I don't know if it's a good thing that I'm the kind of guy who owns several battery chargers, maybe it is because I'm also the kind of guy who uses a lot of battery chargers. Between cheap beater vehicles parked in unheated spaces and rarely driven, my summer camping trailer with two huge deep cycle batteries and just my nature to overthink things, I spend a lot of time thinking about battery chargers.
I actually have two vehicles hooked up to battery chargers right now because both of them have shitty batteries and I don't feel like buying new ones.
From my research, it seems like the CTEK and NOCO chargers are the "best" as they each have 8 separate stages they can go through. I don't own either of these brands (yet).
One I have is the Battery Tender Jr (750 mA model) which has a 5-step process. I like this one for my big trailer batteries because it doesn't "time out" like my Motomaster one, and it'll be fine when left hooked up for weeks or months in the winter.
I also have this Motomaster "nautilus" 2/10/15A one, which has a higher amperage capability, handy for getting batteries back to reasonable charge in a shorter amount of time:
This one doesn't specify how many steps in the process, but I suspect it's at least 4. My main gripe is that it throws an error code when left hooked up for long periods. I think that's because it doesn't get the batteries up to a "high enough" voltage, and it thinks something is wrong. I don't know what voltage it's aiming for, as it displays 90% charge, and has greatly reduced the amperage (usually to 1 or less) when the display shows 14.8V, but if left connected, it stops charging eventually and gives and error.
I suppose the converter in my trailer also counts as a battery charger, as it does charge the trailer batteries when it's hooked up to shore power or a generator. I have been reading a lot on the trailer forums and it seems to be a popular modification to swap out the converter to a "better" one that takes better care of the batteries. I've also looked into the various solar charge controllers that are available for RV application, seems to be a similar type of charge logic in the "best" solar controllers too.
So am I the only person who lays awake at night thinking about the best charging strategy for all my batteries? What do you use, and what do you think the "best" battery chargers are?