Any opinions on intelligent battery chargers? I want one to build into the van so when on hook up it can be turned on to charge two 100ah leisure batts and the engine battery if needed.
Now I kinda get the intelligent bit (I think?) it reverses the charge to the battery to clean the electrodes (and replace metal from one electrode to the other) in the battery and extend life? is it worth it?
Okay I may have been looking at the wrong chargers as they're all 5-10 amp chargers? wont they take an age to recharge both batteries?
would like to be spending as little time on campsites as poss, just enough to recharge
I have a 20A charger, non intelligent, for my twin 110Ah batteries in my Merc But they are kept in trim mainly by solar panels. I agree that 5 - 10A chargers are a bit under rated for what you have in your setup. I never use campsites ever so only use mine at home!
I'm not sure how you are going to wire a single charger to service two large leisures and a starter battery but if you want them fully charged overnight (12 hours) then you will need something quite substantial, like:
Cheeky V wrote:Okay I may have been looking at the wrong chargers as they're all 5-10 amp chargers? wont they take an age to recharge both batteries?
would like to be spending as little time on campsites as poss, just enough to recharge
I think solar might be a better option for you.
The panel would be constantly charging the battery
100 watt semiflexible panel with a charge controller
Cheeky V wrote:Okay I may have been looking at the wrong chargers as they're all 5-10 amp chargers? wont they take an age to recharge both batteries?
would like to be spending as little time on campsites as poss, just enough to recharge
I think solar might be a better option for you.
The panel would be constantly charging the battery
100 watt semiflexible panel with a charge controller
kiss good bye to hook up and plug in chargers
Just depends on your power consumption? 250 amps plus of batteries will require a lot of charging if you are a heavy power user plugging in things like cooler boxes/tellies/invertor for curling tongues lol.
I was going to have a control panel to switch in the starter battery via a split charge manually as it shouldn't need charging that much just in an emergency really.
Think i have decided to go down the solar panel route anyway cheers guys
Cheeky V wrote:I was going to have a control panel to switch in the starter battery via a split charge manually as it shouldn't need charging that much just in an emergency really.
Think i have decided to go down the solar panel route anyway cheers guys
If you have a compressor fridge a 100w panel will not keep up with it unless you have really good sun and you run the fridge on a lowish setting. It will extend the length of time you can stay put without running the engine or using a 230v charger.
But if there isn't any sun you may as well not have a panel.
I still think it is worth the £160 it costs for the panel, controller cable etc.
Solar and a sterling battery to battery charger is a great combo.