Who/What Is In Charge?

There was a discussion on a board about battery chargers. I suggested that my high tech multi stage charger wouldn’t charge a battery in my car after I’d left the key on overnight. I said in order for my Smart Charger to start charging, I had to connect my 30 year old ‘dumb’ charger to the battery to trick the smart one into recognizing there was a battery connected to it. Here’s part of what I got back:

~~~your smart charger is less likely to try and charge a battery that should not be charged~~~

And my observation:

There are so many people and laws and signs telling me what and what not to do that I simply will not tolerate my “Smart” charger telling me that my battery should not be charged.

Wow, a 7 stage charger. Is the alternator on my car that smart - how does my car battery survive without all that technology? Then again - if you want to spend $300 or more on a high-end battery I guess it follows that a high tech charger is in order.

I hope you can tell I'm being sarcastic. There are techies in every discipline and I'm glad we have them...and I love giving them a rough time. At 70+ maybe I'm just not able to keep up with the new technology - hell, I'm still using a single blade razor. So, if your bag is high tech - by all means go for it...and maybe we can have a little chuckle.

I guess I post here to let the folks who don't have big bucks, know that you really don't need to go high tech to enjoy the water. When I bought my trawler many years back, everyone told me that I shouldn't go out on the water without the very latest equipment. How the heck was I going to manage on my budget? So I sold the trawler and quit listening to the folks who told me I had to have the latest stuff.

 My current boat is over 40 years old, it uses <$100 WalMart batteries and the gasoline motor has a carburetor. It's nothing to brag about - doesn't shine, isn't fast, has an old fashion gravity head and I have to store it under cover to keep the neighbors from complaining about the eyesore...but it makes me very happy. And for those of you out there without big bucks – low tech is an option to consider if you can tune out the well-meaning techies.