[C36IA] Battery Charger-Upgrade

[Gene Foraker]

I'm glad to hear you fixed the problem.  What was at fault?

I just have the Xantrex 20 amp model bought at West which works fine at 
a slip.   For using with the Honda 2000 you want to do it as quickly as 
possible, so definitely get a 40 amp model.  I think either of the 
better models should put a full 40 amps into the beasts in the bulk 
stage.   Amps fall off during the last topping up stage (not the 
accurate term) and I think you might want to skip that when using a 
generator.  This will only get the batteries 90% or so charged, but the 
last 10% takes much longer.  

I don't know what features are built into the deluxe models, but suspect 
that it is mainly bells and whistles with multiple banks and constant 
usage, temperature monitoring, etc.   Your main concern will be 
efficiency and output during the bulk stage of charging where those 
things may not matter as much.

If I were never at a dock I think I might want to supplement with wind 
and/or solar chargers.

Gene

Bill Hague wrote:
> Finally got the GC batteries working. The next project is upgrading 
> the original 20 Amp charger. Carpe Ventum "lives" on a mooring and 
> when we cruise , 5-6 weeks a season, we generally anchor or get a 
> mooring. We have not been in a slip for 6 years.We have the 4 GC 
> batteries and use the Honda 2000 to charge the batteries.
> My recollection is that Charles and Xantrex are the best chargers on 
> the market. Is this correct or are there other good ones?
> Xantrex has a XC series and a TruCharge 2 series. The XC is more 
> expensive , but does this make it better for GC batteries?
> Charles has a 2000SP series and a 5000SP series. The 2000 series is 
> referred to as being "for the value priced", and the 5000SP is more 
> expensive.Is the 5000SP worth the increased cost?
> Finally, what would be the best size charger to charge the GC 
> batteries. I recall , because of the 3 stages, that the batteries, on 
> average, receive about 50% of the rated amps of the charger/hour?
> Ant suggestions/ advice/opinions would be appreciated.
> Thanks
> Bill
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