Fridge Battery

G'day

Waeco states these are AGM batteries and max charge rate is 14.4volts. I use one of these to power my camp lights. Being AGM they hold there charge well and also store well. (Much better than the previous Waeco effort in this area the "Thumper Packs").

I suspect it will only run your(pre cooled) Fridge for about 12 hours (or less) before needing a recharge. Two in parallel will give better run time.

I recommend a 3 stage smart charger (240 volt) of around 15amps. You can go smaller in amps but it will be slower to re charge. Read and understand the charger specs.

Do not charge from the 12 volt circuit on the Honda.

I would suggest a good read of this site Battery FAQ for a good understanding of batteries.

My thoughts. I am sure there will be many others....

Regards

Paul

No Idea if this would work but couldn't you run it from your car via jumperleads and run the car to quick charge the battery?

Regards
Sparkiepete

Hi Westskip

The 36ah AGM inside the unit will only accept 10 amps charge. You can't fast charge any faster than that. Buy a good quality 3 stage charger around 15amps and run the Honda for 3 hours to bring it back up to charge.

Remember that as the Pack charges up it will accept less and less amps and depending on how low it was it may take 5 hours.

Regards Derek.

The instructions that come with the CoolPower 36 say this:
- "The specified maximum charging current is 12A, however a 6A or 8A charger ... is recommended as adequate. An automatic cut-out charger must be used, otherwise irreparable damage will occur and your warranty voided."
- "Charging times will vary depending on depth of battery discharge prior to charging, but as a guide, assuming 80% discharge it will take the following times: ... [6A charger] - approx. 12 hours. [8A charger] - approx 11 hours"

They go on to say that the greater the depth of discharge, the fewer the number of cycles the battery will last: e.g. for a battery in continuous use, 80% discharge will give a service life of approximately 300 cycles; 30% discharge 1,350 cycles.

Lead-Acid batteries are self-regulating - if you connect them to a fixed voltage the battery will draw less current as the level of charge increases. A car Alternator puts out 14.4 volts - and batteres last 4 years.

The 12 volt chargers in the Honda/Yamaha/Kipor Generators or very crude and totally un-regulated. They do NOT provide a fixed voltage output - the voltage will rise as the charge level increases.

As the battery charges up, the current will remain high enough to cook the battery.

Mike

I wish I had read all this before I went and bought a new 40lt waeco and coolpower 36 at the show on Saturday.
Hey, the fridge is great but I went to buy a charger from batteryworld today to charge the power pack and the guy says "you didnt buy one of them did you they are crap".
Suppose thats what you get for listening to salesmen, I'd have been better of doing it properly and putting the money towards dual batteries in the ute.

Athol

Hi Westkip,

Good question and good answers :)

Thanks for the responses against charging a battery direct from genny - something I didn't know.

I have the same Genny and a Waeco 60CF, which I run straight off the genny. This works well by running the Honda for a few hours in the morning and few in the afternoon - when noise is no issue. However, there are occassions when noise is an issue.

Can I add this to your question then - What sort of SOLAR set-up would be required to recharge the battery quietly during the day? How many panels of what size etc?