Cheap chargers

[shonky]

Hi, all.

Some of you may recall that after installing a 2nd pair of batteries we also purchased an $80 40amp charger, to help out the expensive 25amp one. With the cheapie feeding the batteries via the solar controller and the exy one wired straight to the main battery terminals they work well in tandem, to the point where I would readily sell the more expensive unit. I see no situation where more than 40amps would be required. Note we have 4*125amp AGMs

After talking at length to a highly qualified person I was told that one does not need an expensive mega-stage charger unless the RV needs to be left on trickle charge for an extended period. All comments welcome.

Almost forgot - we've a 300watt inverter for most jobs, including the use of a 280w power drill. We then went for the cheap option and purchased a 1000w inverter for $45 and hooked it up via Anderson plugs to the batteries, solely for the disc grinder. Works a treat. We saw a really thrifty bloke a while back at lake Clarendon - as the battery in his fairly expensive drill died he soldered the terminals on the drill to, you guessed it, an Anderson plug.

[BruceS]

Bruce one day you'll come across Brian (Homeless) i9n bare feet and shorts (even in frost) ..... he has adapted allsorts of useful items to work off a portable pack of lithium batteries. The best one being an electric chainsaw. He can sneak into anyone's backyard and trim up dead limbs without them knowing he's been there.
You sick of sunshine yet? Got a few clouds down here about your size I can send up if you like?

[shonky]

Hi, all.

Bruce S. - we've been driving through low clouds, from Babinda to Cairns, and even turned on the windscreen wiper. Must buy one for Mrs shonky's side of "The Doghouse" sometime.

So whats wrong with bare feet and shorts? A little thrift never hurt anyone.

[BruceS]

Agreed but in a paddock of Bindii's is just taking it one step (lol) too far... (IMO)

[native pepper]

Have to agree with you Shonky, have learnt from experience on most occasions there is little difference between serviceability and price. During the last 10 years, had two 1000w inverters, the cheapest you could buy on ebay and the first one failed within a few months. Luckily bought a backup and have used that since, the one that stopped working was given to a mate and he fixed it in an hour. Said it was a shonky capacitor or something. It's sat on a shelf in the bus since and has gone from driving 240v tools and small PA, to running 84cm led tv, laptops, chargers and other stuff.

When finish re powering the bus with more panels and a new lifepo4 system, will get a bigger inverter and probably run the bus on 240v and get a cheaper and bigger 240v fridge freezer.

[shonky]

HI, all

native pepper - just re-reading your post. So what's wrong with a shonky capacitor??

[shonky]

Hi, all.

You're aware that we've 2 battery chargers, the 25 amp smart one direct to the batteries and the Evilbay 40amp one going through the PL 40. This gives me up to 40 amps shared between the two with the cheaper one doing the brunt of the work and the monitor of the other supplying some charge but also displaying the charging current, which is handy.
Right. 500amps of AGM like up to 10% of capacity when healthy, or up to 20% when depleted - 80% or lower. My max charge under the current setup is 8% or 40 amps. After much consideration and various enquiries both chargers will be going direct to the batteries, giving a max input of 65amps or 13% while using the genset. Should be good and all comments welcome.

[T1 Terry]

If the chargers are connected to the battery whether they are through the PL40 or not they should work together. First disconnect the smart charger and see if the dumb one is putting in all 40 amps, this can be adjusted along with the end voltage so you can leave it running through the PL40 and just tune it up a bit.
Sadly smart chargers are often too smart to be useful and if they sense more voltage at the battery than they think it should have they just stop charging, or reduce their charge level. If the smart charger is smart enough to have battery voltage sensing cables, connect a light bulb in series with the positive cable, this will drop the voltage and trick the charger into doing what you wanted it to do, put out the full 25 amps, but don't rely on its sensing circuit to turn the charger off when the battery reaches 14.8v as it will see a much low voltage depending on the wattage of the light bulb used. If you wire a bulb holder in series on the positive voltage sensing lead you can experiment with different bulbs to see which works best.

T1 Terry

[shonky]

Hi, all.

Mrs shonky and I almost took the plunge and switched to a 3 way fridge the other day, but the changeover cost was horrific. We've elected to keep the 12v one and up the solar capacity instead.
You may recall my purchasing a PL40 solar controller, a fine unit, does more than we need but will not put a serious charge into our 4*125 AGM batteries.
The dumb charger is happy to supply 40amps alone, but even using both chargers this amperage cannot be exceeded.We've elected to install an evilbay 80amp controller and will let you know if it works, not if it doesn't.

[BruceS]

Awww c'mon Shonky......... even if it doesn't work it will be news for us to read!! I wondered where you got to? I've gone past you probably by now but I dreamt of lamingtons all night last night ...........