Sterling Alternator To Battery Chargers

[rascacio]

Hello again, I posted about an electrical system upgrade ( New batteries, Twin alternator's etc ) a few months ago and got some great feedback.

However the new year is upon us and we plan to relaunch in June so I'm looking for info from anyone ACTUALLY USING a Sterling Alternator to Battery Charger (i.e. AB12****) OR ACTUALLY USING an alternative system.

There seems to be a lot of sales articles but some advice from a real cruiser would be great as our deadlines for decisions for our re-fitting will start to loom quickly.

Any alternatives would also be considered as well.

And finally !! Can anyone recommend a good reliable supply of quality LED's for lighting replacement purposes, again from anyone actually using them. (or not for whatever reason )

 

[JSK]

Sterling

One thing you will notice whitchever make you fit is the huge difference in charging time.We have over the years come accross several different makes & models whilst delivering customers boats ,but although we have had some problems the two makes that seem to perform in our opinion are Sterling & Adverc (I think thats how its spelt)I personally have the Sterling on my own boat.I found Charles Sterling very helpful and answered any questions over the phone personally.(no connection with either company just a very pleased customer)

Regards John Keen Delivery Skipper

www.keenmarine.co.uk

 

[vyv_cox]

LEDs. I bought six or seven from Ultraleds, six of which were festoon type and one bayonet. Within a few hours some were partly defunct and by the end of the season none were working. As seems to be normal with this company my request for action received no reply.

I then bought replacement festoon LEDs in Greece, these have fewer individual LEDs per fitting, IIRC 12 instead of 18. They have performed well for one season with no failures.

I replaced the halogen downlighters with LEDs from CAK. I have used this company for many years for both camper van and boat equipment and heartily recommend them. The LEDs are sold as direct replacements for halogen bulbs but this obviously depends upon the design of the light. In my case the LED clusters would not fit directly but cutting away the plastic cover in the rear solved this. They are almost as bright as the halogens and so far are doing well, with considerable savings in power. The ones I bought are the 421 units, base and side mounted, shown in page 8 of the catalogue.

 

[dinwood]

I've been buying from UltraLEDS for a few years with no problems until recently. The owner wouldn't ship to me in a Spanish marina and has been gratuitously unpleasant to a longstanding customer. That said, the more recent & powerful bulbs work well (apart from his "ultimate g4" halogen downlighter replacements which are not strong enough to replace 10W bulbs).

I fitted an Adverc alternator to charger thingie and it works brilliantly. The guy who fitted it was not keen on the Stirling equivalent, his experience was that they were not kind to batteries.

 

[Roberto]

Sterling regulator


I mounted one and compared it with the original regulator (the original regulator stays in place and by adding a switch it can be turned ON-OFF), measures were made by a Battery Controller

500Ah batteries, discharged by 100Ah (400Ah left): charging time to full charge is roughly 30% lower with the Sterling

OTOH, the initial charge (i.e. going from 400Ah to 450Ah) is a lot quicker with the sterling, I'd say at least 50% quicker.

When there are only 5% of total capacity left to charge the two regulators put out roughyl the same current.


My batteries are PbCa sealed, which are not particularly good at being fast charged, so I guess with other type of batteries the results with the sterling could well be better.


hope this helps



for info, besides the on-off switch, I also added a temperature sensor on the alternator body: as I have a 90A alternator, if 500Ah batteries are deeply discharged they might accept a rather big current and the alternator might heat too much, the temperature switch simply cuts off the Sterling regulator and the original "gentler" regulator comes back into play

 

[Chris_Robb]

Sterling regulator


I mounted one and compared it with the original regulator (the original regulator stays in place and by adding a switch it can be turned ON-OFF), measures were made by a Battery Controller

500Ah batteries, discharged by 100Ah (400Ah left): charging time to full charge is roughly 30% lower with the Sterling

OTOH, the initial charge (i.e. going from 400Ah to 450Ah) is a lot quicker with the sterling, I'd say at least 50% quicker.

When there are only 5% of total capacity left to charge the two regulators put out roughyl the same current.


My batteries are PbCa sealed, which are not particularly good at being fast charged, so I guess with other type of batteries the results with the sterling could well be better.


hope this helps



for info, besides the on-off switch, I also added a temperature sensor on the alternator body: as I have a 90A alternator, if 500Ah batteries are deeply discharged they might accept a rather big current and the alternator might heat too much, the temperature switch simply cuts off the Sterling regulator and the original "gentler" regulator comes back into play

I have a Sterling alternator controller - but it is the one without the alternator temp sensor, which was a mistake. No doubt that it is an excellent bit of kit. If your alternator leads are in any way suspect, it will thow over voltage faults and trip the controller once the voltage has started rising. I didn't beleive that I had problems, but following his advice, I replace all the leads with heavier ones, and the fault condition went away, and the amps into the battery increased by 20%!

