What Batteries and What Charger

or to light up the house when the power goes off;)

thanks ross, with regards to the waeco, what setting do you run it on for best efficency?

yeah true about if the power goes out. however ive been told that to charge a battery with one of these petrol chargers it takes only about an hour, where as a 240v charger takes much longer.

I usually leave it on somewhere between 1-3 c ,I dont try and use it as a freezer(I dont have kids either).
I can get 2-3 days usually without a recharge,depending on the weather.
I now have mine wired to the cars electrical system via a solenoid that isolates it from the engine battery when I turn the ignition off.
On a long trip I probably wouldnt need the genny.
If I get a solar panel ,I can almost certainly leave the genny behind

The 1HR recharge is good,but I dont know if the 55 amps is too high.
How fast the genny recharges would depend on the amperage of the charger,but my Yamaha is only good for 8 amps from its 12v DC outlet.
I also have a 15 amp Ctek charger which I am happy with.
I can have it plugged into 240v power and it keeps the battery topped up while you are using it

When I use my genny ,I start it up late afternoon and let it run for 3-4 hours and use the 240v lights for cooking and eating and recharge the battery at the same time.
Whatever you buy,the noise may upset people which is why I chose the Yammy 1000 with its 46 dB noise output

How much would i be looking at for a yamaha 1000 paired with a 15A Ctek charger?

I think sbout $1299 for the yammy and $275 fr the Ctek(from abay)
Both top quality products IMO
I think any dealer will want show off the noise suppression and give you a demo

I seem to remember the Ctek claims to be able to bring back a 12v battery as run down as 5 volts in its "RECON" mode.
I havent tried it though.

15 Amp in my opinion is too small in the charger department when you are running off a generator, it'll take what appears to be an eternity to charge your batteries.

A minimum of 25 Amps is better and 40 Amps is about perfect off a 1kva Honda or Yamaha.

The generator will be over 2/3rds loaded and you'll be putting some meaningful charge into the batteries at the same time.

There's almost nothing worse for these small engines than underloading them!

Geoff

Ive got one for you Geoff its 120A at 12v with 6 outlets .
Use one for your cranker one for your onboard auxilliary and the other four for spares for all your mates to connect to.
I dont think your honda will run it though.

The full range of ProTechi from 10A to 40A and the Pro Nautic from 40A to 60A all with mutiple outlets will be here by 1/5/2009 from Professional Mariner of USA and I believe I can give the Ctek a run for their money with them.
ian

If you try to recharge ANY Lead Acid Battery (wetcell, AGM, Gel) in an hour, you will be shortening its life.

If it's 50% discharged, aim for 2 hours.

Aim for 0.25C i.e. 25 amps maximum for a 100 amphour battery.

Mike
That statement is a broad statement that needs qualifying and you have made similar statements in the past regarding how you should limit you charge rate whereas your statement is formed from an instilled insistance of knowledge which is old school with todays technology.
Common sense would dictate that no battery would fully charge in one hour if you include the absorbsion mode but it is possible with correct voltage for the battery type and temperature compensation to fast builk charge some batteries up to around 90% charge which is definately stored in the battery and useable and not detrimental and would enhanse the life of the battery by cycling the battery in a definate higher voltage cycle.
I agree in principle that it may be better to inform the masses the safety of your statement as in the wrong hands fast charging can definately damage the batteries but to make a blanket statement of all batteries is totally incorrect.

Ian

To further the above statement if anyone is interested they can go to the following link and read about fast smart charging from a specialist who is a world leader in his field.

http://sterling-power.com/support-faq-1.htm

The same type of testing has also been proven by Battery Energy Australia and in conjunction with CSIRO.

Ian

Thanks Jim,

I'm actually looking at having 2 batteries. 1 for the boat and 1 for the campsite. the main reason im loooking at the petrol charger, is that i've been told they can charge much quicker, which i sort of need as i dont really want to run a generator for hours at the end of a day out fishing. The christie apparantely runs at 75dba/7m , which is fairly loud i think??

