NOCO GENIUS1, 1A Smart Car Battery Charger, 6V and 12V Automotive Charger, Battery Maintainer, Trickle Charger, Float Charger and Desulfator for Motorcycle, ATV, Lithium and Deep Cycle Batteries

There is a reason the NOCO GENIUS smart car battery charger is so popular. It works well, it is very simple to operate and solves the major headache for car owners who must leave their vehicle unattended for weeks or months at a time.It used to be when you turned off your vehicle and removed the key, all power was off and there was no drain on the battery. Not anymore, there are all kinds of things that always stay on now. If you have a newer vehicle, you know what I am talking about. I went away for just a couple weeks and when I returned my car would barely start. I didn't think too much of it but when I went away on a 6 week trip this past summer, I came home to a super dead battery in a 3-year-old car with 20K on it. Nothing worked, no lights, no locks, no trunk, nothing… I even had a very difficult time getting into the electronically assisted doors. Now to be honest, after a couple weeks away, my car sent me an email saying it was shutting down systems to save the battery. When I returned, I measured the battery voltage, and it said 3 volts, it was so dead. I put a charger on it overnight and the next day it was only 6 volts, and it still would not turn over. I was able to get it started with one of those new micro jump start devices that I remembered I had (amazing little devices) and I took it to the Lincoln dealer and they replaced the battery under warranty but said anytime I go away for longer than a week to put a trickle charge on it or remove one of the battery posts to prevent the battery from completely discharging but they really didn't like that idea and preferred the trickle charge because a bunch of electronic settings will need to be reset once you hook it back up. Moreover, I am seeing the latest luxury vehicles now are coming with two batteries, one just as a starting battery and a separate "house" battery to run all the electronic stuff that is running in the background. That is the way yachts do it. All these car apps that talk to the car via satellite, the various alarm, safety and convenience stuff will kill your battery if you don't regularly use your vehicle, it is that simple.While this can charge your battery from a very low state, keep in mind it will take a very long time, it really is designed only to “maintain” your battery, and does not do an efficient job charging it from a dead state. Batteries require a charging “profile” depending on the type of battery, most have an initial heavy duty “bulk charge” phase followed by a “float charge” or a maintenance level. This charger only addresses the maintenance charger of about 1 amp or so.So, what you want is a SMART trickle charger that is smart enough to know the battery type you have AND smart enough to know when to stop and start charging at a very low amperage just enough to keep your specific battery type at its optimum charge level for the longest lifespan. The NOCO GENIUS does just that. What I like about it the most is that it is super simple, so simple my wife can do it without freaking out about doing harm to anything. The other thing I like about this is the cost. It is very reasonable and on sale it is a screaming buy. Everyone needs this IMO. Get it and it will save you way more $ than it costs, as well as a massive headache when you come home from a vacation to a dead vehicle that will not budge, and you must arrange to have it serviced in your garage!Positives:• Effective trickle charger• Simpe to connect and operate• Will not do harm to your battery (or cause a fire) from overcharging• Safe for long periods of unattended operation• Reasonable costNegatives:• Not the best charger for charging batteries from a very low state• Will not “jump start” your vehicleI think you will like this useful item, and it will provide many years of service for a modest price.5 stars

Okay, I did NOT expect this little thing to work, but it did and might for you IF you have patience.My Grandfather who was MoAT (Mechanic of All Things) owned back in the day what I thought were REAL chargers, they were so big and heavy they had to be put on wheels and rolled around, they had giant switches that'd illuminate and while I'm probably purely imagining this they were plugged into 220-volt outlets. This thing fits in the palm of my hand, just as pictured, smaller than most mobile phones. "Huh," I said, "this should be comical."I hooked it up and, as others have said, figuring this thing out is NOT straight forward, the instruction manual is weak to say the least, the good news is, as I found, there are many intrepid experimenters who, like me, bought it on a whim and did some trial and error which it'd seem 99% of them got the thing to work to their needs, just like me hence, I'm taking the time to write this review. What this lacks in coherent features or instructions it makes up for it in the end by eventually (boy I mean eventually) getting the job done, for that honestly I'm giving it a generous five stars, because it did what I wanted it do against all odds, just like the Phil Collins song. ("Just take a look at my car now, 'cause it's finally starting here.")To get the to point, this took TWO WEEKS to charge a completely dead battery in a completely dead system. If it'll help anyone I own a 2000 Lexus RX300 that is, in fact, drinking age, if I could find a small ute-friendly bar to have a couple with me of which, in terms of trusty old friends, this boring beige over beige has been one of my best now with over 270,000 miles with no reason, per the Lexus dealer, to give up the ghost before 300,000. Toyota quality and then some with only wearables and maintenance needed BTW, the car has only had one issue, eating car batteries every four or so years. Being a cheap bastard and Lexus parts are pricy I've chosen battery over a slightly-off generator which brings us to the recent hullabaloo and the need to be the Noco Genius, though it'd prove not straightforward as I hoped.Hooking up the Noco Genius you get a slowly blinking light, like a heartbeat, that will tell you nothing really. Also there's a force-charge setting where you hold the button (there's only one button on the whole thing, this thing is basic) it supposedly will force a charge into a battery... this doesn't work, at all. After some digging it supposedly only does this if a battery is below some arbitrary limit which, my battery was completely dead, kaput, nada, force charge only made the 6V light go on which, apparently, is what others experienced. Point being, don't hold you breathe.I kept trying to charge the battery but it didn't budge, didn't budge, didn't budge, then I had a thought and said to myself "self, what if I unhook the battery, THEN charge it?" As in, is it because it's also hooked to my car hence current is going other places? Mind you, this thing is only one (1) amp, that's very little, if you're looking for a quick charger or something to charge and jump your car, this ain't it, have you seen the size of this thing? Ha no, no, but it will trickle, very slowly, a charge into your battery... if it's not hooked to the car.Listen, some people this may work when the battery is not hooked up and, in fact, I hooked my battery back up AFTER this thing actually worked and then hooked up the Noco to it and it did, in fact, go from red blinking to green, sooo, yeah, that happened. But I'm burying the lede here:The Noco charger worked for me but ONLY after it was hooked to the battery without being connected to the car. Total time to charge the battery not hooked to the car? About 36 hours. Great? Eh, there's a pandemic, I'm not really going out much so had time on my hands, not to mention my wife's car.In summation, IF you have even a completely dead battery or run down battery and IF you don't have to go anywhere in the next two days and IF you're comfortable unhooking the leads from your car to your battery so that it'll only be charging the battery itself this Noco Genius is, er, uh, genius! It really works! It works and for the cheap cheap cheap money its worth every penny. If this thing cost even 50% more I'd be taking down stars but this thing cost less than a steak dinner (back when I ate steak) so suffice to say it got my battery charged all the way up, hooked up to my car and after the computer was all "what the... ??? Was I in a coma" my car fired right up and ran, I even drove it around a bit.This would be a good thing to own for just-in-case as its just in case money. If you have any situation close to mine, get this trickle charger, if you need the big guns, well, open up your wallet and say ah. Luckily most of us, probably 99% of us, if your battery is run down, this will do the trick.Best of luck!