Battery charger dilemma

[Andrew_Fanner]

The current fixed battery charger, a Sterling power job, has tuned up its toes for no known reason. Sterling will apparently take it back (way out of warranty) and fix if economical, otherwise discount on a new one. I've also been looking at the Ctek thingies, which seem rather more sophisticated at 8 stages as opposed to 4 but much lower current, 4A as opposed to 20A. I have 2 x 110Ah batteries as a 24 volt setup on each engine, so 2 24v banks to charge. Usual mooring has no shorepower but if I drop down to the club hard I plug in. Something more up to date than the aging 1960s brass box regulators on the engines for charging under way is another matter ofc!

At present it looks a tossup between a new one from Sterling with 2 outputs, one per bank, or 2 x cleverer Ctek 24V jobs, at maybe £100 more, or just one of them and a selector switch.

Any recommendations from the panel?

 

[PaulGooch]

The current fixed battery charger, a Sterling power job, has tuned up its toes for no known reason. Sterling will apparently take it back (way out of warranty) and fix if economical, otherwise discount on a new one. I've also been looking at the Ctek thingies, which seem rather more sophisticated at 8 stages as opposed to 4 but much lower current, 4A as opposed to 20A. I have 2 x 110Ah batteries as a 24 volt setup on each engine, so 2 24v banks to charge. Usual mooring has no shorepower but if I drop down to the club hard I plug in. Something more up to date than the aging 1960s brass box regulators on the engines for charging under way is another matter ofc!

At present it looks a tossup between a new one from Sterling with 2 outputs, one per bank, or 2 x cleverer Ctek 24V jobs, at maybe £100 more, or just one of them and a selector switch.

Any recommendations from the panel?

Avoid the selector switch, one more thing to forget, that could leave you with a flat bank. Given your normal lack of shore power, i'd go for the more powerful charger. That also largely negates any possible benefits of 8 stage charging.

 

[AustinPowers]

When the same happened to me, Sterling proffered the same solution, they didn't have to but they did.

I thought service like that should be rewarded with loyalty to the brand.

 

[rafiki_]

With 4 A charge capacity, it seems like the CTek will take an age to charge the batteries, especially if there are several of them. If you do not have shre power at your mooring, I think this would be a srious problem.