Battery Charger Experience

Okay, so Im in the market to replace the cheap basic generic battery charger/converter in my RV with a so called "3 Stage" or "Smart Charger" and am looking for experience and opinions on different brands.

Im NOT talking a cheap old technology charger, I have plenty of those lying around, Im talking one that has at the minumin automatic multi stages such as BULK CHARGE,,,,ABSORPTION CHARGE,,,,,,,FLOAT CHARGE,,,,,,AND PERHAPS ALSO EQUALIZATION CAPABILITY........(Talkin flooded lead acid here, Im NOT into AGM yet)

The use is in my RV that has three in paralell 125 AH 12 volt (Group 31 if I recall) RV/Marine quasi "deep cycle" batteries that I want to properly maintain, charge and prevent plate sulfation so I get as long a life as possible. Im already familair with keeping them charged and battery maintainers and the advanatges and disadvantages of true deep cycle and golf cart batteries etc etc etc IM JUST LOOKIN FOR EXPERIECNE AND OPINIONS ON DIFFERENT BRANDS OF CHARGERS to best maintain the three batteries I already have...Maybe in a few years when they need replaced I will look at Golf Cart style of batteries etc etc but now I just want a good brand of multi stage smart charger to protect what I currently am using......

PS I really want the Equilization Capability and hope its automatic or else I guess I can just manually do that myself every month or so as recommended by the battery manufacturer

PS I was just on the road and dry camped off the grid for 8 days and between my rooftop solar panel and ocassionally starting my Onan Generator or the RV with its 80 amp alternator my 3 batteries (375 AH) did great and I could go on dry camping almost indefinitely but arrived at my RV park today so Im plugged in now

Thanks yall best wishes n God Bless

Ol John T currently in Avon Park FL

I'm curious what the guys come up with, but I don't plan to need one.

I suggest you ask at more than one RV dealer to get multiple opinions. How big are your solar panels if you don't mind me asking?

KEH

Ask these folks and you will recieve more about the subject than you ever thought existed. Purdy friendly bunch to pull the rag with about anything RV but no religion or politics which will get you shown the door.
www.nuwaowners.org

heart charger inverter.. a 2k inverter with 3k surge will do nicely.. I have two.. its only a 100 amp charger iirc. One in my 38 foot manaco dynasty and the other in the tool box of my ranch truck.. great for running electric impact wrenches.

John, Just purchased a BatterMinder 12248 form ebay for $110. The jury is still out, haven't decided if it is a good one or not. Instructions said it may take up to 3 months to desulfate a battery. Had I know that, I may have kept looking.

From what I've read, equalizing is best done manually. Not really sure if it can be done automatically or by the BatteryMinder.

I've been experimenting with bringing batteries back from the dead. Have had some success.

What I can say for sure is that open batteries are junk. You can determine a battery has an open very easily. Cells are in series. Most old Christmas lights are wired in series and when one bulb goes out every thing stops. Batteries with an open produces no voltage and takes no charge.

A battery still takes a charge and produces voltage when one cell is shorted. However, the acid in that cell is reduced to water and that can easily be determined with a hydrometer. I don't think there is any hope for shorted cells either.

Before I purchased a BatteryMinder, I tried to make my own battery conditioner from a 40 year old 12 amp manual charger. I would first connect a battery to a smart charger and charge it as much as possible. The specific gravity of some cells were less than the others. I removed one diode from my manual charge and connected it to a 24 hour timer, which I purchased from Menards. Set the timer to be on for 30 minutes and off for 30 minutes. The peak voltage from my old charger is 19 volts. This equalized all but one battery, which ended up having a dead cell. I have a total of 14 batteries, 7 are mower batteries, 2 marine batteries, and 5 car/truck/tractor batteries. I would monitor the specific gravity during equaliation and stopped when the weak cells came up, usually in 24 to 48 hours.

Hope I've done you some good. Let me know what you buy and how well it works.

2 of my car batteries are AGM's, so I have no way to measure the specific gravity. Only thing I can do is use a load tester to measure the progress.

