T&T: Battery charger

[Joel Wilkins]

Happy Holidays
  I have started doing research for purchase of a new installed battery charger. Currently I have a very old 30 amp single stage charger but I have been using a 3 stage portable that seems to be working better. 
   
  My setup is: main with 30 amp alternator, 4 trojan 12 volt batteries in 2 banks of 1+3. have room to add additional batteries if needed. 
   
  Question is: Being a livaboard and tied to dock where I have 110 available how do I determine how many amps charger is required. 
   
  The old one seems to do the trick within a few hours of bulk charge but is probably not topping off. The 3 stage seems to work well in half a day. I do know it does not monitor temperature but maybe monitors voltage as it starts pumping out fewer amps. I am thinking I DO NOT want a combined charger/inverter as I want smaller, more numerous inverters and also want to remove the failure of one device from shutting down more than one feature.
   
  I have seen several of the battery monitoring devices and some work with specific chargers. These seem useful but I do not know how they interface with other chargers. 
   
  Thanks for any advice
  Joel Wilkins
  S. Pasadena
  Columbia 45
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