Relative Merits of Adverc and Balmar Duo charge?

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NPMR

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Does anyone have an informed view as to how to choose between these 'smart' battery chargers. Adverc or Balmar Duo charge. Both company's adverts speak very highly of them.

The 'other' part of the equation will be uprated alternator and additional cells to push the battery bank to about 340/370 A/h.
 
NPMR said:
Does anyone have an informed view as to how to choose between these 'smart' battery chargers. Adverc or Balmar Duo charge. Both company's adverts speak very highly of them.

The 'other' part of the equation will be uprated alternator and additional cells to push the battery bank to about 340/370 A/h.
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I'm not sure you understand what these do. The Adverc is a "smart" alternator regulator which increases the charging voltage so as to improve charging efficiency. The Balmar Duo Charge is a DC-to-DC charger, used often to charge a starting battery from the house bank. So they do completely different things. What are you trying to achieve?
 
By 4 cells do you mean you have a domestic bank of 4 batteries that can be independently "appropriately" charged? If you fit a splitter (doesn't matter what type if you're fitting an Adverc or other battery-sensed controller) between the engine start battery and a bank of paralleled domestic batteries, the system will look after itself.
The alternator will only try to output at maximum for a short while until the voltage rises, then drop to 20 or 30 amps, so a standard one as fitted will probably do.
The Adverc gently 'massages' the charge rate up and down over a few cycles, while the Sterling forces it into full whack for a calculated period relative to the length of time it took for the voltage to rise, then both go into float mode until the sensed voltage drops again. Both claim to properly "fill" the battery as opposed to a basic alternator which doesn't have a bulk cycle and is intended to recharge a car battery enough to restart an engine, and not much more.
 
NPMR said:
More input to the batteries from the alternator on the engine. With one 75 A/h engine start and 4 cells in a bank charged appropriately - more if they need more and vice versa.
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Batteries will only accept a certain amount of charging current. The higher the charge voltage, the more current. But excessive voltage can damage the batteries. You need to start by measuring the charge voltage at the battery terminals. If it's 14.0v or less, there could be an advantage in having a "smart" alternator regulator (Adverc, Sterling, etc).
 
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