Samlex America Solar SEC-1215UL SEC-UL Series 12V Battery Charger,15 Amp, Yellow

This review is for a Samlex America Solar SEC-1215UL SEC-UL Series 12V Battery Charger that Ships from and sold by Amazon.comThis is a well built Hi Quality Product and well worth the price. I have several other Samlex products and all are working great.This is a current limited power supply that I can use as a float charger for a battery bank that supports power outages and a Ham radio station. The SEC-1215UL will automatically recharge the battery bank after power outages as well as provide the operating power for normal operation. The battery bank is large enough to supply power for internet, computers and lights during the power outages in my area. Many of the parameters in the charger are adjustable and information from Samlex technical support provided some really good information on these adjustments for a special application.The other battery chargers that I have, are either simple chargers or have a lot of RF interference and it is great that this unit is both a smart charger and RF free. No RF interference was observed on any of the ham bands from 160M through 70CM on either my HT, HF radios or the AM or FM broadcast bands.The problem of most Ham power supplies is that while they are RF quite they are only current limited by the smoke that they emit just before failure. Failure can occur when the utility power returns after a power outage that discharged the battery enough to cause it to draw more power than the power supply can safely produce. Adding a fuse and a series diode will protect the power supply but will leave you with a discharged battery after the fuse blows. The SEC-1215UL charger is current limited and will start recharging the battery as soon as the utility power returns.The charger has internal fuses protecting the input and output but there is no ON/OFF switch. The Amp Meter is very useful and it will give an indication of the battery's state of charge. A fully charged AGM battery will draw very little float current. The DC charger output is floating in respect to the AC input and the Case ground to prevent any ground loops. The charger does not have a fan, is absolutely quite and the instructions detail a vertical mounting solution for cooling. No Battery cables are provided but it was easy to make custom cables for my application with the pin type lugs that were provided and some wire & connectors from Lowes. The Charger as shipped, operates from 120 VAC but can be configured for 230 VAC if desired.I plan to purchase, in the near future, a Samlex America Solar SEC-1230UL Battery charger for another project. The SEC-1230UL has the same features except it has a higher output and a cooling fan.The Samlex Solar SEC-1215UL SEC-UL Series 12V Battery Charger ships with an instruction manual filled with very useful information on how to set-up and operate the charger. The charger is a nice looking unit both inside and outside. I gave the unit 5 stars because it is a super replacement for the previous noncurrent limited power supply and the great technical support from Samlex.Update: 09-28-2018I have added two 3" X 3/4" X 1/8" steel angle brackets to the end of the battery charger that the cables attach. This allows the charger to stand with the meter visible for easy reading. No holes were drilled as the angle brackets already had holes. Two #8 screws were used to attach the angle brackets to existing holes in the charger.The first time I used the charger was to recharge a fully discharged 100AH AGM battery and after several minutes @ 15 Amps the charger warms up quite a bit. The charger changed from boost voltage to float voltage at about 2 amps.If you have more than one fully discharged 100AH battery, it would be better to recharge each one separately.I am very pleased with the Samlex Model SEC-1215UL Battery Charger.

Very heavy duty unit, bigger than I expected, pay attention to the dimensions. Being able to shut off the 2nd stage and use this as a power supply is a great feature. I've already used it more than I would have expected. Build quality is fantastic, so good, you could use one these in a commercial setting IMO. If the need arises I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

For some reasons, this doesn't show up when I search for battery charger, only the usual Schumacher charger. I had earlier bought a Century battery charger which was quite a disaster. Now this, is a high quality battery charger. I like it also because I was able to configure it for 230Vac, 50Hz, besides the default 115Vac, 60Hz operation.But you need to do a bit of work to wire up the proper leads and clamps, which are not included.

I ve been using this product for a while now, enough to say it delivers well what it was intended to do. Strong built.

Samlex manufactures great battery maintainers and power supplies. We have used these in the past and will continue ot use the products. This has the ability to charge up to 3 separate battery banks and would fit multiple uses.

Does the job and well built.

Nice charger works well. Does not come with charging leads, you have to make your own or order some.

Great fast charger!!