NOCO GENIUS5, 5A Smart Car Battery Charger, 6V and 12V Portable Automotive Charger, Battery Maintainer, Trickle Charger and Desulfator for AGM, Lithium (LiFePO4), Motorcycle and Deep Cycle Batteries

I wanted a charger to top up the battery in a mercedes c300 once a week. I drive it daily but do not put many miles on it so figured i can charge the battery once a week to keep the battery fresh especially during winter. I originally bought the genius 1 and while that worked great and charged the battery full no problem it just took way too long, i couldnt tell if the battery was full or still charging with just the single led light on that unit. I dont have a garage so end up running a 25′ extension cord out to the car which is why i wanted something faster.

This noco genius 5 charges the 84ah agm battery much faster. The 4 led lights lets me tell how full the battery is, unlike the genius 1. Now i can charge the battery to full in about 2-3 hours instead of having to wait overnight.

I charge it with the hood closed so i was able to find a spot at the top left side of the front grill where an extension cord end just fits. To get to the battery there is a plastic air box that has to be removed. I personally like connecting the charger right on the battery, not on the jump start points. To make it easier i went ahead and bought a second set of cables so i can connect to the battery with the eyelet terminals. I bought another set of cables because to fit the eyelets onto the batery post nuts i had to bend the eyelet tabs in order to put the air box back on, so i got the second set to have if i ever use the charger on another car or battery. I was able to find the cables ‘used’ on here for only $11.

When i connect the charger and power it on the 1st red light will pulsate for a minute or two, then the second red light starts pulsating for another minute or two, then the orange light turns on for a few minutes then the 4th light will turn on pulsating green. It will stay like this with all 4 lights on for an hour or two. After awhile it switches to just the green light staying on, then i know it is done. I am actually surprised how much the battery has to be charged to be toped off full, even with me driving the car daily. I just dont drive many miles, maybe go on the highway once a week. This is why i went ahead and bought this 5 amp charger, the 1 amp charger took too long for what i wanted to do. I now use this charger once a week, hook it up in the morning on the weekend and it is done charging by the afternoon so i can pack everything back up and not have an extension cord running.

I would recommend the noco chargers to anyone who wants to keep there battery topped off full. I would get the larger sizes like this 5 amp if you want it for a car battery, saves a lot of time.

Installing the cables permanently to the car was fairly easy once i figured out how i wanted to do it. For the positive the only place is directly to the battery post which happens to be a 6mm bolt. Unfortunately with my car the nut will not completely unscrew, towards the end it felt like i was ruining the threads so i had to leave the nut on, so instead i used a pair of sharp wire cutters and nipped away at the positive eyelet of the wire and basically made a spade type connector which worked perfectly, just unscrew the nut and push the connector into the gap then tighten back up. I bent the connector down in order to put the red plastic cover back over the battery post. For the ground wire i installed it where the negative battery cable is connected to the frame. I chose this spot because in all my research they say it’s safer for the battery if you connect the ground away from the battery you are charging/jump starting. This way i figured the charger is still technically directly to the battery via the ground cable but it’s also grounded to the cars frame. I am no expert so this way made the most sense to me. The ground connection to the frame is actually an 8mm threaded post and the 6mm eyelet wouldn’t fit at first, so i used a small half round metal file to enlarge the hole a little bit. The eyelet is soft copper so it was very easy. This is why i bought the second set of cables, i figured i would have to modify them.

Summary: i have had a noco genius g3500 charger since 2017, and it’s a great charger. Recently started building a solar/pv battery bank from old marine (optima) bluetop deep cycle batteries. So the g3500 was getting a good workout, especially the repair function. So i will be comparing this next generation gen5x1 in that role. I had ordered the gen5x1 back in april 2021, and this past black friday, the genius5 (5a) was on sale, so i decided to add that one. Also use the kyzee load tester frequently while charging, so listing this that as well as a related product.

Testing: on an old really dead yuasa motorcycle battery. Impressively, it was at 3-4 volts, and the noco started right up in regular (not repair) mode. Going to let this run a couple of days, and see where it ends up (not expecting it to revive this one).

