Mini-Battery Chargers, Any good?

[AnotherOldJeepGuy]

My 40 year old Sear Diehard finally did die, so I would like to get a replacement.  It looks like most of the chargers similar to what I had, go for $50 and up.  In my browsing, I see a lot of "mini chargers" out there that according to the words, work essentially as good as the old personal style, and at half or less the cost.  It sounds like these small chargers are actually better (better controlled charging, protection, etc.) than the old style with the exception that they don't include the full current needed to start the vehicle with the charger.  Any experience with these $20 chargers you would like to share?  If providing start current is not a feature needed, what else might be a reason to spend 2x-3x to charge a battery?

 

Example of what I call old style:

 

Example of mini-charger from Walmart:

 

[89 MJ]

Longevity. I’m not saying that another Diehard will live 40 years, but I’d bet one of the small, cheap ones definitely wouldn’t live that long. I know several people with the modern Diehards and I’m yet to hear of an issue with them. 

[jeff351]

I'm a fan of these battery tenders/maintainers. I have one plugged into my Optima for my Torino at the moment.  

Noco Genius

[Pete M]

my only big grip about modern chargers is that if your battery is seriously dead, it might not recognize it as a battery and turn on.   safety I guess.  I've found I can cheat the system with mine by making it run through a bunch of "engine start" cycles until it's high enough to see the battery. 

[eaglescout526]

42 minutes ago, Pete M said:

I've found I can cheat the system with mine by making it run through a bunch of "engine start" cycles until it's high enough to see the battery. 

I’ve daisy chained one once just to get it to charge. Take a good battery and then have it be charged by the charger and hook another set of jumpers to the bad from the good and it works. 

[Smokeyyank]

I got this one on sale for $25 after mine bit the dust. No complaints has charged my Odyssey from being completely dead and another basic battery. Ive used it a good amount this winter to keep my WJ charged for snow storms. 

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/automotive/battery-tools-accessories/battery-chargers-maintainers/4amp-fully-automatic-microprocessor-controlled-battery-chargermaintainer-63350.html

[AnotherOldJeepGuy]

Thanks for all the info!  I think I'll watch for a good sale on a new die hard for a bit and see if I can get lucky.  But if that doesn't come around I will probably give one of the newer cheaper ones a try.