Only time will tell how much good I did. I'm keeping an eye on my batteries making sure they don't run out of water, load testing and using a smart charger or the BatteryMinder to keep them up to full charge over the winter.

Hope you are enjoying Florida's warm temps. Think we may be warmer in Indiana.

George

There are not many with all those features as a stand-alone charger. They are usually including inside a combo inverter-charger.

Xantrex is one that I know of. Very good unit. May be more then you want but it has all the features including the equalize mode. Xantrex/Trace has been a high-end maker of inverter-chargers for years and is well known in the solar industry. They just got taken over by Duracell so I hope they don't get ruined.

One thing to mention. Many of the lower priced chargers even with all the features you want - won't work properly with many portable AC generators. Keep that in mind if it matters. It's been a major issue for years with off-grid homeowners living on solar and batteries. Often a $2000 generator would not run a battery charger properly. No problem with high-end gensets and also not a problem with DC to AC "inverter" generators.

This Xantrex has been tested to work great with all AC power -even from cheap low-voltage 120 VAC gensets that only peak at 150 volts at each end of the cycle. Cheap battery chargers require 170 volts at the peaks (like grid power has).

Note also that if you can do without the "equalize " mode, Iota makes some great chargers for less money.

<a href="http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m162/jdemaris/?action=view&amp;current=Xantrex.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

I like the specs on that Xantrex and the equalize voltage of 16 is what the dudes at the seminars I recently attended suggested and I have no problem if its manually done.

Actually Im not that concerned if my Onan 4 KW Genset cant be used to charge my batteries just perfect, while I dry camp a lot I camp much more time plugged into shore power and when it sets for a few months at home the Xantrex and/or a battery tender will work plugged into my utility

Thanks,

John T

Thanks, Im into Flea Bay so will definitely take a look see. I just dont want the batteries I bought recently to die an early death

John T

My solar panel isnt very big, something like 60 watts, but hey if it pumps 5 amps into my batteries all day and all I use them for is to run the furnace at night plus a few lights and the water pump Im getting by

John T

On the subject of battery chargers used on gensets - it's not a matter of them not working. It's a problem of not working well. There is NO good way to find out before buying (that I know of) except by "word of mouth" from people who have tested and verified.

The general rule-of-thumb before there were portable DC inverter generators was . . . if it's portable and cost less then $2000 it won't work well. If it's a permanent mount household type "standy" unit, it probably WILL work OK. Same with most 1/2 speed RV generators. But there are exceptions.

So far, all the portable inverter generators I've tested work great.

I've tested a few, but I can't buy them all to test. Many good marine and solar equipment dealers have also tested and given their results.

I ran a simple test awhile back on a Shumacher 30 amp battery charger. Nothing special or high-end. I had a test battery that had the same level of discharge with each test.

Hooked to grid power -it started charging at 28 amps.

Hooked to my 17 KW PTO generator, it did the same at 28 amps.

Hooked to my Coleman 1850 watt gas generator is only charged 9 amps.

Hooked to a Honda 3000 watt gas generator is only charged 10 amps.

Hooked to my Chinese ETQ inverter 1800 watt gas generator - it charged 27 amps.

Hooked to my Honeywell 2000i inverter 2000 watt gas generator - it charged 25 amps.

Hooked to my Homelite 4400 amp gas generator and it only charged 10 amps.

Other people have made tests with one cheap AC generator and many type of chargers. Huge difference. Most shop-type battery chargers worked poorly (like my test). Same with all portable tool battery chargers and cell phone chargers. They oftgen took 2X-4X as long to charge a battery as they did on grid-power.

That ad I posted for the Xantrex Truecharge was tested by a solar equipment dealer - and he's got a great reputation. Not cheap though.

If you mostly use shore power, there are many great chargers sold by marine dealers. I've got two made by Guest that are rock-solid. But as I said previously, a charger with all the features you cited is not common as a stand-alone unit. One slight problem with marine stuff is the extra cost, usually due to the marine environment they are used in.

http://www.backwoodssolar.com/