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Old 11-25-2011, 06:49 PM   #21
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Faster charging rates actually do more harm to batteries than slower chargers. Every deep discharge takes life out of a battery.

I would recommend a 20 Amp or even less for a small charger which keeeos thevweight down also. You should calculate how long it takes to charge your bank. What you need to decide is how long you want to wait for an 80% charge. The last 20% will be slower.

40 Amp Chargers are impressive and useful f you need to top off your batteries in a few hours.

I have the 20 Amp 3 stage charger in my boat serving 2 4D batteries. All modern chargers are 3 stage chargers--which is mandatory for a trailer or a boat. Mine has an echo charger for my boat's starter battery which, I'd actually prefer to have its own charger.

Prior to this I had a 58 pound 60 Amp charger/3000 watt inverter--which gave me nothing but trouble. I don't see much point in having an inverter that draws that much power. I'd rather have 3 small ones that waste less power. The only purpose I can see for an inverter that big is to run a microwave briefly and with the motor running, to ease the burden on he batteries.

If you keep your battery topped off it will last 7-8 years. A trickle charger or solar panel fits that need well.

Even a cheap little motorcycle battery charger, kept plugged in all the time when the trailer is not in use will save a battery.

Consider that if your battery freezes it is ruined and that if kept topped up it can't freeze.

So in summary. I am a fan of cheap slow chargers, and using them all the time.
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Old 11-27-2011, 12:50 PM   #22
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"If you keep your battery topped off it will last 7-8 years. A trickle charger or solar panel fits that need well.

Even a cheap little motorcycle battery charger, kept plugged in all the time when the trailer is not in use will save a battery.

Consider that if your battery freezes it is ruined and that if kept topped up it can't freeze.

So in summary. I am a fan of cheap slow chargers, and using them all the time."

This is what I suggested right from the beginning! Night Sailor gives you an experienced recommendation. And as I mentioned, try it first with you existing battery which could be very well rejuvenated and offer you proper service for a few and, may be, many more years. By the way I just saved a deep cycle marine battery with a little intelligent motorcycle battery charger... And keep your charger connected to the battery year around as recommended by Night Sailor.
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Old 11-27-2011, 02:20 PM   #23
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I ditto Normand. We keep our battery connected continuously and we have a set that lasted 14 years and still going.
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Old 11-27-2011, 05:14 PM   #24
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Again hardly the recommendation to make without sufficient information from the Original poster about his needs?

Modern 3 stage chargers also provide this safe trickle charge again as suggested from experience.
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Old 11-28-2011, 12:32 PM   #25
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Thanks again for all the help everyone.
I've purchased the CTECK multi-use charger. I will only be recharging in between camping trips so the slow charge will be sufficient. The list of projects my Boler needs is long so at this point I'm not even going to install a converter or charger. I live in a condo. The good, my Boler fits in the parkade. The bad. I can't leave it plugged in. I might install an outlet in my coat closet and leave the battery there. Easy to monitor that way as well.
The Battery. I tested it with a hydrometer after three days on the charger (manufacturer specification until maximum charge/reconditioning) 5 cells read fair one was dead. It died again after running two dome lights for three hours. It's headed to recycling and I'm getting a group 24 deep cycle.

Cheers,
Mark
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Old 11-28-2011, 12:35 PM   #26
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A small Solar Panel would easily keep your battery charged.
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Old 11-28-2011, 02:04 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by honda03842 View Post
A small Solar Panel would easily keep your battery charged.
Agreed.
Now with the complete picture of your situation I also think Solar may be the way for you.
At least it should help protect the new battery you are about to get.

I have seen them for $50.00 for a small maintenance charge unit too.
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Old 11-28-2011, 02:49 PM   #28
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Small solar panel in a window is enough to keep your battery top shape during winter. You should do it and everyone in a similar situation should do it. That's what I was doing with my Cessna172 XP during winter. Whenever I intended to use the airplane, the battery was always full charge. Batteries in airplane are small (because of weight) and they have to crank quite a big engine (in my case it was a v6 Continental 350 cubic inches. My solar panel was behind the sun visor. That means about 5X9 inches.
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Old 11-28-2011, 03:16 PM   #29
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Are you thinking a solar panel will keep it charged up enough while camping? After camping it's in a dark underground parkade. Thus the thought of keeping the battery indoors and on the CTECH charger if it's going to be unused for lengths of time. Thats what I meant by coat closet, in the condo. I like the idea of the solar panel but it seems to be getting cheaper, smaller, more efficient rapidly and I'm holding out until it's a "need".

It's hard to find that fine line between need and want.
Mark
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Old 11-28-2011, 03:34 PM   #30
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Sorry,I will admit I had no idea what a "Parkade" was?
Clearly it will get no sun underground.
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Old 11-28-2011, 03:48 PM   #31
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Yeh, sorry. I guess it's Canadian. "Canadiana" or "Canadianese"
On a side note, I looked it up in Wikipedia as I was curious about a more universal term.
Parking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Looks like I'm sticking with parkade.
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Old 11-28-2011, 04:07 PM   #32
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Live and Learn I guess,well at least I can add this one to my vocabulary!
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Old 11-29-2011, 08:48 PM   #33
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A 5x9 iches solar panel will obviously not keep your battery charged while camping! Nor it will work in an indoor parking. Carry your battery in and keep it on the CTECH charger all the time.
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Old 12-25-2011, 02:58 AM   #34
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Basics that people can probably agree on:

1. You need to have enough capacity to serve your power needs without discharging your battery more than 50% (regularly). It would be convenient to have instrumentation to know how much current you are using and how much you are charging so that you can have an idea about current State of Charge
.
2. Carrying along a source of charging power (solar panels, genset, plugging in for an opportunity charge when available, charging from vehicle power while moving) will allow you to have less house-battery capacity (minimize weight/space/cost to what you actually use/need).

3. Reducing your consumption will extend what battery capacity you have: replacing incandescent bulbs with LED's, using propane for refrigerator on 3-way refer's, shutting off fans that can run continuously unattended (like my furnace when it runs out of propane), and other loads unneeded/unknown.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. There are good deals, and poor deals, separated by what we think is important in power storage and delivery.

IMHO, the very best deal is plugging in to the 12 cents per KW/H grid. Small gensets (1000-2000 Watts, light enough for the weakest adult to stow) running on gasoline are very powerful battery extenders when coupled with the right charger. Solar panels that can put out a charging current of 10% of your battery capacity are a worthy investment in not running the generator when your batteries are 85% full. In the spring, in areas that have lots of golf courses and people using golf carts, you will find good deals on 6v golf cart (or golf "car") batteries at CostCo/Sam's Club/etc. These batteries are designed for abuse and neglect and will serve you well when babied in RV house-battery service.

Cheers.
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