I just saw the 75 dBA rating. That will be LOUD in a quiet camp site

75 dba is indeed loud.

Sound doubles for every 3 dba increase.

The average generator (Honda, Yamaha, Kipor) puts out about 56 dba. They are nothing more than a muffled hum on the end of a 20 metre extension lead.

A poxy little two stroke chainsaw like my Talon emits 106 dba and can be heard for miles (seriously) in the bush.

Something to consider.

Jim.

Hi John
The AGM deep cycle low recahrge is only applicable to low recombination quasi AGM batteries mainly made in China.

The genuine AGM batteries are the likes of Optima, Oddyssey, Lifeline,Decca Sea Mate and RV Gel/Marine Gel are all high recombination batteries and with temperature compensation you can belt the power in even to the pont that a 100AH battery can accept 100A in the early recharge state.

Quasi AGM batteries are the price they are because the technology of high recombination is expensive and you can only find it in expensive batteries.

The economy of scale comes from the rapid recharge with less run time if using a motor driven power source.

The Christie is a screamer with noise but is very efficient but so too is a silenced Inverter generator with an equivalent sized charger using the 240V output.
Ian

As always Ian, it is good to informed responses.

Your input to discussions is always appreciated and I learn from them.

Regards,

Jim.

Thanks Ian,

Yes, I was aware that the better (expensive) batteries could stand the high inrush for a brief period, but I don't think it's something to recommend. It's not good practice to push things to the limit when we are away from our support networks! In practice it's difficult to push 50 or 100A through manageable sized cables anyway thanks to ohms law.

At the noise levels quoted for the Christie, and in the interests of flexibility I'd certainly opt for a decent, well silenced 240V generator driving a good charger as you suggest. Better still, I'll stick with my solar panels!

Cheers

John

Another solution if a regular traveller is a smart 50A DC to DC charger or larger Alternator to Battery charger to glean a benefit of alternator power from the fuel you are paying for anyway complimented with solar to extend stays and even though you may not run a gen in some places there is no law about running the car for a while when the sun is not producing as an emergency backup.
Then you only need a small ac charger to maintain as you are normally on 240V mains power for long times.
Ian

Thanks Leanne,

Being camped at one place for a longer period of time is the exact reason why i'm interested in the christie. Are you able to tell me the difference between the hi and low charging rate. And how it should be used?

Hi Richo,

My husband says that the "hi" sets the regulator to charge at ~ 15V, while the "lo" is 14.2V.

Apparently 14.2 V is slightly high for AGM batteries (??), but ours had no problem being charged this way during our trip and lasted for many years afterward (still working well when we sold the car last year).

15V is probably too high to use for AGM batteries. It initially charges quickly- say 40-50A- but this drops off as the battery charges. The instructions say to stop when the charging current drops below 10A.

We've just ordered a camper trailer. The way the manufacturers tackle this problem with regard to the batteries in the camper is to have a high quality 240V charger (with a 40A maximium current- not much less than the Christie) which is powered by a honda Eu10i. This combination is probaly a few hundred dollars more, but the smart charger might treat the battery a little better. The other advantage of the smart charger is that as someone else has mentioned, it can be plugged into 240V at home to keep the camper trailer batteries maintained.

Hope this helps,
Leanne

The Christie claim is that the unit will only run for 2.5Hrs on a tank of fuel and in that time it should not damage a battery on high Volt.

High amp AGM batteries are mainly American and should be charged at 14.2V and are voltage sensitive at more than 14.4 V so that arrangement could be debated forever and the only way it could be done is with temperature compensation of the batteries being charged and to me on rare occasions only.

Some Low amp AGM batteries can be charged at up to 14.9V but the high resistance limits the amp input that the battery will accept ands should not be used without temperature compensation.
Ian

And don't forget that the 240v Inverter generator will provide some household 240v power if the mains go down.