![]() Plus if you’re happy with your current inverter and just want to upgrade the Converter Charger to save on generator use and fuel consumption this is a cheap way to upgrade! If everything was built into one device we’d be without power for who knows how long while the inverter was repaired/replaced. For our setup, if our Smart Converter Charger fails we can still charge our RV batteries from the solar and invert that power with our 3000 watt Pure Sine Inverter. There is nothing wrong with a built in Converter Charger as long as it’s a Smart one! We like the flexibility of having our Smart Converter Charger separate from our Inverter just in case one of the devices malfunctions. One point of “controversy” is: Should the Converter Charger be built into the inverter or separate? Some inverter manufacturers install a Smart Converter Charger directly into the inverter while others do not. In contrast a “ Dumb Charger” has one charging stage that will continuously keep the RV batteries around 13.7 Volts (or 70% full) and never give the batteries a full charge. Equalize – Supercharges the Battery Voltage to remove any sulfur build up that can accumulate on the battery plates (having sulfur build up reduces battery life and quality of charge). Float – Keeps the batteries “topped up” at a lower voltage (around 13.7 V) to prevent electrolyte loss by overheating or “boiling out” the water in the battery.Ĥ. Absorption – Tapers the charge amperage down and slowly charges the last 10-20% of the battery before going into float mode.ģ. ![]() Bulk uses the max amperage of the charger and this is where a higher Amp charger will give you a faster charge.Ģ. Bulk – The main part of the charging cycle that quickly gets batteries up to a near 90% charge. ![]() Here’s the breakdown on the all important charging stagesġ. The takeaway: A high quality, 4 stage Smart Converter Charger is a worthy upgrade no matter what type of RV you are in, new or old. Here is my kindergarten flip chart side-by-side comparison of a Smart vs. The worst part of all is the RV batteries never get a quality charge so they don’t last as long. This causes RV’ers to run their generators more often for longer periods of time or stay plugged into campground shore power. Many new RVs, from towables to class A motorhomes, come standard with a “Dumb” Converter Charger because it’s less expensive. Also our experience, and this post, is limited to the kind of batteries installed on most RVs: Flooded (or “wet cell”). In theory if you have ample solar power and plenty of sun you could ditch your Converter Charger (I would not recommend this as nature doesn’t always cooperate). Just a reminder, a Converter Charger is only necessary while charging the RV batteries when plugged into shore power or while using the generator. Has a nice little screen so you can tell at a glance what the actual battery charge is.What did you think? Did you learn anything new or should we just use the flip chart as fire starter? But if you don't need the bluetooth ability, there's a well-regarded affordable shunt for about $44. I use a Victron SmartShunt, because it fits nicely into the Victron ecosystem (I have all of my equipment connected to a Raspberry Pi setup running Victron Venus OS and recording to a Grafana instance, so I can see how things are going over time). To do this accurately you need a coulomb-counting shunt, which costs a few bucks, but it's totally worth it to know the actual state of charge. draw down the battery to 50% manually, then disconnect the battery. I just go for the brute force method myself. ![]() In theory you could set the target voltage on the charger to 13.1, which should get it into the right area, but it's very imprecise. The voltage curve on a lithium battery is very flat. Plus if I change trailers I can take it with me.Ĭan I use it to drain the battery to 50% for winter storage?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |