Continuous charging with Tripplite Inverter/Charger

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

Scotty,
You would be correct the unit you have is commonalty refereed to as a isolator, it uses Diodes to prevent current flow in one direction. It will not let your inverter/charger charge the starting batteries.

-greg

Thanks Greg. That's what I was thinking but wanted to be sure as things have changed some over the years. I have heard of these older isolators failing a few times, and when mine does I'll probably go for the 'smart' isolator I had in my last van, which did a great job keeping both battery banks charged from either end. On the other hand, though, I don't have any draws on my starting battery except my alarm, so it only loses about half a volt over weeks of sitting, and doesn't really need a charge.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00400 ... r_thx_view

[daveb]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

A primary reason for losing one of the starters is that generally we have a AGM for house and common wet cell for a starter, while the constant maintenance charge may be fine it will reduce the water level, which usually ends up with a shorted cell. A battery with a shorted cell will put the charger back in bulk charge and result in the overheated boiling battery. Another way of minimizing this is to change your starters to AGM batteries also.


greg

I totally agree with Greg here and since I switched to AGM starting batteries, it never happened again. At a minimum, switching to AGM starting batteries make sense from both charging performance and safety POV depending on the type of charging setup you have.

[BrianW]

I have one of those cheap solar maintenance chargers for my starting battery. Seems to do the job pretty well.