Battery chargers

[MartinGPerry]

I have got through two Guest Charge Pro battery chargers in the last 5 years (the second was a warranty replacement) and I am looking for a new one that will last longer.
There seems to be big differences in price between Sterling chargers and others on the market, does anyone have any experiences or comments?
I have two 110AH service batteries in parallel and a 110A starting battery. Probably will add a third service battery this year.
Martin

 

[gtmoore]

I have the Sterling 20amp charger and it seems very good. I can't comment on it's longevity as I've only had it a year.

HTH

Gavin

 

[Chris_Robb]

Stirling 20amp installed start of year - good product - hope it lasts. I have exactly the same set up as you and its plenty of power until I try to start my ancient Webasto heater which takes 40 amps to start and won't start if the voltages drop below 13. So if you need a kick like this then get a larger one, but for plain battery charging I would go for the 20AMp

 

[tr7v8]

Not installed it yet but I reviewed what was on the market and ended up with a Sterling 20 amp as well!
Rule of thumb for charger calculation is 10% of battery capacity. Hence 200A/H would need a charger of around 20Amps.
What battery set up do you have. If you run high load devices they maybe pulling too much current from the charger and overloading it, although decent design should resolve this.

Jim
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[MartinGPerry]

We do run a big Webasto heater and lots of halogen lights so it may be the Guest chargers were under rated, though they didn't seem to get too hot. It may be significant that the Guest Pro charger was a sealed unit with no fan which relied on convection airflow for cooling

I think I will get a 50A model this time around from another manufacturer


Thanks to those who replied

 

[yachtbits]

are you running the webasto and the lights while on shore supply?

if this is the case you will need to rate your charger to cope with this current consumption plus at least 5-10% of the battery capacity.

the startup surge of the webasto should not be a problem as this additional short term load should be provided by the batteries.

Just for normal maintenance, you need 200ah * 10% ie 20A charger, you will need considerably more if you are running lots of equipment for long periods from the charger.

Sterling chargers, we've sold loads of them and haven't had one back yet.

kev

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