Recommendations: 1) in general, the slower you charge the battery the better it is for the overall longevity and lifespan of the battery. The trade off being that you might have to charge a really dead battery for a couple of days. For batteries less than 100ah (the optima i was testing on is 55ah), a 5-amp charger is a good middle ground. 2) having a good battery tester is also a must, i can recommend either of the two below.

Pros: good fit & finish; repair function; name brand recognition; constant product improvement.

Cons: none for now.

Conclusion: at $70, rating this 5-stars. If you need onboard mounting, get the onboard model instead.

Related products:
noco genius5, 5-amp fully-automatic smart charger ~ $70
https://www.amazon.com/noco-genius5-fully-automatic-temperature-compensation/dp/b07w8kjh44

kzyee ks20pro car battery load tester ~ $100
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/b0822cn7k7

noco genius g3500 6v/12v 3.5a ultrasafe smart battery charger ~ $47
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/b004lwveks

Modern day battery charging! Bought an old honda trail 90 motorcycle w/ 6 volt battery so i needed a new charger – this is a god-send, all you could ask for charging 12v & 6v either as full power charger or a “maintenance” (trickle) charger. Has “smart” construction to keep you from damaging your batteries so pretty much makes using it foolproof. Even has a “battery repair” function so you can try to being screwed up, neglected, mistreated batteries back to life. Really leased w/ this & it will probably be the last charger i’ll ever need to purchase! Great company making great product — this is definitely not the charger of my dad’s age (the kinda shady ones i grew up with that had to be watched over & tinkered with or you ruined the battery and/or blew up the house/garage).

I tried this charger on a long since discharged agm battery and restored and charged it. Also tested it on a lipo motorcycle battery and it charged then maintained it.
It comes with a mountable velcro strap and i’m adding ring terminals for a permanent connection to the battery.
I’m installing it in the wife’s car to trickle charge and maintain an agm battery overnight. Her commute is 1.5 miles in the dark, wet, and cold. The battery rarely gets fully charged. The charger has several functions but it will default to the last setting every time it is plugged in.
I have used several different models of noco chargers and lithium jump starters. They’re high priced but they work great and last for years.
One note: this isn’t rated for high temperature so for my application it needs to be mounted away from engine heat. There is a marine version that can handle engine compartment heat but they start at 10 amps and is double the price.

One of my cars is driven relatively little during some periods of time. Recently it became an issue when the car did not start and i had to jump-start it. Due to cold weather and little driving (short trips a few times a week), the battery lost much of its capacity. After connecting noco genius5, 5a smart car battery charger, the battery was charged to the maximum of its capacity while parked in the garage and was ready to go the next time i had to drive this car. I keep this charger connected all the time to the battery – just in case. The device also maintains the battery. It is easy to use and it does the job. Better be safe than sorry.

I used this trickle charger to keep my battery charged for about four months. When i returned, the car started right up, just as advertised and expected. I drove the car for an hour to make sure it was fully charged, but my battery was nearly five years old and was unable to hold that charge. So, if you have an old battery and need to leave the car sitting for months, you might do better to remove the battery while you are gone and replace it with a new one when you return. Had i done that i would have saved the price of this product.

I bought this item to correctly speed up the charging and maintaining of my motorcycle agm batteries.
*you will need to purchase the additional adapter.* my bikes took 10 mins to fully charge my batteries that are only 2 years old.

Powerful enough to charge my 5 year old bmw x5 agm 105ah battery. My battery was 25% took around 5 hours to reach 100%.

It has rubber feet on the bottom, so it won’t scratch anything its placed on.
All around solid build including cords, wiring and button.
Comes with a wall mount and velcro.

Overall i’m impressed and happy with this item.

