My C-Tek is Stuffed

[Mad Manny]

Thanks for your input Rudi.
Yes AC-DC 25A Intelli Charger

[grips]

As said - I have lost three C-Teks to date.

Surely there must be something out there that kills all these super intelligent chargers? The answer is 'dirty' electricity.
Most of them are designed to endure conditions in Europe and Japan where you have very stable power generation.

What is dirty electricity? Electrical networks are suppose to absorb stuff like lightning strikes, spikes in voltage, over and under voltage and unstable frequency to mention a few.
We all know the state of Eskom. All the switching to accommodate load shedding creates all sorts of stuff like mentioned above.
Most of the campsites are fed with overhead lines which are vulnerable to lightning strikes, voltage drops with sudden load requirements.
Remote campsites run gennies in time frames to power the sites. Do not trust these types of power supply.

Electronic stuff is usually protected with sophisticated power supplies that are designed to absorb dirty electrics.
Intelligent chargers lack this type of protection as it will make them bulky and expensive. To save your fancy charger you can run it through a UPS which is made to absorb voltage spikes, over and under voltage. That means the UPS taking up extra space.

I am currently investigating a second option and that is the use of chargers that you find on Gensets. They are industrial type of chargers that have the ability to withstand dirty power. They have trickle charge functions that keep a battery at charge for months with no ill effects. They also do not harm vehicle electronics like ECU`s if put on charge without the battery disconnected. Gensets have complicated tronics and these chargers are designed to protect that. They are also well priced.

I have a charger that is 30 years old. Plain simple transformer, diode bridge, smoothing cap and voltage regulator. Its simplicity will make it last another 30 years. But without trickle charge and other fancy functions I will not use it on a battery connected to a system. But boy that thing supercharge batteries.

There are also killers lurking on the output 12V side.
Most important if your charger is fitted with a temperature probe that it is installed in a way to make good contact with the battery. Intelligent chargers read the battery temp via the probe and will adjust charge rate to the temp of the battery. Cold batteries charge at higher rates. If the probe is not in good contact with the battery you will not charge at correct rates as the battery warms up. This can ruin your charger or the battery it is charging.
Short circuits. Most intelligent chargers have protection against short circuits and overload. Running them in these conditions for extended time will damage them. Make sure you have a proper installation to prevent short circuits. You charger also needs to have the capacity to deal with the demands of your system.
Do not stress the charger trying to revive dead batteries. Intelligent chargers have battery reconditioning functions but cannot wake up the dead.

[Rabbiddog RIP 7/6/21]

Optimate
Genius
Bradex

https://batteriesonline.co.za/product-c ... rgers/12v/

[Wave]

If MadMans Ctek is not viable to repair, here are some options:

Option 1: National Luna 5A charger - R1599 - It will do the job, but maybe a little low on output, so will take long to recharge 1 x 105ah Deep Cycle

Option 2: C-Tek MXS 7A - R2599 @ Takealot - Personally, I love the Ctek stuff, never had an issue, higher output than the NL, so will charge the battery faster

Option 3: Mean Well 12.5A charger - R1650 @ Bush Power - Conqueror use this charger in their trailers & caravans from about 2012 onwards, has a decent output for the price, seemingly a good buy for the amps delivered, in the Conqueror's it charges 2 x 105ah Deep Cycles, so will do the job with ease.

[Mad Manny]

Thank you Ge'Off. You are a star.
The one I had was 25A which was probably overkill....

[Wave]

That is a nice high output, it must have charged your battery in about 22 mins

When I bought my Conqueror the "home-made" Conqueror internal battery charger had died, as they all seem to do on the older models. The seller gave me a Ctek MXS 25A charger which I have now permanently mounted inside the standard DB board replacing the std job, and its plenty to charge the 2 x 105Ah High Cycle batteries I have in there.

On a side note, in Jan 2019 we were camping in Kosi and when the 220v power is on, its irattatic, so in the 4 hours or so you have to charge your batteries the power still goes on and off a few times.

Avon's & my Ctek intelligent chargers did not really like this, as every time the power comes back on the charger restarts the charging cycle.
Another mate camping with us has the Mean Well charger in his Conqueror Compact II, it is a more basic charger, and did a better job of topping up his batteries than the "intelligent" ones, it seemed to just continue to charge from where it left off as opposed to restarting the charge cycle every time.

