Opinions on this battery charger pls.

[alan_fincher]

Just now, cereal tiller said:

Maybe the Higher Price is Coz Instructions that are understandable come with the Numax?

I'd be prepared to give the owner of a Numax a bit of extra cash if they can supply me with instructions that are actually English and understandable.

[W+T]

Are they not a plug and play thing then.

[cereal tiller]

6 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

I'd be prepared to give the owner of a Numax a bit of extra cash if they can supply me with instructions that are actually English and understandable.

My Mate Hoo Flung Dung has Numax , will ask him, thing is , I never quite know what he means!

Edited December 14, 2017 by cereal tiller
Faw Ranstration

[cereal tiller]

10 minutes ago, W+T said:

Are they not a plug and play thing then.

Easy ,connect to Batteries Plug into 230 Volt ,it will Charge to 14.3-4 Volts and Drop into Float Mode when the AMPS. have reduced to 3 ish.

There is one Negative output ,the 2 Positive outputs should be linked together for charging a single Bank or Kept isolated so that one can be used for charging a dedicated Starter Battery.

[alan_fincher]

12 minutes ago, W+T said:

Are they not a plug and play thing then.

They are configurable to a degree, but it's not that obvious from the instructions to what degree.

There is also a digital display that you can cycle through, but it is not completely intuitive what it is displaying, or where you can change settings, or where you can not.

It may be that straight out of the box yours will meet your needs, and you may not be too fussed to know everything it might have shown you.

Mine seems to show a marked reluctance to stay in absorption before dropping into float, but I still do not know whether it is the charger that's the issue, or whether the SmartGauge is lying to me about state of charge.  Being only occasionally on the boat at the moment, I have no desire to run the batteries don to the point that I apparently have to in order that the Smartgauge can successfully recalibrate itself.  So I still genuinely don't know if the charger is delivering the goods or not.

[W+T]

2 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

Easy ,connect to Batteries Plug into 230 Volt ,it will Charge to 14.3-4 Volts and Drop into Float Mode when the AMPS. have reduced to 3 ish.

There is one Negative output ,the 2 Positive outputs should be linked together for charging a single Bank or Kept isolated so that one can be used for charging a dedicated Starter Battery.

Ah i see why you need instructions for use in english.

[alan_fincher]

2 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

There is one Negative output ,the 2 Positive outputs should be linked together for charging a single Bank or Kept isolated so that one can be used for charging a dedicated Starter Battery.

 

How do you know that for certain please, because nowhere in the instructions I have is it mentioned.  Have you just arrived at that by personal experimentation, or can you find a source that states it?

[cereal tiller]

Just now, alan_fincher said:

 

How do you know that for certain please, because nowhere in the instructions I have is it mentioned.  Have you just arrived at that by personal experimentation, or can you find a source that states it?

It was in the Instructions

[alan_fincher]

2 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

It was in the Instructions

Any chance of putting up a scan of your instructions?

The only reference in mine says.....
 

Quote

 

Dual O/P Bank : Charger can charge 2 bateries at the same time (gor ABC-1230 only, option for other models).

 

No mention of linking them if only one bank being charged.  It came with pre made up wires with croc clips on, (which I'm not using!), but certainly no extra short wire to link the positive outputs.

9 minutes ago, W+T said:

Ah i see why you need instructions for use in english.

Define English?

Very first line of mine reads.....
 

Quote

Connect the charger system to a wall receptacle strongly.

 

[cereal tiller]

1 minute ago, alan_fincher said:

Any chance of putting up a scan of your instructions?

The only reference in mine says.....
 

No mention of linking them if only one bank being charged.  It came with pre made up wires with croc clips on, (which I'm not using!), but certainly no extra short wire to link the positive outputs.

Maybe I did do it that way due to Experience ,was joking re. Instructions

[W+T]

As there are two outputs + then i would myself only think then that you can charge two point/batteries, thus splitting the 30amp to 15amp each way. Reason i chose this aswell is that i can charge the engine battery when needed if need be whilst slow charge o the main.

Although in the sales ad i see only one red lead with croc.

[cereal tiller]

6 minutes ago, W+T said:

As there are two outputs + then i would myself only think then that you can charge two point/batteries, thus splitting the 30amp to 15amp each way. Reason i chose this aswell is that i can charge the engine battery when needed if need be whilst slow charge o the main.

