redarc and C Tech battery chargers

Actually, CTEK is in QLD...


Bainbridge Technology
Hemmant
Qld Australia 4174
Phone: 07 3348 8082

Travis.

Or hit them on their web site

There is an interesting Power Point presentation on their 12 V/solar charging system at this site.

RedArc are made in Australia... Ctek in Sweden and China.

You can phone the manufacture RedArc direct for there a recommendation unlike Ctek.

Bainbridge is an importer of Ctek gear along with the other 3 in Australia.

If your a reseller or an auto elect who doesn't deal with Bainbridge but you source Ctek from one of the other 3 importers; chances are Bainbridge is not going to know you from a bar of soap and will only recommend who they sell to good or bad.

RedArc has a listing of resellers and installers, nearly all RedArc resellers and installers are know to RedArc directly along with their quality of workmanship no matter what wholesaler they source to product from.

RedArc has a very personnel approach to wholesalers,reseller and installers of their products.

If you have a problem with Ctek gear and the guy who sold it to you doesn't want anything to do with you, you have to find which one of the 4 importers it came from and if you can't bad luck..... the other importers will not care, we had this happen to a customer of ours that had a failed Ctek and the importer who we deal with for Ctek gear looked up the serial number and it didn't come from them, there was nothing they could do.

If you have a problem with RedArc and you don't know where it can from you go through RedArc and they will handle the warranty claim or repair directly.

thanks all think I will do Redarc just waiting for an email from them now for a couple of alternatives

I'd love to buy Redarc but they don't make an equivalent product to the CTek D250S.

Both our Tvan and Landcruiser now have solar panels and a single AGM battery. I wanted a DC/DC charger that has an initial charge current of less than 27 amps (more than this kills the AGM) and which has an MPPT solar charging input. The equivalent Redarc product will charge at up to 40 amps which is too much for my AGM. As a result I now own 2 Ctek D250S - one in the Tvan and one in the Landcruiser.

The powerpoint presentation above is pretty funny - nicely done but it starts off by saying how a Ctek will simplify it all and then finishes by saying you really want 3 Cteks to do the lot!!

There should be a 20 amp version of their BCDC1240 DC-DC charger with MPPT controller out in the near future.

thanks all guess we better let an expert take a look at our Gazal when we get to Cairns as we don't know what we are going to need and don't want to break into a bank for funds either. We are in a 15.6 Gazal Infinity all terrain. solar on roof, two sea master batteries fm70 and Honda20 generator.
running just the usual like the rest in the caran. Gennie has no worries with the Air/con and cuppachino machine.

Hey boys a lady hs to have her cuppachino.

The Redarc DC/DC chargers are crude technically compared to the Ctek DC/DC chargers. The Redarc have no pulse charging and are dinosaur technology.

Cheapest place for Ctek and Projecta Intellicharge is eBay.

So I see your still only selling Ctek and Projecta ????

That's OK we sell both brands and for one being "technically superior"; they both have there good and bad points and both are very good.

Stop being bias and this post wasn't about what brand was better.

This post has been read by the moderation team and has been moderated due to a breach of The Personal Attacks Rule .

Forum Moderation Team

Fraud..... big words.

So there can only professional and I happy for you to take that title, what were you a professional?

Sorry if I misjudged you but it seems from other posts you have a very close affection with Projecta and Cteck's D250s.

Coming to you assumption that the D250s is technically superior, can you please supply me with your data to back your claim..... now to come to that conclusion you would of had to test both units..... didn't you..... or did you just read the marketing hype?

From our in house testing both work very well, the Cteck D250s has it's advantages as so the RedArc....... and the both have disadvantages.

Again both very good products.

By the way which Redarc DC-DC charger did you test against the D250s

If you had the necessary education and expertise and studied the technical information available and used and tested DC/DC chargers, you would easily be able to come to to the conclusion the Ctek D250S Dual is a substantially superior piece of equipment to Redarc DC/DC chargers.
I didn't say the Redarc didn't function, however the Redarc is crude in design and functionality. If you value expensive batteries, and wish to treat and charge them correctly, it is important to use quality well designed and engineered equipment. Redarc manufacture some fine products, however their DC/DC chargers are far from their finest moments. No temperature control or pulse charging which today is dinosaur and far from optimum for batteries. Temperature control and pulse charging is vital when charging batteries.

If you have no financial interests why would you go out a buy a Redarc to test against a Ctek.

Can i ask where you got the charge algorithms for the Redarc and the Ctek one I take it you got out the users manual.

The Ctek only pulses when in the Desulphation or the Pulse phase, if you have a properly maintained battery and you look after it there is no need for for the Desulphation phase and the Pulse is just simply looking at the state of charge.... the float stage should be enough to keep a battery close to 100%SOC.

The other 3 phasers of charging are the same as the RedArc

"necessary education and expertise and studied the technical information available", why so personnel.

It seems you good at personnel attacks but I think it's a bit childish myself.

Grow up and stop trying to be something your not..... a true professional as you have called yourself in the previous post would no act in this way.

LOL..... ROLF

thanks willl look into that, we are in no hurry so can heck around in Cairns

Don't know about the c-tek but the Redarc BMS unti will do that job comfortably. I have one managing my 2 x 140 A/H AGM's in the back of the ute. It has an inbuilt MPPT solar controller that manages three roof mounted 90W solar panels. I also have a bifold 100W that I can plug in as well should I need it. It's simply a matter of having another anderson plug to plug itm into. Be aware the BMS ands probably the C-tek will take open circuit power direct from the solar panels meaning no regulator is needed on the panel. The Redarc BMS is also a 240V intelligent multistage charger so you have the full gammet of charging options.

Cheers Mick.

Thanks for your reply Mick.
I am also considering the Redarc BMS as I'd like to cover all charging bases, 240V, 12V and Solar.
I know the BMS will do it in one unit and going by the Ctek Powerpoint presentation that was linked previously it looks likely the Ctek devices needed would be 3 units.
Which are the 250S Dual, the Ctek Smartpass to allow high power initial current direct from the alternator and something like the Ctek M300 240V charger to allow charging from mains current.
At this point in time I'm a bit confused on which way to go but at least the discussion here is much more courteous than what is going on over at the caravanners forum on the same issue at the moment.
Regards Andrew.

Cheers Andrew. Don't worry it can get pretty heated on this topic (and solar) here on EO. I'm no expert but I know what I'm looking for and the job that I need it to do. I did a write up on both the BMS and the BC-DC. The BMS is a pricey bit of kit but when you consider the degree of functionality and monitoring that it provides, it's actually cheaper. I have it maintaining over a grands worth of AGM's as well so a worthwhile investment in my mind. Back-up and service from Redarc is absolutely second to none although I've had only one issue and that ended up being that a sensor cable to the the batteries that was accidentaly damaged by my engineers. Redarc replaced it at no charge despite it not being a product fault. I can't fault that.

Redarc BC-DEC and BMS review.

The comments at the bottom are a good endorsement as well.


I've also written up my considerations and decisions re DC power needs in my ute build blog.

Creating the dream off roader

Good luck mate. Mick