[BushWacker]

Geoff ... are your two 2 105Ah batteries connected in parallell and charged as such
and if so have you checked they in equivalent state ie same condition ... same make & type
and one no better than the other ?
( I understand thats a necessary condition for both to be routinely charged to 100%. )

[Wave]

Just looking around, this Victron is a 10A charger with blueteeth, so you can connect your phone to monitor the battery condition/level:

Battery Charger Victron Blue Smart IP65 12/10 + DC Connector, on Takealot for R1913

I'm still leaning to the Mean Well if it was my decision, but another option to look at.

[Wave]

Geoff ... are your two 2 105Ah batteries connected in parallel and charged as such
and if so have you checked they in equivalent state ie same condition ... same make & type
and one no better than the other ?
( I understand thats a necessary condition for both to be routinely charged to 100%. )

My batteries are connected in parallel, they were both replaced last year when the 9 year old original Deep Cycles died, well actually only 1 died, but I thought best to replace with 2 x New Deltec High Cycle 105Ah from the same batch so that they perform the same in both charge and discharge applications.
Once a month I will plug the trailer into 220v for 48 hours to keep the batteries topped up and in good condition.

Does this answer your questions BushWacker?

[Paul#25]

My Jurgens Xplorer has an old 12v power supply type charger fitted as standard. There is nothing intelligent about its supply to the batteries or the van system and fridge. It works perfectly when camping at a place where the caravan is connected to a 220v supply but I won't leave it to look after the battery's between trips. When its parked at home I connect and old Benton BX-1 charger to the batteries to keep them "fresh".
This system of using the two chargers for the different types of charging seems to work well as I haven't had any problems with the batteries yet.
This type of set-up could alleviate the problems that smart charges have with intermittent 220v power availability at some campsites as Geoff mentioned, but then be kind to the batteries when the van / trailer isn't being used.

[BushWacker]

Thanks Geoff , ... yes.
... guess one of two batteries has to be the one to go first, in the end.
... just wondering if there’s not good logic to charge each individually, now and again , as the weaker of the pair will always limit full charging of both being achieved.

[Wave]

@Paul#25 - that's why I would lean towards the Mean Well, similar to your setup, I personally do not leave my batteries on charge indefinitely, so even to use the Mean Well once a month will keep the batteries happy, I had the same setup in my Gypsey Regal, I think it was the Hercules 20 DB board/charger. I replaced the 10 year old battery when I bought the caravan as the battery was very dead, and 4 and 1/2 years later when I sold the caravan the battery was still performing well with only once a month charging from the caravan charger.

@BushWacker - To be fair, the original batteries last 9 years, linked together, being charged once a month (for the last 4 years, from when I bought it), that's pretty damn good life, so although you may get more life by charging them separately, how much more? 6 months? Is it really worth the extra effort?

[BushWacker]

“ ... original batteries lasted 9 years, linked together, being charged once a month (for the last 4 years, from when I bought it), that's a pretty damn good life ... “

That, it is !

[GarrethG]

I use the Bosch C7 charger.


The Bosch C7 Battery Charger is an intelligent six-stage automatic charger with great extra features including regeneration mode and power backup. Furthermore, the C7 is ideal for charging and maintaining lead acid wet, gel, AGM and VRLA/SLA batteries up to 230Ah (12V) / 120Ah (24V).



With its regeneration mode it can recover deeply discharged batteries with a constant current of 1500ma. In addition, power backup can be used to supply power to the vehicle’s electrical system maintaining the system’s setting whilst charging the battery. It can also be used as a power supply for accessories like a cooler box (12V batteries above 14Ah)



Lastly, the Bosch C7 can be used for many applications including classic cars, modern vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, boats, caravans, personal watercraft, ride on mowers and buses.

7.0a 12V:14 – 230Ah
3.5a 24V: 14 – 120Ah


Your benefits at a glance:

Wall mount
Suitable for Lead acid wet, AGM and gel batteries
No risk of overcharge
Protection against sparks
Full protection against short-circuit & reverse polarity
One button for ease of use
Fully automatic charging
Protection against overheating
Memory function
Charges discharged batteries
The C7 battery charger meets the IP65 dust and splashproof standards and are certified to Australian electrical standards


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Wave]

SnoMaster has a 15A intelligent charger on special currently:

R1799

https://snomaster.co.za/product/snomast ... snoreg15a/