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12 volters - charger/converter/power center

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Poorboy:
I bought a $100 charger from the auto parts store that was supposed to be good for agm and was 10-20 amps auto switching. Must have been stuck on 10 amp and doing a poor job of that because it didn't work any better than my cheap little 6 amp charger so I returned it and went shopping online. Went to battery stores, AE stores, golf cart suppliers and then ebay. Found that RV battery chargers are pretty well geared towards charging golf cart batts as that's what a lot of RVers use. Looked at all of them and in the end chose an wfco 8935. Made in china, ugly brown plastic face but it was one of the cheapest and it pulls 600 watts so it was a good fit for my HF 800 watt gennie. The fact that it's also a power distribution center for ac and dc is perfect for me as we're getting ready to build an off grid cabin here shortly. It's got a place for a transfer switch to plug in and I just recently found a line off gennies that are a KO of the small honda inverter gennies and the 2000 watt model has electric start with remote. Pretty soon our AE system will be easy button ready for the DW.

These things are $150 at the RV sites but I got one for just over $100 on ebay. It seems well made and charges good. 8935 means 35 amps on the 12vdc side. Cloudy and rain today and mostly cloudy yesterday so I used it this morning. Ran it an hour which brought 4 GC2s from 11.8 up to the mid 12s. 2 hours would have brought them up to 100% but it started raining and I don't have the generator under full cover so I shut it down. Might have brought them up in an hour if we didn't have 2 laptops and a 12vdc fridge going. But it's raining so it's an internet kind of day.


--- Quote ---8900 Series models provide AC and DC distribution with innovative features. They can accommodate a 30-amp main AC circuit breaker and up to five branch circuits. Eleven-branch DC circuits are available with LED lights for each DC circuit to illuminate and identify open circuits.

Output power: 35 amps DC output
Input: 105-130 VAC, 60 Hz, 8.0 amps (600 watt)
Output:
   - Nominal (Absorption Mode) 13.6 Vdc (includes charging and load)
    - Boost (Bulk Mode) 14.4 Vdc
    - Trickle (Float Mode) 13.2 Vdc (after 48 hrs.)
Dimensions: 13.87” wide; 11.625” high; 7.3” deep
Weight: 6.75 lbs.
--- End quote ---

WooferHound:
A 10 amp charger will not work much better than a 6 amp charger so your chargers were working fine I'm sure.
Your 10-20 amp charger probably wouldn't switch to 20 amps unless the batteries were very low.

Are your generators making 120vac power ?

Ready for the DW, what is a DW ?

A charger that pulls 600w (5amps) at 120vac should be charging at close to 50 amps, Your 35 amps seems a bit inefficient. Charging at 35 amps would not be good for batteries totaling less than 350 amphours

Your Alternative Energy system isn't very Alternative  if you are charging the batteries with a gas generator.

Poorboy:
If you read the post you'll see that I have 4 GC2 batts, so yes, more than 350AH. You'll also see I'm charging during rainy/cloudy days. My solar panels don't seem to work very well on those days. I've spent less than $20 on gennie fuel this year and have refrigeration, lights and am on the internet with a laptop as is my DW (Dear Wife, thought it was universal on forums). Pretty good alternative an electric bill. And yes I could probably use more panels, more batts, a few wind turbines and hydro power too. Sometime when I have several thousand dollars to spare maybe I'll get better set up. As for the 600 watts for 35 charging amps, my post/review also mentions 11 branch circuits for 12vdc. Perhaps 15 amps are reserved for the converter end. Not sure on that but I do know most every charger in that amperage range was a few hundred bucks.

This place is just full of positive energy.

WooferHound:
Sorry about the possibly negative tone to my reply, but you seem to be a bit underpowered considering the components of your system. I have 150 watts of solar so I understand what you have to work with. You can see my system here...
http://timmythy.home.mindspring.com/re-power.htm

- EDIT -
I looked around to find out more information about GC2 AGM batteries
For cycling the batteries like you are doing they are recommending a charge over 14 volts

Poorboy:
Underpowered due to underfunded.
Mistake, they're not agm, they're regular flooded GC batts just like the trojans you have. Mine are interstate 232AH.
I see I'm not the only one who used an old alarm box for a power dist. box.

Ya, seemed to be a bit like smack down the forum newbie without thoroughly reading his post. Wasn't the first post that was somewhat insulting to my intelligence or assuming I had none. Both by mods too. Way to populate a forum.

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