CTek charger

Submitted: Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 15:59
ThreadID: 117663 Views:2504 Replies:2 FollowUps:3
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Hi all, A friend has asked me about putting a CTek 250s in his caravan to charge the house battery,he already has an auxiliary battery in the tray of his Xtrail and if he puts the CTek in the van,getting the feed from the auxiliary battery,will it draw current from the auxiliary ,when the vehicle is turned off?
On the other hand,would it be better in front of the aux battery and thereby when the alternator is off the C Tek isolates the starter battery ? .to ask another question,he is not sure if the auxiliary battery is a deep cycle or normal Start battery and he wants an AGM in the van will the CTek work the two if they are different??
Thanks again
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Reply By: Sand Man (SA) - Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 18:14

Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 18:14
the Cteck D250S has a built-in Isolator and will not draw any current until the source voltage (in this case the Auxiliary battery) has exceeded 13.1 volts.
This is the same as connecting to the starting battery.

So, in your friends case, (assuming he has an isolator also between the start battery and his auxiliary), once the start battery has reached a similar 13.1v the Isolator should open the auxiliary circuit and start the charging process to the auxiliary battery.
When the auxiliary battery has reached 13.1v the D250S will energize the circuit and allow charging of the van battery.

In normal circumstances this will occur within a couple of minutes on the vehicle being started.

The only downfall is if a fault should occur with the start/auxiliary circuit isolator, bith the auxiliary battery and anything connected to it will not receive a charge.

If possible, it is best to have both circuits connected to the primary battery and operate independently, but the scenario above will work if all components are working correctly.


Bill


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Follow Up By: Sand Man (SA) - Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 18:39

Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 18:39
Bugger! Oh for an edit function.

In normal circumstances this will occur within a couple of minutes of the vehicle being started.

The only downfall is if a fault should occur with the start/auxiliary circuit isolator, both the auxiliary battery and anything connected to it will not receive a charge.

Bill


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Follow Up By: Member - Bigred13 - Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 20:43

Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 20:43
Hi Bill ,
Many thanks for your reply , it is how I figured it would be , but if the Aux battery is deep cycle and the new one in the van is AGM will the CTek be ok with that set up? .I have read that you cannot have a lead acid battery and a calcium battery in parallel , just like to be sure his two batteries will be ok with the CTek ?
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Follow Up By: Sand Man (SA) - Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 21:30

Wednesday, Apr 29, 2015 at 21:30
Sure they will.
The Ctek doesn't care what sort of battery the source voltage comes from.
The fact that the Aux is "deep cycle" doesn't matter. Deep cycle simply means the battery is designed to provide a relatively low current drain over a prolonged period of time. A deep cycle battery can be of common wet cell (flooded), calcium, or AGM construction.
It is common to connect an auxiliary battery of any type, be it a wet cell, calcium, or AGM type of battery to the primary starting battery which is usually a standard wet cell battery, but could be any other type suitable for providing high current over a relatively short period.

In any case, an isolator, or smart controller in the circuit between two batteries, will keep the batteries "electrically isolated" from each other, so the different construction of the primary and auxiliary batteries doesn't matter. The Ctek dc-dc charger simply takes a supply voltage, boosts the voltage if necessary to an optimum level, then applies this voltage to the remote battery, in a multi-stage process, to ensure optimum and complete charging.
The only time a battery "bank" should preferably consist of similar battery construction, age and capacity, is when they are paralleled together without any controller between them.
For instance, if the "remote" battery in the van was expanded into a "bank" of two or more batteries paralleled together, then those batteries should be of the same construction, size (capacity) and age, to get the best performance out of them.




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Reply By: Trevor&Verna - Thursday, Apr 30, 2015 at 11:06

Thursday, Apr 30, 2015 at 11:06
Great responses Bill - I am always amazed at the level of expertise 'out there'.

I did exactly what Bigred has described above, and with the same concerns that it will drain the aux battery in the vehicle down to nothing.
So just in case (and not knowing any better) I put in an isolating switch - manual one - in the charge line from the vehicle to the van, with the view of turning it off when the vehicle is not running - say quick o/night camp.
Then, when I tested it and found that there was no current from the vehicle unless the engine was running - as per the little lights on the CTEK; and now I know why! So this isolating switch remains permanently on.
To date I am very happy with this set up, with the van's batteries now staying in a higher state of charge - especially after a long run.
For the record, the vehicle's aux battery is AGM, with Redarc Isolator, and the van's batteries are AGM.

Trevor&Verna, Kal WA

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