Although in the sales ad i see only one red lead with croc.

Does the AD. picture show the Connections on the Front?if so you should see one Black one and 2 Reds , mine same with a Red/Black Twin Cable with the Croc (BIN) Clips ,there was no Link ,I just Snipped a Short length off the Red and used that.

[alan_fincher]

4 minutes ago, W+T said:

As there are two outputs + then i would myself only think then that you can charge two point/batteries, thus splitting the 30amp to 15amp each way. Reason i chose this aswell is that i can charge the engine battery when needed if need be whilst slow charge o the main.

Although in the sales ad i see only one red lead with croc.

A single output is certainly capable of delivering more that 15 amps, so it is not a case that each can only deliver a maximum of that amount.

If it's like mine you will not get pre-supplied leads to connect to more than a single output, and there is no suggestion that the two need linking if you only have a single bank.

CT has his joined, because he has chosen to do that, but currently mine are not.  Perhaps they should be?

A key point for me is that the charger appears to be actually intended by default to go into float when charge current falls to 10% of the rated capacity of the charger, so as CT states once charge current is at 3 amps (10% of 30 amps), it goes into float regardless of anything else.

It's tempting to think that linking both terminals would make it stay in absorption longer, but as it is at this stage charging based on maintaining the charging voltage constant, and hence linking the terminals should not change the voltage, I can't see why that that would be the case.

The only way I can see you could force them to stay longer in absorption would be to increase that constant charge voltage, but changing the voltage does not appear to be a user configurable option.

[W+T]

26 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

Does the AD. picture show the Connections on the Front?if so you should see one Black one and 2 Reds , mine same with a Red/Black Twin Cable with the Croc (BIN) Clips ,there was no Link ,I just Snipped a Short length off the Red and used that.

i see this 

 

[alan_fincher]

The actual display, (which you step through by using the tiny little black button below it), certainly has no capability of allowing you to monitor separately what is happening on each set of outlets.

So only one current can be displayed for example, which I guess has to be the combined current passing through both of them, with no knowledge on what the split actually is.

I assume whether it's charging in "constant current" mode, "constant voltage mode" or "float mode" it must be doing the same on both outlets, so I'm struggling to see if one were connected to a depleted domestic bank that needed a good charge, how that can also be the best charging cycle to put into a nearly fully charged starter battery via the other outlet.

For single bank use, (not bothering with starter battery) it would be good to see a definitive answer on whether these outlets should be joined, and what the implications are of doing so, and not doing so.

[WotEver]

6 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

The actual display, (which you step through by using the tiny little black button below it), certainly has no capability of allowing you to monitor separately what is happening on each set of outlets.

So only one current can be displayed for example, which I guess has to be the combined current passing through both of them, with no knowledge on what the split actually is.

I assume whether it's charging in "constant current" mode, "constant voltage mode" or "float mode" it must be doing the same on both outlets, so I'm struggling to see if one were connected to a depleted domestic bank that needed a good charge, how that can also be the best charging cycle to put into a nearly fully charged starter battery via the other outlet.

For single bank use, (not bothering with starter battery) it would be good to see a definitive answer on whether these outlets should be joined, and what the implications are of doing so, and not doing so.

I’d agree with all of this. I’d only observe that the ‘total current’ as noted above will effectively be ‘domestic bank current’ anyway. The starter battery will be recharged very quickly. 

[W+T]

9 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

The actual display, (which you step through by using the tiny little black button below it), certainly has no capability of allowing you to monitor separately what is happening on each set of outlets.

So only one current can be displayed for example, which I guess has to be the combined current passing through both of them, with no knowledge on what the split actually is.

I assume whether it's charging in "constant current" mode, "constant voltage mode" or "float mode" it must be doing the same on both outlets, so I'm struggling to see if one were connected to a depleted domestic bank that needed a good charge, how that can also be the best charging cycle to put into a nearly fully charged starter battery via the other outlet.

For single bank use, (not bothering with starter battery) it would be good to see a definitive answer on whether these outlets should be joined, and what the implications are of doing so, and not doing so.

I would find it easy enough to use a voltmeter to check the charge on the starter. then when topped up enough then connect both red to the bank.

[WotEver]

6 minutes ago, W+T said:

I would find it easy enough to use a voltmeter to check the charge on the starter. then when topped up enough then connect both red to the bank.

