Which Battery Charger?

Sounds like a great idea , the solar panel on the roof...but I do hope that you realise that your 60w panel when lying flat becomes a 30w panel or maybe a little more , and if you are parked in the shade it will be a lot more less than that...but good luck with it.

Robin, I am reluctant to charge direct from the Gennie following a spate of advice
on this forum of the dangers, but I am sure your advice is sound re doing that to gain sufficient charge to start an auto, the Honda manual says its fine as well.
But as I like to err on he side of caution & can use a charger on several other
low use vehicles on the farm, I thought I would update the KMart special.
cheers...oldbaz.

I have noted Robin & Mikes comments, & ,yes, you are right...no auxiliary battery.
Havent needed one as yet & no plans to add it at this stage, so looking for a simple charger to get me going in an emergency, & to use at home on other
vehicles. Waiting 1 hour or 2 is no problem. Thanks for your help...oldbaz.

Oldbaz

To some extent I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

If the main concern is how do you start if your battery is flat then you also have to cover how do you start and keep driving if your battery has gone dead.

Recharging a flat battery has been covered already. However if you have a dead battery all the recharging capability in the world won't help much. Best insurance is a dual battery setup that allows either battery to start the vehicle.

That is the primary function of my dual battery. The secondary function is running the fridge. The dual battery is a safety feature first and foremost.

The comments often posted that you can never fully charge batteries off the cars alternator can be misleading and confusing. A dual battery in the engine compartment is supplied by fairly short leads and does not suffer from the issues of voltage drop across the wiring that batteries in a campervan, caravan and trailer do and maybe even batteries on back of a ute or trayback suffer from. Dual battery systems work well enough, if professionally installed. Both my batteries charge fully. I do know how to measure them. It is a country vehicle and rarely travels less than a half hour. Maybe a city based stop start traffic vehicle might need supplementary overnight charging. Derek has photos of his setup that looks good.

Once towed a vehicle a Variety Bash vehicle that had every known breakdown possibility covered except the battery going dead. Guess what? The battery went dead! Nothing could be done except a tow to where they were staying the night and they had a battery brought to them by their mates who were following on about a day behind.

Flynnie

G'day Flynnie, While I have no problem with dual battery setups, my miserable
side tells me its an expensive way just to cover the risk of a battery going dead.
If I was running other 12v stuff it would make sense, but the cranking battery
handles the fridge fine, or should I say ,the alt does when travelling. Of course I
could take another n70zz from another of my vehicles, as a spare, but I dont
consider the risk of battery failure very high for batteries under 3 yo, never had
it happen yet & I have 5 units with N70zz batteries. Always the first time I guess.
Thanks for your input....oldbaz.

Oldbaz

It is your call to make.

A Honda generator pus a 240 volt charger goes well over $2,000. For a similar outlay you could have got a dual battery plus a 12 volt charger form Christie Engineering or ABR Sidewinder.

It comes down to choices that are often limited by what we have paid out for already.

Flynnie

In that case I'd just connect the Auxiliary Battery to the flat Starting Battery using Jumper Leads.

Ignore the myth about the flat battery sucking all the charge out of the charged battery.

Without wanting to derail the thread, curious to know how a bit more of how these go in real use. It is the only charger I have given serious thought to purchasing.

Is it quick?
Is it easy or fiddly?
Subjective noise level?
How long could you run one on 5 litres of petrol?

Flynnie

Hi Flynnie

Yes they are faster than any other form of charger and cheaper than solar.

Christie do a 55A and 80A unit, ABR do a 70A unit. Each one has its place.

Noise is proportional to load, adjust to suit the location.

Allow about 500ml / h at full load.



Regards

Derek from ABR

ABR , do you source your christi copy fron China perchance?

Actually I assemble them here in Brisbane from Parts sourced from Australia, China and Taiwan.

You are SO right Ozhummvee. Unfortunately people buy the low spec chargers because of the $$$$ factor. I can understand this because I bout a Hond copy Genny (chinese) because I could not afford a Honda 2. There is not enough OOOMPH in these Ctek 800 or 3600. I am not a qualified person when it comes to this and many other subjects I just relate to experience. If a person wishes to run their fridge off their start battery & run it flat so vehicle cannot start & they are sitting in a remote area for 5 days unable to move or contact anyone then as they say in Mexico.....El stiffo el bleep to!!

Keep the note on the graph in mind - you have to wait 5 hours after stopping discharging the battery for these voltage sto be relevant.

If you are measuring voltage while discharging, you will measure a lower voltage at the same state of charge.