T&T: 24V backup charger...

[Chuck and Susan]

Jeffrey, We are using two Iota 45 smart chargers on our house bank and I
highly recommend these chargers.  They will do a regular equalizing charge
without any input and with the pulse technology they won't overcharge the
batteries and you will have less gassing. Chuck

To follow our adventures, go to

http://trawler-beach-house.blogspot.com/

http://sea-trek.blogspot.com/

--- On Sun, 4/26/09, Jeffrey Siegel <jeff at activecaptain.com> wrote:
 

Thanks for all of the excellent 24v charging ideas.  OK, so using 2-12v
chargers in series probably isn't a good idea because of heat build up.  I
agree with that.  Even though it's for a backup situation, there's no reason
to create something dangerous.

The IOTA product suggestion looks really great.  The broken charger (Newmar)
is a 36 amp model. IOTA has a 40 amp model for about $450 - less than half the
price of others I've looked at.  And a green light from Arild is all I ever
need for electrical things!  I'll call Newmar on Monday but I'll bet the IOTA
will be less than the repair cost.

Dave, I checked out that Guest unit.  It's under $100 but only puts out 5 amps
at 24v.  My thruster bank is 500 AH and I've gotten it down to 75% - 85% after
a few days of use.  That would put me down about 125 AH and require 25 hours
of charging at 5 amps to recover in the worst case.  That's too long.  It
looks like I need a 30-40 amp charger.  That's an interesting product though. 
I'm thinking of getting one of those as a backup since it can charge either
bank in an emergency - didn't know such a thing existed.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.  Problem solved.


====================================
Jeffrey Siegel