BOSCH Smart Charge-BASIC (Grey) Battery Charger/Maintainer: 12V; 3.5 A; For Passenger Vehicles, Classic Cars, Motorcycles, Boats, ATVs, Snowmobiles And Delivery Vehicles

I have a few other battery chargers/maintainers as well, and while this has more features than most of the bunch, it is not generous with its included accessories. Here are some thoughts, listed: - Bigger than I imagined, but on par with the others of similar amperage output. - Sort of odd shape makes a lot of sense when you add the hanger clip and hang it on your hood's locking mechanism. - Much more information (and more lights) on this thing than any of the others. Starts in standby mode, which makes sense. It tells you how charged the battery is while it's charging. - This one apparently has an automatic pulse feature that is better for charging deeply discharged batteries. - This one only comes with alligator clips. Most of the others also include ring terminals and/or a cigarette lighter charger. - This one has a proprietary connection, but also comes with an adapter to a normal 12V DC plug. Odd combination. Usually proprietary connections are to get you to buy (exclusively) their stuff, but in this case they give you an out by allowing you to convert to the DC plug. - If I just wanted a battery maintainer, a low output trickle charger is just fine. This one adds a bit of functionality with quicker charging (which did give a totally dead battery what it needed to just barely get a car started for me the other day), and a bunch of claims on smartness and greatness, with a lot of fancy lights to back it up. Somehow - being Bosch - I believe them, since they are well known for innovating designs and commanding knowledge of all things car- and tool-related. (hope I'm not getting soft, as this is perhaps one of the only times in life I'm not completely cynical). Anyway, it's a neat device that I'm happy to have around, and very useful. ...I do frequently use this and other trickle chargers to keep my batteries good while I'm away. Coming home to dead car batteries is no fun, and it happened to me a few times before I was clued in to such devices.

This is absolutely awesome. Easy to charge, easy to use. Compact and Handy.

worked for a few minutes, then completely dead the amazon number for Bosch product support is wrong the Bosch number in the warranty booklet / Bosch Auto Parts 888 715 3616 , say this is not their product [yet it is listed on the bosch auto parts website] they rudely insist on transferring you to another Bosch group, who then tell you this is not their product, and transfer you back... so there was no Bosch warranty or tech support available for this charger. period I have a lot of Bosch tools, but with the exception of provantage, warranty support is rude / non existent or completely indifferent shame on you Bosch, this product was junk, and your right hand does not even know you have a left hand...

Not with the Bosch Basic 01896C1000 model. For a 12V auto or marine battery, The Smart Charge Basic (grey in color) will not charge if battery voltage has dropped below 6Volts. This is a real pain! Didn't realize boat's radio was left turned on, and over a few days my deep cycle battery was at about 3Volt. The charger has always worked great for topping off charge and maintaining, but never had to use for severely low voltage condition. Buried deep in the instructions that address "protection" features... it states charger will only stay in "stand-by" if battery voltage is below 6volt. So now I have to buy "dumb" charger to kick my battery up to +6Volts so I can use the Bosch "smart" charger again to maintain a full charge. NOT HAPPY.

This review is for the SmartCharge Basic (Gray) model. Bosch has made a very high quality and easy to use battery trickle charger, but I wish the manual was more comprehensive and provided illustrations for each of the included accessories and how to use the various functions of the unit. The Bosch SCBASIC SmartCharge is compact, lightweight, and is UL, BC, FCC, and IP65 rated, meaning it is "Protected from total dust ingress" and "Protected from low pressure water jets from any direction, limited ingress protection". I've been using the SmartCharge for a few weeks now to keep a heavy duty 65Ah portable jump starter unit at full charge between uses. I recently used the Bosch to recharge the portable jump starter from about 70% to 100% charge, which took roughly 8 hours to complete. I just attached the battery clips, selected Mode 2 for AGM batteries, and the charger did the rest. The unit gets fairly warm in the full charging mode which is normal for these compact units. Just make sure you don't cover it up with anything during use as it requires free air flow to keep it from overheating. After charging the SmartCharge automatically switched over to a trickle mode and is maintaining the charge at 100% for as long as I keep it connected - this is exactly the kind of simplicity I wanted from a charger. I took one star off because the multi-language manual is very incomplete. I'm quite used to using equipment like this so I don't really even need a manual to operate it, but many users will need specific instructions with illustrations on how to connect the accessory cables to the main unit, and how to remove the alligator clips from the cable to use the ring terminals that integrated into the cable. Also, there is no explanation of how to attach the included mounting hook, or what to do with the SAE standard adapter cable that is included with the unit. Without this information a novice user will be quite frustrated trying to use their new battery charger, and just might end up returning the unit because they can't figure out how to use it - which would be a shame because it is a very good quality device. One other thing the Bosch SCBASIC SmartCharge should include is an inexpensive zippered carry pouch to keep the unit, instruction manual and the accessory cables from getting lost or separated. Putting everything back in the box for storage is inconvenient as it's a very tight fit. Overall I'm very pleased with the unit, and hopefully Bosch will release an online addendum to the manual with more comprehensive illustrated instructions. **** 4 STARS - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! ****