6 Jun 2016

SCA Automatic Car Battery Charger Review & Teardown

SCA Automatic Car Battery Charger

In this video I review an automatic car battery charger and measure how affective it’s 7 stage charge cycle is but monitoring it’s voltage and current.

*This is an unpaid, non-sponsored review*

Here’s another video where I do a quick teardown of the charger to see how it’s built and the quality of its components.

Further information

 

NFM Near Far Media logo This video was release on the NearFarMedia YouTube channel.

About the Author:

Hardware and software engineer with experience in product development and building automation. Director at Cabot Technologies and Product Manager at NEX Data Management Systems.

7 comments

  1. Peter

    Great review. Just helped to make up my mind and buy this charger. Good clear shots and zooming. All important aspects of product covered. Wish other common products in our shops are reviewed like this. Thanks.

  2. Douglas

    Anyway, 6 A battery charger, when the charging is not holding up to 6 Amps continuous output.

    • Hi Douglas,

      The charger delivers 6A continuous during the bulk charge stage (see around 5:40 in the first review video). The current is modulated during other stages.

  3. AOLDIE

    perfectļ¼ļ¼ļ¼

  4. Terry

    Nice review, thank you for posting.

    Because it wasn’t clear from viewing the video, would you mind explaininvg how you hooked up each multimeter to read voltage and current e.g. voltmeter red +ve lead to xyz and black -ve lead to xyz. Ammeter red +ve lead to xyz; black -ve lead to xyz. L I’d like to similarily check my battery chargers but don’t want to risk damaging my meters or chargers through incorrect connections.

  5. Tim

    Hi Darian, great helpful review. Iā€™ve just purchased a similar unit (unused), but was having issue charging my battery. Iā€™ve tried to charge the battery a few times with observations below and I appreciate your help/advice on possible next actions:

    1. Battery was weak
    – battery failed and could start. Rolled start and went to auto shop who advised me to charge the battery
    – voltage measured at around 11 V
    – charged the battery and managed to get it up to over 12V overnight.
    – the light on the charge was at ā€œBulkā€ stage when I stopped charging
    – reinstalled and car started ok
    – brought battery back to auto shop who checked the battery to be over 60% charged. They advised me to continue to charge again
    – recharged the battery over night, started ok the next morning, stopped charging during the day, and attempted to start car in the evening but failed to crank
    – I recharged the battery again. This time the charger completed its charging cycle at ā€œmaintainā€after around 4-5 hours.
    – I recharged the battery but stopped after battery was observed to be hot (can hear battery acid boiling/bubbling) after about 4 hours. Charger was at ā€œbulkā€ stage. Left battery uncharged overnight
    – recharged the battery next day for about 6 hours
    – I think at this point I noted the battery voltage stayed pretty low at around 8-9 v (I think)
    – car started ok, went to auto shop who advised to replace battery and I did
    – I then tried to charge the old battery. Measured the voltage at around 7volts before charge. Voltage remains the same after x hours of charging and charger never went beyond the ā€œbulkā€ stage
    – measured battery voltage during charging and the reading stayed around 7 volts with charger switched on (should i expect close to 12V?) A minor oscillation in voltage during desulfation stage (less than +/- 0.1 volt or lower.
    – battery charger was hot during charging but not too hot
    – suspected issue with charger. Use a multimeter to measure the voltage with the charger switched on (not connected to battery). Was measuring very low voltage, and none of the indicator light was lit). I think I should get 12V right ?
    – dismantled the charger, checked all capacitors and they looked ok
    – circuit board seems to be a bit dusty so Iā€™ve cleaned them with ipa
    – tried to charge again this morning. Battery v at around 6.4v, and stayed around 6.8V in ā€œbulkā€ stage currently

    Is the battery charger faulty ? What checks can I further do on the charger etc?

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