If you have it set for lead acid batteries, it charges mine up to 14.8 volts. Doing this with sealed lead acid will bugger them. If you fit a Sterling controller, then fit refillable lead acid, because you will need to add water very regularly. But that extra voltage makes huge different to the charge rate, but does not harm the batteries.

 

[Chris_Robb]

And finally !! Can anyone recommend a good reliable supply of quality LED's for lighting replacement purposes, again from anyone actually using them. (or not for whatever reason )

I agree with Vyv about Ultraleds, Don't go near them. Even if the product works they are nasty people, wouldn't talk to me even though I was buying quite a lot from them, and would not answer emails.

I went to Searolf.LED [searolf.led@btinternet.com] for a mast head anchor light - really nice people - but have not yet tried the product.

 

[ccscott49]

I agree with Vyv about Ultraleds, Don't go near them. Even if the product works they are nasty people, wouldn't talk to me even though I was buying quite a lot from them, and would not answer emails.

I went to Searolf.LED [searolf.led@btinternet.com] for a mast head anchor light - really nice people - but have not yet tried the product.

I have converted the whole boat, circa 40+ lights, to LED's, supplied by searolf and aten lighting, cant reccomend either compnay highly enough. The power saving is immense, the light excellent and these are voltage stabilised units. Been in service now on a liveaboard, for a year, with no failures. Mainly replacements for halogen lights, but have replaced dome lights bulbs with a fitting supplied by aten, to use halogen replacements with back pins. With a little ingenuity, virtually any fitting can be replaced or modified and some of mine are very old light fittings.

Alternator regulators, I have adverc fitted to my boat and very pleased with it. I will however be fitting a high (150a 24v) alternator at some stage and will use the balmar one for the alternator. Still thinking about an alternator to battery 4 stage jobbie, but dont know enough about them yet and have AGM batteries.

 

[Heckler]

Hello again, I posted about an electrical system upgrade ( New batteries, Twin alternator's etc ) a few months ago and got some great feedback.

However the new year is upon us and we plan to relaunch in June so I'm looking for info from anyone ACTUALLY USING a Sterling Alternator to Battery Charger (i.e. AB12****) OR ACTUALLY USING an alternative system.

There seems to be a lot of sales articles but some advice from a real cruiser would be great as our deadlines for decisions for our re-fitting will start to loom quickly.

Any alternatives would also be considered as well.

And finally !! Can anyone recommend a good reliable supply of quality LED's for lighting replacement purposes, again from anyone actually using them. (or not for whatever reason )

I have used Aten G4 10 watt equivalents http://www.atenlighting.co.uk/home.php?xid=22478ce12d9a25737c685d126bd3ab41
Been in commission for a year now, no probs
Stu

 

[changeman]

Last year I tried to get some technical info from Sterling and was called back by a person who was most unhelpful, almost to the point of rudeness.
So I went to Energy Solutions, took their expert and customer focused advice and spent several thousand on Victron products, which have worked very well since then.
Will never go back to Sterling.
Nuff said.

 

[ccscott49]

Last year I tried to get some technical info from Sterling and was called back by a person who was most unhelpful, almost to the point of rudeness.
So I went to Energy Solutions, took their expert and customer focused advice and spent several thousand on Victron products, which have worked very well since then.
Will never go back to Sterling.
Nuff said.

That was probably Charles himself, can come across a bit gruff, I reckon depends on beer intake?! But he's very knowledgeable.

 

[Chris_Robb]

That was probably Charles himself, can come across a bit gruff, I reckon depends on beer intake?! But he's very knowledgeable.

Yup - Thats Charles! The thing is is that he is almost always right!

 

[emnick]

ULTRALEDS

I recently tried to get a replacement anchor LED from ULTRA LEDs I was told that they should not be used in a damp enviornment!! lol it was into its second season with about 20 hours maximum.

These are being sold for the marine market. However they did reply promptly to tell mel

I would not deal with them again, worst of all it has put me off LEDs which should be a good solution, in fact I was going to buy more if their customer service was better.

I recently read their T&Cs and LEDs are classed as a consumable item with 90 day warranty

Regards

 

[dk]

Smart alternator regs - i've tried several on different boats i've owned. They all work reasonably well, but you need to take a few essential precautions. Fit a Voltage Sensitive Relay (VSR) that will let the engine battery charge up first, but then parallel up the domestics when it reaches around 13.8V, otherwise you stand a good chance of cooking the much smaller engine battery. A diode splitter works, but can reduce the charge by up to 0.75V. Battery sensed regulators should overcome this, but in my experience the VSR was preferable (4 x 90Ah sealed lead/acid, 1 x 75Ah lead/acid starter) and always kept the much smaller starter battery full without overcharging it.

