1215C 12V 1.5A Smart Trickle Charger and Maintainer | Convertible On-Board & Benchtop Battery Charger with Desulfator for Car, Motorcycle, Marine, Boat, ATV, RV

I have 2 of this model & another direct outlet plug in model. I couldn't believe I bought the my most current maintainer in '23. Oldest 1 (2 or 3 yrs older) is hooked to boat starting battery in garage (not heated) right now @ 9 degrees outside. Newest 1 is on my truck covered in snow in driveway. Have never failed me. I even loaned the direct wall plug version out to a nephew for awhile. Price has gone up, but I'm gonna do it again for trolling motor battery!

Both the product and the customer support! Works like a charm. Engineering is flawless in both hardware and app software. A class act. Jason is knowledgeable and very easy to understand his instructions for bulldog value intrgration and operations. You will not be disappointed. AC

I needed something to mount under the hood for regular charging. I have used battery minders for years, and this one works just as well as all the others in the past. My car sits for long periods and had killed the battery a couple of times due to parasitic drain, but this unit brought it back with no problem, and now it's always ready to go. And it snaps in and out of the bracket easily if you need to move it inside.

I have a travel trailer with a built-in three stage converter. I thought it being a three stage would be sufficient. Nope. I've boiled off three standard flooded lead-acid batteries relying on the built-in converter to do a good job. Yes, I could have been more diligent checking the water levels. But batteries should not get boiled below the top level of the plates in two months' time (I checked the levels and all were level, then went camping two months later without checking again only to have the batteries DEAD due to the water levels having been boiled off). I have now had the BatteryMinder hooked up to the new batteries on my trailer for just over two months and the water level has not appeared to budge. Wow, batteries being maintained AND desulfated without any boil-off. Awesome!

It revived a $265 Yellow Top Optima battery that a "Pro Shop" said was beyond help. It took 8 days of desulfating, but it now is taking and holding over 87% of the charge of a new battery. I took it back to that shop. They tested it and they were amazed at the results. They looked on the bottom of the case for their mark to be sure it was the same battery. They said were glad I didn't buy a new one, and if their customers can wait, they will start leaving batteries on their desulfator much longer than in the past. They have free loaners, so they will make more space available for longer times for more batteries to desulfate. They were just trying for two days before I told them how long mine took to come back to life.

I like that this thing comes with a way to connect to the battery with clips and a way to connect more permanently with ring terminals. It tells you if you accidentally hook it up backwards and doesn’t hurt the battery. It is a great little tender.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to a product with no real competition. First, it does, in one simple package, what no other brand offers. It is essentially identical in function to the better-known BatteryMinder Model 1510, but in a form factor that is better suited for onboard or bench use. So that's the good part. Here's the bad part. The price is arguably high for a 1.5 amp charger. And those colorful dots on the front of the device don't actually light up - they point to three smaller LEDs at the top, so it's not as intuitive to read as it might first appear. Along with that, the LED's are quite directional, which makes them hard to see if one is not on axis. The device comes with two mounting brackets, which seems good, but the trouble is that if one mounts the device at eye level, such that the LEDs are easy to see, then the power cord will not reach an outlet, even if the outlet is installed as high as four feet. To make matters slightly worse, the plug has what appears to be a handy clip on it for cord management, but the clip is located on the bottom of the plug (assuming that one's outlets are not installed up-side down, with the ground on the top), so that further limits the distance that the device can easily be mounted above the outlet. In my attached photo, you can see that the line cord has popped out of the clip... I took off the included strap because I thought it added clutter, but obviously I didn't achieve my goal. The photo was taken from about my eye level. The charger is "maintaining", so you should be seeing a steady green LED on the right, a flashing blue LED in the middle, and a steady green LED on the left, but none of the LEDs appear to be lit in the photo. Minor gripes, there are no anchors included for mounting on drywall, only very short screws. One could argue either way for the short charging cable - on the one hand, it's too short for many uses, but on the other hand, it allows additional flexibility when used with extension cables, so I'll call it "good", but some may disagree, if only because the optional 12' and 25' extension cables add $14.19 and $18.09 respectively. This for a device that is already $10.59 more expensive than the Model 1510, which comes with a 12' cable attached. Basically, one is paying an extra ~$25 for the option of not having to plug it directly into an outlet. Ideas for improvement - the charger would be better if it had panel-mounted connectors instead of dongles, perhaps similar to a nice computer power supply, and then along with that, offer more cable options. As it is, I'll have to either put up with leaning down to observe the status LEDs, or move the device up higher on the wall. If I move it higher, I'll have to either put up with an extension cord, or void my warranty by modifying the device with a longer line cord. I suppose I could also install a dedicated outlet higher on the wall, but most people probably won't be willing to do that. Perhaps worth considering that if one WAS willing to go to that much trouble, one could use the model 1510 and perhaps save ~$25. It would also help if they would just make the LEDs work over a wider range of angles. And in that same spirit, I guess I don't see any reason for the economy of LEDs. I'd like it a lot better if there was a dedicated LED for each mode or function. That way one wouldn't need to consult the legend in order to decide, say for example, if it was charging or maintaining. Each LED would have a label next to it, so it would be entirely obvious. And they could be arranged in sequence, such that (say for example) when the top LED comes on, the charge cycle is complete and all is well. But again, there is no meaningful competition in the marketplace unless it is the 1510 from the same company, so for now, VDC can get away with a higher price tag and the shortcomings.

This is one part of trickle station permanent for garage and car batteries.