Firstly, no you couldn’t, because it would be at the same voltage as the domestics if Alan’s suppositions are correct. Secondly, it’s extremely unlikely that it would have any effect if you did so. 

[W+T]

3 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Firstly, no you couldn’t, because it would be at the same voltage as the domestics if Alan’s suppositions are correct. Secondly, it’s extremely unlikely that it would have any effect if you did so. 

therfore i am lost again, i thought if you used a meter to check a battery it would give you what the volts/amps are.

 

Its what i have always done in the past.

[alan_fincher]

8 minutes ago, W+T said:

therfore i am lost again, i thought if you used a meter to check a battery it would give you what the volts/amps are.

 

Its what i have always done in the past.

If you put a volt meter across a battery whilst it is being charged, what you see is the voltage that the charger is putting out.

You are not seeing what voltage the battery itself would show if you disconnected the charger.

If you do disconnect the charger you will still see an artificially high value that doesn't actually represent the true state of charge of the battery, because it will include "surface charge".  You can only truly get an idea of battery volts if it has been off charge a while, and put on a light load to dissipate that surface charge.

 

[cereal tiller]

1 hour ago, W+T said:

As there are two outputs + then i would myself only think then that you can charge two point/batteries, thus splitting the 30amp to 15amp each way. Reason i chose this aswell is that i can charge the engine battery when needed if need be whilst slow charge o the main.

Although in the sales ad i see only one red lead with croc.

Had a 2 Output Mastervolt 25 AMP. Charger way back , it had a Main Output and a Separate 3 amp one for Engine Battery ,have no Idea whether this Electroquest one is the same ,But it is Charging a 408 AH single bank for the Fourth Winter.

The output Cables are fitted into a 50 AMP. Anderson Connector which allows easy disconnection ,this is useful for Charging other Batteries which pass through(Motor Bike ,lawn Mower ,'er Indoors Car,Electric Outboard Motor etc.I have a 10 Meter lead for Charging "Visiting" Batteries out on the Deck.

Edited December 14, 2017 by cereal tiller

[MtB]

On 14/12/2017 at 20:43, W+T said:

Are they not a plug and play thing then.

 

No. The more accurate term would be "Plug and Pray".

[Naughty Cal]

On 12/13/2017 at 18:37, mross said:

I was thinking that most boat owners would end up adding a couple more batteries in time.

On a small cruiser there is only limited room for batteries.

We use 2 110 batteries on our boat and it is more then adequate. Wayne won't need any more batteries.

As an aside our battery charger has a 30A output. It is a Newmar charger which was fitted as standard to the boat when new. God knows why because they are stupidly expensive for what they are!

[W+T]

 

10 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

The actual display, (which you step through by using the tiny little black button below it), certainly has no capability of allowing you to monitor separately what is happening on each set of outlets.

So only one current can be displayed for example, which I guess has to be the combined current passing through both of them, with no knowledge on what the split actually is.

I assume whether it's charging in "constant current" mode, "constant voltage mode" or "float mode" it must be doing the same on both outlets, so I'm struggling to see if one were connected to a depleted domestic bank that needed a good charge, how that can also be the best charging cycle to put into a nearly fully charged starter battery via the other outlet.

For single bank use, (not bothering with starter battery) it would be good to see a definitive answer on whether these outlets should be joined, and what the implications are of doing so, and not doing so.

I just called the chap at Electroquest about these twin outlet jobbies.  Sounds good, like the idea of it charging the two 110ah andr starter battery at the same time, just gives the most charge to the one that is lowest on charge. Needs  a link and second cable making but that fine.

I was tempted to go for the one from 12v planet but the twin out out has won me over aswell as having an extra 5amps , no cable with the 12v planet charger but thats nothing to worry about. A little better on price also and free delivery where as the Electoquest is £7.50 delivery.

https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/rovert-automatic-multi-stage-leisure-battery-charger-12v-25a.html

https://electroquestuk.com/chargers/leisure-battery-chargers-marine-battery-chargers/fully-automatic-5-stage-marine-battery-charger-12v-30a

 

Ey up best get out the pit as off for the weekend on a xmas knees up  

 

Thanks for the help and All best  

[WotEver]

42 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

It is a Newmar charger which was fitted as standard to the boat when new. God knows why because they are stupidly expensive for what they are!

I think your first sentence answers your second. Your boat’s getting on a bit now if I recall correctly? And the charger is still working as well as new?