Secondly, do fit battery and alternator temperature sensors (not all smart regs have this facility). The former will ensure they are getting optimum charge for the ambient temperature (batteries need more charge the colder it gets), the latter stops the alternator burning out when it tries to put its maximum output into a well discharged battery bank.

Adverc and Sterling are both well-proven bits of kit, but then i would also recommend Balmar. However, those who aren't long-term cruising might just as well fit a simpler (and cheaper) 2-stage, heavy-duty regulator that whacks max charge in until it reaches a pre-set voltage and then drops back into a 'maintain charge' mode. This is ideal for those of us who only motor for a short time each trip, but don't necessarily run the batteries down to 50% charge as a liveaboard might.

Yes, Charles Sterling can be a little blunt, but he knows his stuff! Not dissimilar to the guy at Adverc, whose name escape me at the moment. They're both 100% sure their way is right!

 

[ianj99]

Yup - Thats Charles! The thing is is that he is almost always right!

I've used his Pro digital regulator and power management panel with excellent results (with an Optima spiral battery).

I did enquire this week about fitting a regulator to my Perkins' Lucas alternator after having removed the old remote oem regulator. His email replies were equally gruff!

Basically told me to refer to the manual. Which I had already done, in which in red ink, it stated that the existing regulator MUST be working, thereby implying that you cannot do away with it.

However, it seems you can but (obviously) have no back up if the Sterling regulator fails (surely not, Charles!)

I suppose success makes one arrogant....or is it old age making one irritable!

Ian

 

[tobble]

Charles

I have a stirling alternator controller (as opposed to the 'in line' alternator to battery charger) and it works brilliantly.

the two times I've contacted Stirling, I've had helpful and prompt, albeit slightly gruff/blunt responses. I can forgive the latter gven the former.

Incidentally, you can set up the charger for different types of bateries, so it need not do any damage to sealed batteries and suggested above. However mine are open lead acid so don't have any experience of this. you do need to keep an eye on the electrolyte levels though.

 

[Chris_Robb]

I have a stirling alternator controller (as opposed to the 'in line' alternator to battery charger) and it works brilliantly.

the two times I've contacted Stirling, I've had helpful and prompt, albeit slightly gruff/blunt responses. I can forgive the latter gven the former.

Incidentally, you can set up the charger for different types of bateries, so it need not do any damage to sealed batteries and suggested above. However mine are open lead acid so don't have any experience of this. you do need to keep an eye on the electrolyte levels though.

Agreed that you can set up a lower charge voltage of 14.4V, but that means a substantial reduction in the % potential difference in charging % of 12.8 - 14.4 = 2.6. x.4% = 15% reduction in charge - hence why Charlie says NON to sealed batteries, as they need gentle treatment, and therefore don't fit into that regime! That calculation comes from the another online advice place which I cannot find again, which advocates only going to 14.4V because they don't sell charge controllers - I wonder why!

 

[ianj99]

I also looked at Driftgate's Buccaneer controller which is similar but more expensive, especially the version with alternator or battery temperature sensing.

Charles recommended Trojan batteries - wish I'd asked before buying the very expensive Optima one (£249 for 75AH). However if it lasts a few years then I won't too disappointed.

Adverc and Smartpower are another couple of alternatives.

I

 

[rascacio]

Thanks to everyone, you know who you are.

Thank you to all who responded to my original post. All very useful info. It's good to hear of people USING similar systems from other companies. I have a Sterling digital 4 stage battery charger on board which I am very pleased with so I'll probably go with the Sterling 210 amp Alt/Batt regulator charger with new Trojan wet cell deep cycle batteries (@450 Ah) with 2x 90 amp alternators etc etc.

As for the LED's many thanks again, I've checked your recommendations and they look good (but so did Ultra !!) so again I'll go with one of them.

One more thing just as an aside, anyone know where to buy Aerogel and at what cost as I'm upgrading my refrigeration system and am looking at-a) New fridge or b) re-insulating the built in top opener already on board.

Any recommendations along either course will be most appreciated.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Morialta]

Sterling Alternator to Battery Controller

I have a Sterling AB12210 controller, which claims to handle two alternators connected in parallel. Currently I have only one connected (110A), this is charging my 440Ahr domestic batteries. I would like to also connect my 70A second alternator (currently charging my engine starting battery only) into the circuit, as described in Charles Sterling's manual.

Has anyone tried this, and is it advisable?

I have found the charger works well, and recommend it.

Thanks