vic008
Well-Known Member
About to go into a marina for winter. What is the best 12v charging regime please? Have an expensive AGM battery, 12v frig the biggest draw. More the budget type of chargers. Hope not to kill the battery.
Mains charging for battery
- Thread starter vic008
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Boater Sam
Well-Known Member
You won't be wrong with the Victron charger. 20A will probably be enough, 30A if you like.
PhillM
Well-Known Member
Fit a Solar panel - much cheaper than marina power.
noelex
Well-Known Member
If leaving the battery for long periods with no or minimal loads it is better to reduce the typical charge set points. A small number of chargers do this automatically with a “storage” mode,but with any adjustable charger (solar or mains) is easy to set this up yourself.
Reduce the voltage set points (absorption and float) by around 0.2-0.3v. Use a short absorption time. An absortion of 14.2 v for a few minutes followed by a 13.4v for a AGM battery is typical.
Reduce the voltage set points (absorption and float) by around 0.2-0.3v. Use a short absorption time. An absortion of 14.2 v for a few minutes followed by a 13.4v for a AGM battery is typical.
Buck Turgidson
Well-Known Member
The victron chargers as above all have a storage mode. They really are set and forget.
noelex
Well-Known Member
Yes, i have a Victron mains charger and the storage mode is a valuable feature that is absent from most mains chargers, although only the voltage set points are changed. The absorption time is not adjusted. This is adaptive, but not not adaptive enough to be ideal for storage.
Unfortunately a storage mode is only an option for the Victron mains chargers. This option is not offered for Victron MPPT solar controllers. When leaving the boat in storage solar power is ideal as nobody can unplug the connection.
Nevertheless, you can manually set suitable battery storage parameters on any charger or controller with user adjustable set points.
Usually this user adjustable facility is the best option. It can be tailored to your circumstance. For example, if leaving the boat in the water, if an unforeseen problem developed, the possibility of extensive bilge pump operation needs to be considered. Therefore the charger may be required to deliver significant amounts of energy. The same risk is not present when storing the boat on the hard.
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Momac
Well-Known Member
I installed a Victron Bluesmart 30A x 3 outputs two years ago and its been good, Compact light weight and silent.
Replaced the old and faulty Newmar charger which was large heavy and had a noisy fan.
The Victron came at a reasonable price.
Replaced the old and faulty Newmar charger which was large heavy and had a noisy fan.
The Victron came at a reasonable price.
