recommended "fit and forget" mains leisure battery chargers

[discipleofsketch]

OK, I searched the forum and wiki, but can't see a definitive list. As the subject sais, i'm looking for a mains leisure battery charger, I want to wire it in so that it is working whenever i'm mains hookup. I run a fair bit of 12 volt kit (electric coolbox as overflow for the tiny fridge, fans, lights, stereo) that drains the leisure battery on longer stops, which seems silly if i've paid for mains hookup!. I currently have a single 80ah battery, but may double that in due course, so looking for something fairly beefy, and silent so I can run it full time.

[lloydy]

i have this one connected to two 80ah batteries http://www.ctekchargers.co.uk/ctek-mxs-25.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
its great, its 25 amp so charges your batteries bloody quick. They do smaller 10/7/5/3amp ones.
i can highly recommend it, it does have a slight hum that you may/may not hear but once the batts are charged and it goes into maintenance mode even that stops

[California Dreamin]

Money no object or....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amperor-Stage-L ... or+caravan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12v-Xplorer-2 ... 1078610966" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Just remember the ideal charge rate is around 10% of the amp hour rating of the battery (pushing 25amps into a single 80ah battery will get it pretty warm and gassy, not good for battery longevity)...so these ^^^^^ are a little over the top (10ah chargers would be more suitable) however....if you turn everything on! including that fridge, I suspect the draw on your leisure battery may well exceed 12-14 amps!
However....think of it this way...it's the average draw as you do have a reserve in the battery, so overall, that could be less than the 10 amps.

So if you decide to go for a more powerful charger you really will need to add another 80ah battery in parallel.
Stick with the one battery and you could probably fit something up to around 12ah....just make sure whatever you buy is a SMART multi-stage charger that reverts to a 'float' charge rate once the battery is full.

Martin

[discipleofsketch]

Cheers guys, that all makes sense

[California Dreamin]

Probably worth mentioning that the 'standard fitment' for most caravan/camper convertors is something like a 10amp along these lines

http://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/12v-xp ... y-charger/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Elecsol-Battery- ... P7782.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Numax-Leisure-Ba ... P6127.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Martin

[RobH]

I've got the Numax one and happy with it, I do disconnect when not charging as I'm not conviced it doesn't take a little draw. Easy to do as the cable has a connector to switch between eyelet and crockodille clips.

E D I T:

Does have a fan on it which takes some getting used to but once onto float its pretty quiet.