I still have my Montgomery Ward charger from 1978...get one of those!
I have two of those that look identical I bought for $3 and $5 at a flea market--neither say Montgomery-Ward on them ,but are probably 1970's vintage and made by one of the usual brands,for them...
--both work fine and get used often...I also have a late 70's Sears battery charger my dad bought new ,it has a 10 amp and "trickle charge" .5 to 1.5 amp adjustible charge rate for small batteries like motorcycles...thing still works fine,and has seen many hours of use..
I had bought 3 "new" chargers that were on sale at a local department store several years ago,"Shmucher" or some similar brand,that had a 2,10,and 55 amp "start" boost setting--all 3 died the first time I tried using the 55 amp setting to fast charge a near dead battery in different vehicles--took them all back,after 2 free replacements,I told the person at the customer service desk "I want my money back--not another one of these P-O-S chargers..."..they balked ,but did give me a full refund...I'd never buy another one of that brand again.
If I ever buy another charger it'll be one on wheels that has a 200+ amp boost setting for starting vehicles with dead batteries--I have seen many at the flea market for $20 to $50 bucks that were Sears or some "good" tool maker brand,but I could only plug them in there at the office and hear if they "hum",not see if they actually would charge--probably worked fine,but I passed on them--probably should have got the $20 one.
I cant see paying full price for new when chargers usually dont go bad that often..my friend tossed out an older Sears charger on wheels ,wish I had known,he said he got shocked by it when he touched the case one day last winter when it was charging a battery--I had noticed a long time ago the green ground wire on the cord had been broken off at the case where it was grounded...bet that was its only fault..
I bought a old charger on wheels once for $10 at a yard sale,it didn't charge,but the transformer still worked ok,it needed a new rectifier--none could be sourced that was the "right" part,and no one local had any rectifiers I could jerry rig onto it...I ended up scrapping it--then a guy told me all I needed was a GM alternator rectifier,would have worked ok..
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Years ago I didn't have a charger with high amp output,so I rigged up a GM alternator to a 5 HP air compressor motor (just added a pulley to the compressor!) and mounted it on the pad the air pump sat on--I used that quite a bit,but running the compressor just to boost a battery was not very economical..
I now have that alternator on one of my garden tractors and have used it to boost my diesel pickup's batteries a few times on frigid mornings when it refused to start..
