Portable Battery <span class="highlight">power</span> <span class="highlight">packs</span>

When I enquired about the Waeco battery at a shop once, the shop assistant showed me a deep cycle battery, and a battery box. Was cheaper, and the battery had a longer charge use.


What are you planning on using it for?

Peter,
Do any or all of these battery packs have the ability to be charged from the vehicle or do they have to be connected to 240v? If they need 240v to bring them up to speed maybe an extra battery connected to the vehicles charging circuit may be a better option unless you want to take the Waeco away from the vehicle.
As has been suggested, just take that extra battery and cableing out when you upgrade.

Cheers
Pop

Graeme W has hit the nail on the head. The charge rate you gain from the vehicle through something like a cigarette lighter is insufficient to adequately charge the battery and/or to charge the battery in a manner that it should be charged. The result will be a diminished battery life and reduced power for your needs.

Solutions may involve a DC-DC charger or an isolator situation in which case you are back at the vehicle fitted auxiliary battery scenario anyway. There may be a way to produce adequate charge by running it direct from the vehicle battery but again, you will need to ensure that you have cable of sufficient capacity to provide adequate charge. What strain this puts on the main cranker I am also unaware of. I’m sure someone will know.

A vehicles cigarette lighter fitting is rarely of sufficient capacity to provide a long term or even safe option for charging a fridge.

Good luck with it all.

Mick

I currently have a 40ltr Engel which we run as a freezer. This is connected to a 75 ah "Thumper" battery pack charged from the the cruiser via a Red ark relay,which is not satisfactory. Theoretically, the 75 ah battery should have the capacity to run the Engel for around 15 hrs when operating as a freezer. Freezer operation places a high demand on the battery. Operating overnight I have discovered on a few occasions the battery voltage down to 10.5 volts, which is basically FLAT. When travelling and staying off road and not unhooking the van, I leave the Anderson plug connected between the van and cruiser. The 2 van house batteries supplement the Thumper; whilst is works, it's not ideal.

Apart from the actual load on the battery, the problem is the Thumper never gets fully charged. Car alternators don't produce enough voltage, plus the volts drop in the cabling; this can be overcome fitting a diode in the alternator sensor circuit. However, I feel this will only create long term problems with the main vehicle battery(s) being over charged in high temperature under bonnet conditions. In the next week or 2, I will be installing a DC-DC charger. In hind sight I would install a 100 + ah battery to provide a greater safety margin and install the charger from day 1.

Cheers
Racey

Pete.

I have a basic setup.
Have run heavy cable to the back of the tub which is connected to a Waeco battery pack. (Bought as seconds through Waeco). Up front have a redarc isolator. All fused by 30 amp fuses. This set up runs my 60l Waeco for almost 12 hours depending on temperature. When I connect the camper trailer, the fridge is also run by the trailer battery. (100 amp). With this set up I can get about 4 to 5 days before it needs recharging. If I am staying longer than 3 days the solar panel goes out or if it is cloudy, I start the car up for upto half an hour.
With the Waeco battery I don't use the cigarette sockets and have rigged it so it is all connected with Anderson plugs.
It's not the optimum, but it works for me.

Cheers

Greg

Thanks Greg.
There is an anderson plug option you can buy with the 42Ah Bush Master battery power pack and i can have it set up in a similar manner to yours.
What size battery pack is your WAECO?