ross battery chargers
Submitted: Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 at 21:52
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steved58
I have a need to decrease the charging time on my deep cycle batteries while running my generator only have a 12 amp charger at present
So have been keeping an eye out for chargers and have seen an advert for
ross chargers 40 amp for $180 has anyone used these type of chargers
They can also be used for starting
Will they be ok for gel batteries as
well as wet cell ?
Can anyone tell me how long they would take to charge a 100 amp hour battery from 50% to full ?
They are in the WA
united tools catalogue this week
Thanks Steve
Reply By: TerraFirma - Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 at 23:21
Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 at 23:21
Don't think you need a 40amp charger to charge a 100AH battery.? Not famiiliar with the
Ross product, if you could afford it the Ctek 25 Amp charger would be ideal. Also bear in mind that depending on the battery you don't want it falling below 50% charge and so re-charge times could be around 2-3 hours depending on the battery and it's state.
There are 3 to 4 battery experts on these forums who will qualify this further and more qualified than me.
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Follow Up By: steved58 - Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 00:10
Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 00:10
Thanks for the reply Terrafirma
I have two 100AH batteries and may separate the 100lc batteries to give me a third to be replaced with deep cycle when it dies
I generally have no problems between the vehicle alternator and some nights on 240volt at caravan parks mostly never stay in one place more than one night
however I have had occasions to charge the batteries with the generator and would prefer to keep the run time and noise even though it is a quiet Honda 2.0 down to a minimum
So the charger would not get a lot of use and as such am trying to keep the cost down When I saw the advert for these chargers it seemed a good price but don't know enough to know if I am wasting my money
Thanks Steve
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736729
Reply By: Nomadic Navara - Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 00:22
Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 00:22
If this is the one you are thinking about, the model RBC400, you will have to monitor your charging carefully. It looks like a pretty roughie to me, especially considering the price. You will not be able to leave it permanently connected to your battery whilst mains power is available to it. You will have to monitor the temperature rise of your battery as
well as current and voltage.
If you are not going to use good temperature monitoring of your battery, most batteries should not be charged at a rate of over C/4 - 25 A in your case.
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Follow Up By: steved58 - Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 00:42
Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 00:42
Thanks PeterD
That is the one RBC400 I thought it might not be worth it. I should maybe go to a ctek but at over $300 for a 25amp and the small amount of use it will get it is hard to substantiate.
I suppose you get what you pay for and I do want to set and forget after all I will be on holidays and who wants to constantly be wanting to keep an eye on temperatures and voltages.
Thanks for pointing out the short comings of me looking for the cheap way out
I should also get some solar but also find that expensive for what you get out of it I often don't stop in the sunlight for long enough.
long stops are usually on shore power in CP
Steve
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Follow Up By: TerraFirma - Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 08:48
Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 08:48
Site Link
I checked through Ebay and those
Ross chargers look identical to some other low cost import boxes that are designed for Car yards and Trucks where you want to shock the batteries back into life without concern for long term health. Nomadic Navara is spot on you couldn't leave those chargers connected without monitoring etc. There is a so called 3 stage 40 amp charger on Ebay for around $109 but that scares me, everyone else is around $400-500 for a decent marine style 40amp charger. If you are going to permanently mount a charger &leave it connected to your system there is a Ctek 25AMP model on Ebay without the Alligator Clips but eyelets for around $279.00. I would be buying that without any hesitation. I just bought another Ctek 25 AMP charger for $339 with the Alligator Clips for a pontoon boat. For the Ctek one I mentioned here is the link:
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Follow Up By: GimmeeIsolation - Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 14:45
Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 14:45
Hi steved58,
I have a CTEK Multi XS 25000 , with manual, that I do not use anymore with very little use somewhere in my shed. They are an excellent quality charger that will do all types of batterys. If you are interested in it, let me know.
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Follow Up By: steved58 - Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 21:11
Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 21:11
Thanks for the replies .
I think you are all right, and I will go the ctek might leave it a little while as I will have to wait for some time before I can use it .
I have no leave left. I have reserved my long service for a planned 4 month trip to Queensland next July and so will need the charger then.
When I saw the cheap price of that charger I thought it might reduce my use of the generator however the ctek will more than double the speed of charging of my cheap 12 amp 3 stage charger I currently use and help the batteries so probably worth the price.
Thanks Steve
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