I purchased the noco genius 5 this week for a troublesome battery in my wife’s vehicle. I had originally replaced the battery last year, but we never drive her car so it has been sitting for a very long time. Naturally when i went to start it earlier this week, it was dead as a door nail. I couldn’t even get it to jump off – when i say it was ‘dead’, it was totally spent. When attempting to crank the engine, there was absolutely nothing. I used the noco overnight, first with the repair function, then a full charge. The noco did its job perfectly and i could not be happier with the results.

It was on sale, so i figured it was worth a try, rather than replace my battery. The battery was needing to be jumped if i didn’t start the car daily. I left the car hooked up overnight in repair mode, then a couple hours on charge. The battery has stayed good for the last month with no need for jumping, even when left for 2 weeks.

For years, i only had a solar charger on my gate operator. Often in the winter, there was not enough sunshine to keep the battery charged, so i had to take the battery out and charge it myself. I finally had a commercial power drop installed near the gate and added a weatherproof box with a plug for this little noco charger. It has survived 13 – 100+ temperatures with no issues. I wish i done that years ago.

Product works and has great features however was disappointed as it did not come with a trickle charge accessory mount and had to buy to use for battery maintenance as my sae is not compatible. Be aware you will need there noco accessory mount for trickle charging… Other than that i do like the battery restore function, but will have to see if it makes a difference.

Aún no ha estado suficiente tiempo en la interperie para calificar

I owned a cheap harbor freight charger but only 1 amp so it takes awhile to charge 3 12vdc batteries parallel 105mah total. This one is twice faster but it gets hot. Tech support says it’s normal depending on the battery condition which my batteries are new.

The genius 5 is an excellent and easy-to-use product. However, because i couldn’t find the wire lengths in the product descriptions, i bought an extension i didn’t need. A little clarity would help.

I would have given this a 5 star rating but there was no place to mount this in the engine bay of a 14 acura rdx. I had to purchase the extension in order to use it. Depending on your vehicle, you may have room to mount this in your engine bay. Unfortunately, i didn’t but was still able to use it. I had to run it through the grill with no problem and it did the job. This product is easy to set up and use. If you should connect it incorrectly, it will display. I use this as a battery trickler to keep the battery fully charged. Batteries drain in extreme heat and cold…best to keep it maintained at all times with this product. Do your own research and find the best trickler for your needs.

Unit works well. An excellent replacement for keeping the battery topped up for a stand by generator.

Some thoughts: the ui leaves a lot to be desired. The instructions weren’t particularly clear in the user manual, and i was unable to get into force mode. Instead, it kept going into 6v mode. I triple-checked instructions, verified i had the correct user guide, and still nothing.

The first time i hooked the charger up, it stayed on ‘under 25%’ for two full days, made it to 25% solid, and then threw an error message on day three saying the battery was just no good. I tried force mode again and got the same result- it wouldn’t do it. I put it back to 12v agm and let it run an auto cycle again. Two more days and now my battery is showing 100% and is in the green.

This thing is a pain to use and i seriously considered sending it back. Eventually it worked. It’s replacing two ancient battery tenders i bought for motorcycles, and it’s keeping my race car topped up as i write this. I can’t give it five stars, but it definitely works.

Ultimately, i’d buy something else if i needed to do this again.

Using it on lithium batteries. Seems to do a good job but a bit slow. Also gets to 145f on my batteries if going from 0ahr to 100ahr charge. Was going to return it, but contacted their support and they said unit can support up to 185f, so decided to keep it.

These trickle chargers continually get the best reviews, but they’re a bit expensive for what they do. Easy to use and so far seem to be holding up well.

I mostly like this charger and got it to complement my noco battery. I was hoping i would be able to use repair function to fix my old battery but the way you change modes per the instructions doesn’t seem to do what it is supposed to do. But when changing for all of the normal modes it’s quick and easy.
The other thing i don’t really like but you can change with a little bit more money is the connectors. This charger uses it’s own type of connector that is not standard with any of the other batteries or chargers i have ever used before. So unless you want to remove your seat every time you want to put the battery on the charger you will need to change the quick connect to the one that comes with the charger. Not a biggie but kind of annoying. They do make additional cable and connection options available at a price.