Battery charger suggestions

[lumphammer]

After 5 years my sterling Pro 20 battery charger failed spectacularly with big sparks from the mains input end and a blown mcb in the consumer unit.

I'm looking for options for a replacement system. I have 2 leisure batteries (240Ah) connected in parallel and a smaller engine starting battery (55Ah). We live aboard in the marina with permanent electrical supply on to run fridge and water heater, lights and pumps are fed from the batteries/battery charger so it runs as a power supply once the batteries are charged. I'm using two of the three outputs to separately charge leisure and engine batteries.

The newest Sterling equivalent seems to have all sort of features I don't need like being waterproof. (If we start getting water into the battery charger, then whether it is waterproof will be the least of my worries)

We also have the Sterling alternator to battery charger and I have heard that I could connect the charger to the alternator input and use the split diode in the A-B-C to charge leisure and engine batteries allowing me to use just a single output charger.

Can anyone recommend an alternative to the Sterling that would work? Has anyone used the A-B-C in the way described above?

 

[Poecheng]

There are lots of different ideas about the best way to charge.
My preferred charger is CTEK. THey don't have two/three outputs - they just have one which is very well operated !. I am not sure any multi output charger actually operate as separate chargers.
Your usage in a marina is to charge batteries and then work as power pack for limited 12v with the big stuff taken care of by 240v. If you need to ever charge your engine battery that will be a rarity.

You could get a nice CTEK for your domestic supply and get it wired in. They have a special connector in the charging lead so that you can unplug and plug the charger it into another connector. So, get an additional "comfort lead" [a lead connected to your started battery with the CTEK connector] already to take the very occasional swap over of the charger lead to the engine start battery.
If feeling rich, get a second, small CTEK just to keep the engine start battery topped up (but unlikely to be needed). Unlike a multi-output charger, with a second charger you get dedicated charging of the engine battery (and a degree of redundancy).

Cannot help with the ABC I'm afraid but, if you go the above route then IMHO not sure you can improve.

As said there are lots of ideas how to do it and mine is just one !

Marine version: M200:http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...keywords=ctek+m200&rh=n:248877031,k:ctek+m200

And spare connecting lead: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-CTE-56...&ie=UTF8&qid=1411409257&sr=1-10&keywords=ctek