Review by Chris P. Christensen for Schumacher SE-5212A Automatic Handheld Battery Charger
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This jewel is very light to pack a 50Amp punch. I connected it to a battery insufficient to turn over the starter. The guy working on the house left his light on in the truck bed. I connected the charger to the battery while in the 2Amp mode, then plugged the battery charger into the 120VAC receptacle. I then switched it to the 50Amp selection and allowed to charge the battery for 4-5 minutes. While the charger was still connected to the battery, the guy was able to start his truck. Man was I blown away. Following the instructions, I changed the charging selection switch to the 2Amp mode, disconnected the charger from the 120VAC receptacle, and then disconnected it from the battery. How sweet – no arcing, no sparking. This is a must have!!! Excellent value and quality.

Review by Ken Nerad for Schumacher SE-5212A Automatic Handheld Battery Charger
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I purchased this to replace the Schumacher battery charger that I had for 30+ years when I discovered that the leads had gotten hard and cracked exposing both the 110 v. and the 12 v. wires. I did a lot of research and found this to be the best value, free shipping and no sales tax in addition to a low purchase price. It is now on the shelf for use in next emergency situation.

Review by DrD for Schumacher SE-5212A Automatic Handheld Battery Charger
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I bought this charger 3 months ago and it failed this morning when I plugged it in. There was no load on the charger as the alligator clips were well separated and definitely not short circuited. Being an engineer I took the cover off, traced the circuit diagram and ohmed-out the transformer to find that the transformer had failed. It is not repairable.

UL approval requires that the hot wire of the power line first go to a circuit protection device (fuse or circuit breaker). There is no visible fuse or circuit breaker in the 120V circuit. The hot power wire goes directly to the transformer, which is a gross UL violation, unless there is a fuse inside the transformer, which I cannot determine since it is a sealed unit. The neutral wire goes to a switch which chooses different transformer taps for different output current settings. Thus, it appears that the 120V circuit must be protected by the house circuit breaker.

A small point, the 50 amp. output is unlikely since there is a 35 amp. 12 volt breaker in series with the negative DC output lead. This, of course, does not protect the AC side of the circuit.

Be very careful with this product as it may be a fire waiting to happen. If you own one I suggest that you place it on a concrete floor far away from any combustible materials. Do not place this unit on a wooded work bench while plugged in to AC power.