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The cheap ($7) Harbor Freight units are terrible from a human factors perspective, but technically they do the right thing electrically if your objective is to keep the battery healthy when the car is not in use for a month or more. I.e., they are a float charger (good for storage), not a trickle charger (bad for lead-acid battery for a long term connection). They are not intended to be a battery charger to bring a near-dead battery back to full charge - unless you want to wait a few weeks or months. (I have a regular battery charger for that purpose)From a human factors perspective, although they are small they are a two-piece kluge with clip leads to connect to the battery. The red light on the unit is a curious indicator. It comes on when the unit is plugged into the ac power, or it comes on when the unit is connected to the battery. So what I do is connect the clip leads, make sure the light is on, then connect it to the ac power. Occasionally, I momentarily unplug it from the ac during winter storage to make sure I haven't knocked off the clip leads while working on or around the car. (Of course if I installed a connector such as HotRod is doing, that would make things simpler .)From a pragmatic perspective, my battery is 8 years old, quite strong, and is off the road typically for 3 to 4 months each winter. So the $7 Harbor Freight kluge handled my intended task.
The cheap ($7) Harbor Freight units are terrible from a human factors perspective, but technically they do the right thing electrically if your objective is to keep the battery healthy when the car is not in use for a month or more. I.e., they are a float charger (good for storage), not a trickle charger (bad for lead-acid battery for a long term connection). They are not intended to be a battery charger to bring a near-dead battery back to full charge - unless you want to wait a few weeks or months. (I have a regular battery charger for that purpose)
From a human factors perspective, although they are small they are a two-piece kluge with clip leads to connect to the battery. The red light on the unit is a curious indicator. It comes on when the unit is plugged into the ac power, or it comes on when the unit is connected to the battery. So what I do is connect the clip leads, make sure the light is on, then connect it to the ac power. Occasionally, I momentarily unplug it from the ac during winter storage to make sure I haven't knocked off the clip leads while working on or around the car. (Of course if I installed a connector such as HotRod is doing, that would make things simpler .)
From a pragmatic perspective, my battery is 8 years old, quite strong, and is off the road typically for 3 to 4 months each winter. So the $7 Harbor Freight kluge handled my intended task.
