Things have moved on in the last few years, and affordable 10A units have been around.
A common example is the HTRC C150
I don't own it as I've used smaller things like above for small projects, but all the reviews I've seen have all the same familiar menu options.
Erroneously named "Lipo Chargers" more as slang, they also support LiFePO4, nimh, lead-acid Pb etc. The proper term is a "balance charger". Unlike a bms, they will not let an lfp cell rise above 3.6v. If it tries to, it throttles back the current to give the bleeders a chance and keep a cell from overshoot. (mainly because the voltage-sense balancing wires communicate with the charger).
Quite handy even without balance leads. In the 1S configuration (where no leads are needed), you could just use the LIFE 1S Charge if you wanted to charge individual cells, or perhaps a set of paralelled cells. Set your charge current. One could get reasonably close to a top balance this way, or later on as a top-up if needed on a single cell.
In the same manner, without balance leads as a simple 2-terminal charger for LFP, one could use the PB (lead acid) charge chemistry, but one has to pick the "S" parameter carefully. Usually adjust the S parameter to the nominal 12.8v, even if it says S6 (which would be appropriate for lead-acid, but not for a 4S LFP bank. Here we're doing a mental compensation for the lack of balance leads and shoehorning a different chemistry into use. This implies you KNOW what you are doing and why.
Obviously, with balance leads, a top balance could be done using the LIFE Balance Charge setting. If you just slap random cells together, it might take *forever*, because since the charger throttles back current if a runner is encountered (unlike a bms which just disconnects), you could be charging at 100ma till the end of time. Here, the better idea is to use the 1S configuration, charge each cell individually, and then perhaps do a LIFE balance charge.
Oh, forgot - you can also measure cell IR. While it is not a lab-quality instrument, it is valuable for baselining your measurements (which you write down somewhere) and then look for trends if you use it often.
Limited discharge current handling makes this kind of impractical for any larger cell banks to do capacity tests, although if you want to hear the fan scream for 20 hours...
So yeah, these are often scoffed at because of the slang name. For those who don't mind moving through a few settings to make sure they got the config right, it's pretty neat. They have a lot of other options, but no need to go into that here.
And oh yeah, please don't use alligator clips, but the proper ring terminals.
Just don't tell anyone you used it.
