Quality Battery Charger Advise

[Stuart]

I’m chasing advice on a good quality battery charger to charge my three batteries. I have two 6 volt 240 amps deep cycles as my house batteries and one dedicated 750 cca battery as my starting battery. I have seen a 15amp 5 stage charger but they no longer seem to have it. I won’t mention shop names as I’m not certain what names are banned on this site. I have seen a few threads on chargers but nothing pertaining to my situation. I don’t really want to spend a huge amount, perhaps $200 tops.

Stu

[TheRealAndy]

Take a look at GSL gear. www.gsl.com.au. They dont have a distributer in qld, but will take order over the phone and post here.

For $200, you wont get much. But you will get a 10A charger for around $260.

[Triple]

http://www.ctek.com/EN-AU/home/default.aspx
Repco or a few places online sell them. The 800 is for 6v and a few more $$$ for the 25amp one but will do everything (inc constant power to remove battery etc) and last your lifetime and save money on battery replacement with desulphation, proper charging and float charge. Do a bit of googling and compare the ctek's to Projecta multi stage chargers. Unsure if any besides the 800 can do 6v too??

Brochure - http://www.solarpanelsaustralia.com.au/downloads/ctek_batterycharger_brochure.pdf

[testlab]

I tend to look wider afield than the auto and boat store suppliers. Quite often I find Jaycar have some good stuff at reasonable prices and they back their products well (I have no affiliation with them whatsoever).

Here is a 15A 12V, 5 mode intelligent charger for $149.
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3622&CATID=18&form=CAT&SUBCATID=295

And a 25A 9 mode 12/24V charger for $500 (read the manual for the correct specs).
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3608&CATID=18&form=CAT&SUBCATID=295

Both seem to be quite reasonable and the quality will be comparable to any other Chinese made battery charger.

Your deep cycle house batteries will be connected in series to give 12V and should be charged this way too (well, to the best of my knowledge they should).

A 6V charger cannot be used unless the batteries are completely disconnected (both leads) and individually charged using a 6V charger.

House battery installations (12V and 24V) that I have seen have always been charged in series as the wiring and isolation of batteries would be extremely complicated - although special dual isolated and very expensive chargers do exist.

Whenever batteries are connected in series or parallel they should be identical and preferably always left connected in that mode (don't remove one battery and use it for something else and then bring it back) or else damage can occur to the batteries.

Another tip is not to use VSR (voltage sensing relays) with intelligent chargers. Unlike an engine driven alternator which has a fairly simple regulator, intelligent chargers monitor a batteries condition and go through a series of pre-determined steps. A VSR changing over batteries or bringing cells in parallel will not allow the charger to function properly.

Hope this helps.

BTW: When using 6V batteries in series, it pays to check the condition of each cell (or whole battery if maintenance free type) on a monthly basis. If a cell dies then the "whole battery" bank cannot reach full charge. The faulty battery will cause the charger to run harder for longer and overcharge the good battery, killing it too.

[oldboot]

There was a generic 16 amp multistage charger popping up under a number of brands until recently.

Aluminium extrusion, plastic end caps, angled face strap handle on top...similar to jaycar part #MB3620.

I have heard quite a few people getting a good run out of that unit.

One of the companies that imported that unit was Electus, Jaycar's wholesale company.
They no longer stock that item and have replacesd it with a cheaper yellow plastic cased unit.

Quite a few of the marine chains source some items from Electus.....I see the yellow one now on the shelves in Bias.


Check out some of the auto parts suppliers like Repco & Burstons.....they may have the older aluminium cased unit under an automotive sounding brand.

I would not say it was a top quality charger..... But I have heard good reports.

If ya charging a 240AH battery ya dont want to be looking any smaller

Cant comment on the quality and performance of the yellow one.

As for Ctec......they aint got no monopoly on any of their features.....most of the modern multistage chargers, have a desulphation feature, pulse charging, long term floating ability and heaps more.

cheers

[daveylad]

I got a Smart C-tec Marine 300 with a bonus car charger for about $300 up here on the sunny coast cheaper than all others let me know if yourew intersted and I'll let you know the place also very good for Fullriver marine Batteries

[Brad O]

C-Tek - some specials around at the moment.

[Stuart]

I think I will get the 15 amp charger from Jaycar. Seems a pretty good unit for the price. I also checked out the charger oldboot mentioned and that also looks great but it also sells for around $450. C-tek looks like they are also good but hell dear.

Stu

[bar raider]

a 21 amp multistage "ozcharge" should be around 200 (or not much over)

[Stuart]

Would you consider that unit a better charger?

[bar raider]

Would you consider that unit a better charger?

not sure mate,

you can select the amps, 2, 10 or 21 and it has 7 or 8 stages similar to the ctek's (which i also have).