When the connectivity has been successfully achieved, now you can turn the charger on and start charging.
In some chargers and batteries, especially with manual input settings, you might have to follow the individual instruction provided.
Well, these days only intuitive chargers are on the market, and even if it comes with manual input settings, it would not be hard to follow the instruction.
Consumer Reports Car Battery Charger Buying Guide
A car battery charger can’t charge every battery. What if your car’s battery is dead?
But in most cases, when your car’s battery is dead, it is because you forget turning off your headlights all night, or in some other such cases.
But, in most cases, the car’s battery can be charged. And in our list, we have added some mind-blowing car battery charger options that in time juice up your car’s battery.
But the question here is, what features or specs you should look for in a car’s battery charger?
This tiny section is going to help you regarding this.
Size
Car’s battery charger comes in various sizes. Some are good compact tiny, but would not jump start your car, or might take longer to charge up your dead battery.
On the other hand, some are giant, and in no time charge up your dead battery or jump start the car, but at the same time, can take up half of your car’s trunk if you commit to taking them along.
Reverse connectivity Protection
If you are like me, don’t read instructions before connecting the charger or doing other things, and rely on guesswork, chances are that you may end up connecting the wrong cables. If that happens, chances are, you end up with a burnt battery.
But if your charger supports reverse connectivity protection, it will prevent accidental damages from connecting to the wrong end of the battery.
Amperes
Amperes are one of the most important things to look for in a car’s battery charger. It determines the capability. It is important to learn what you will be using the car’s charger for?
If you don’t use your car very often, but don’t want it to be dead in the middle of the destination even when it is left idle for a long time, go with lower ampere chargers.
Lower ampere chargers but can’t jump-start your car especially cold. With the higher ampere chargers, you would not be stranded on the roads.
Many high ampere chargers can easily help you start your car, and make you reach your destination.
If you have a big vehicle and want a higher ampere charger, usually you will get to see is 40-60 amps.
Car jump start
Again, it is not a guarantee that a high ampere car charger will be able to jump-start your car.
But if you buy even a 20 amps car charger with the feature to start the car, you get reassurance that you would not be standard on the roads with a dead battery, roaming here and there to get the help.
Active monitoring of the battery
Yes, most chargers help you learn the total charging percentage. I don’t recommend buying a charger that does not support this feature.
So, the charger activates the battery to allow active monitoring and tell you about yours.
In Some chargers, you will also get overcharging protection, so that you don’t get any issues with your battery.
In some recent models or comprehensive chargers, you get more information about active monitoring. You get the complete information about your car’s battery health.
They also tell you for how long you can rely on the battery, or when to replace or dump the battery.
Repair Mode
I like the idea of adding a repair mode feature to the chargers. The idea behind adding this feature is to help consumers get an extended lifespan, and recharge from home without expensive mechanic trips.
With this feature on car chargers, you get a reduced build-up to prolong battery life.
The voltage of the battery
Before you buy any of the chargers from the list, it is recommended that you check the voltage of the charger.
Different chargers are optimized for different voltages, and maybe the charger you buy doesn’t optimize with your car’s battery.
Usually, the car’s batteries are of 12-Volts, and in our list too, we added 12-volt chargers. And there is very less possibility that your battery runs at a different voltage.
Wrap Up
Car battery chargers prevent you from getting stranded on the roads. With these battery chargers, you not only get your batteries maintained but in some cases, they also come with a jump-start feature.
In this guide, we provided you with some of the best battery chargers. These chargers have been picked after thorough in-depth research.
Most of the models are checked and tested by our team. We also took help from consumer reports, to help you easily pick the most suitable options.
FAQs
What’s the difference between a car battery charger and a jump starter?
Jump starters are usually used to provide your car’s battery with an instant power to let you get out of the pinch.
These are used for emergency purposes, rather than maintenance. They provide a stronger electrical current than chargers and work as a quick fix.
On the other hand, the chargers are like maintenance. They don’t provide instant current to take you out of the pinch but charge the battery with time, and fully charge it to use it organically.
How Many Amps are good for a car’s battery charger?
A general rule of thumb of a good car’s battery charger is, that the fewer amps it got, the better it charges the battery.
But, with a low amp charger, it takes longer to charge the battery, and the one can’t be used for a jump start your car when you are with a dead battery.
So, usually for a Sedan car, a 20-40 amps charger is considered good.
How Long Does It Take To Charge a Battery?
It depends on your car’s battery health, and size. But generally, it can take from 4 to 24 hours.
The average car battery comes with 40 amps, and it takes around 1-1.5 hours to charge the full battery.
For a charger of 2 amp, it takes around 24 hours to recharge a dead battery of 12-Volts.
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