Sterling alternator regulator

Dockhead

Dockhead

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I'm about to install a three-stage regulator on my alternator (Leece-Neville 24v x 110 amp), and thought to use the Sterling regulator, which is reasonable in cost and has the possibility of using a remote panel.

The electrician in our marina said he wouldn't touch any Sterling gear; use Balmar or anything else.

I was rather surprised, as I had never heard anything negative about Sterling electrical gear. What do you guys think? Anyone using a Sterling three-stage regulator?
 
Yup, bought one a couple of seasons ago, seems to work. No flat battery yet!

As with everything, some will think they are the best since sliced bread, others have a bad experience and would not touch them with a barge pole. I did some quick checking of reviews and bought one, not yet disapointed.

Stuart
 
Well, that's encouraging. I guess the local electrician must have had some kind of bad experience.
 
Sterling stuff is OK and generally does the job, Balmar is top quality but you will pay a premium for it. Adverc is anoter option for alternator regulators.

Anthony
 
For what it's worth - I have a ProSplitR, a PDAR Alternator Regulator and a Pro Charge Battery Charger, Never had probems with any of them.
 
I had a Sterling. After using it for a few weeks I had a 'spike' which terminally destroyed every instrument that was switched on at the time. The electrician who fitted the Sterling denied responsibility and blamed the Sterling equipment. An independent electrian examined the yacht and came to the same conclusion. Mr Sterling did not want to know.
 
Sadlermike said:
I had a Sterling. After using it for a few weeks I had a 'spike' which terminally destroyed every instrument that was switched on at the time. The electrician who fitted the Sterling denied responsibility and blamed the Sterling equipment. An independent electrian examined the yacht and came to the same conclusion. Mr Sterling did not want to know.
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What item of Sterling equipment was it? Was it an alternator regulator?

Are alternators capable of spikes?
 
Ouch! A spike big enough to destroy multiple instruments and not first be dampened by the batteries. Which unit was that?
 
Dockhead said:
The electrician in our marina said he wouldn't touch any Sterling gear; ......
?
Click to expand...

Strangely, I had exactly the same comment last week (southampton area marina - not the same guy is it?). The guy said they spent more time stripping out stirling gear than installing it, now.

Could be because they dont sell it, it dont get the margins, Mr Stirling has annoyed him .. or even some truth in it. I have no idea

MD
 
Alternators cant do spikes with a battery in the way.

If it was an alternator then i cannot see how it can do a spike and destroy all instruments as the battery will not allow this. It could have the bulk voltage set to high, but this would show by boiling the batteries.

The leece neville is what mastervolt use... so you could just buy one of their regulators and you would have their setup.

I cant imagine that there is anything wrong with the sterling gear that can do this if its setup properly.

However I do know that there are lots of people charging for their electrical knowledge and time, when they are not competent.

I think that incompetent or poor quality installations are what cause most boat electrical problems.
 
We have had the Sterling external pro regulator for 3 years with no problems, but I would suggest that some of the criticism of Sterling comes from the fact that the unit achieves its performance and high charge rates by charging your batteries at higher than recommended voltages. Whereas an inbuilt regulator may go up to 14.6 volts or so in bulk mode, the Sterling will get up to 15.2v in cold weather or possibly even higher. This means you get a lot more gassing and you must keep on top of your battery water levels or you will soon fry them and destroy them. This means checking battery water at least once a month and more often in the tropics. For our set of 4 x 6V deep cycle 220 Ahr batteries I have had to add as much as 4 litres of water a month in the tropics. There appears to be no way to adjust the peak voltage downwards a bit (a least not a user setting) to be kinder to the batteries. The second effect of this high charging voltage is that some electronics may not like having a supply voltage of 15.2 volts although nowadays many modern items are rated for a range of 11v to 32v. Older electronics may get "fried" and this could be interpreted as a "spike" by some people possibly. To be fair to Sterling the high charge voltage and its effects are fully documented in the manual.
 
Adverc

I know nothing to the detriment of Stirling, so this is not strictly an answer to the original question, but I have had excellent experiences on 3 boats with Adverc, all of which have worked faultlessly. On fitting one to my most recent boat the difference to the state of charge of my batteries has been little short of miraculous (the original builder fitted a diode splitter, but left the Voltage sensing at the alternator).

I have also found the staff at Adverc to be as helpful as it's possible to imagine any firm being.

No connection etc.
 
When you realise how long mr charles stirling has been making products of this nature it seems reasonable that he knows what he is doing, inverters turn up on ebay that are 20 odd years old and people still pay top whack for them !


Steve
 
I have had a Stirling unit for something like seven years now, around 1500 hours of motoring, very reliable. I encountered an intermittent fault that the high voltage warning would occasionally come on, which I thought might indicate a problem with the unit. A phone call advised me that it was probably a poor connection on the earth return side, which took a long time to locate but proved to be correct.

A good product as far as I am concerned.
 
Sadlermike said:
I had a Sterling. After using it for a few weeks I had a 'spike' which terminally destroyed every instrument that was switched on at the time. The electrician who fitted the Sterling denied responsibility and blamed the Sterling equipment. An independent electrian examined the yacht and came to the same conclusion. Mr Sterling did not want to know.
Click to expand...

Interesting! My 3 year old Clipper depth sounder started misbehaving whenever the Stirling alternator regulator was connected but, for a while, worked fine when it was disconnected. However it became so unreliable that I'm now junking it. Possibly a complete coincidence and maybe a fault with the Clipper rather than the Stirling but when I replace it I'm planning on putting a small regulated power supply in series. I believe the Clipper is rated up to 15v.

John
 
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