Can I leave my 2007 Sportsmobile plugged into 110 volt outlet indefinitely?

[basssears]

Originally Posted by boywonder

Is your charge wizard an unpluggable module? i.e. 9100 series?


I just moved to a LiFePo4 battery and installed a Victron Orion DC-DC converter....then wired the intellepower (without the charge wizard) on the starter battery side of the Orion. So now either the alternator or shore power goes through the Orion and is fully programmable via the Victron connect app for whatever battery you want.

Thanks!!


I have been mulling this over in my head because I'm heading DC-DC charger myself (same one, I like the Victron) and had gotten CLOSE to this solution but hadn't put it all together like this. This seems like a perfect solution really, I'll have to pull thicker gauge wire from the charger to the start battery but I need larger gauge back to the Orion as well so can pull them at the same time.


Thanks for putting it all together for me

[basssears]

Originally Posted by basssears

Thanks!!
I have been mulling this over in my head because I'm heading DC-DC charger myself (same one, I like the Victron) and had gotten CLOSE to this solution but hadn't put it all together like this. This seems like a perfect solution really, I'll have to pull thicker gauge wire from the charger to the start battery but I need larger gauge back to the Orion as well so can pull them at the same time.

So the one downside here, but I don't think it's that substantial (and is overcomeable) is now my charging capacity is limited by the size of the Orion DC-DC I install (I plan on going with the 18a one because I don't want to overload my alternator) so those few times when I have a pretty discharged battery set and want to charge up with my generator it will take longer, but that's a pretty infrequent issue these days with a decent solar setup.


Also, sorry if I hijacked the OP's thread, wasn't my intention and seemed we were talking about the same things.


-- Bass

[Scalf77]

Originally Posted by basssears

Care to share what is on your list? New AGM batteries for me has lead to some upgrading of my charging sources (to accommodate AGM specific voltages), have upgraded my MPPT, a DC-DC charger is next on the list but I'm still with my old InteliPower and the Charge Wizard, can see that it does in fact storage charge at 13.2v which my Lifelines say they like but I guess the desulfation does bug me a bit.


-- Bass

The specifics I look for in chargers are this.
Battery type programmability
It is unfortunate that battery manufacturers and charger manufacturers are not on the same team. You can see a real difference in settings, so it is best to look at the individual charger you are looking at and check those settings with the specifications of your battery. There are at least two common AGM settings alone.

Some chargers will offer you a custom setup where you can program the voltages for the various settings such as Adsorption and Float, this would be even better.

Equalize
Many chargers now count equalize as a forth stage of charging. While that is great, AGM or Lithium batteries don’t need this stage. It is best that you can disable this stage, certainly the automatic part of it. Lifeline does support what they call a conditioning charge, under certain circumstances.

Temperature compensation
This gives your charger the ability to change the voltages of the different stages based on the temperature of the battery.

As one can see from the chart the voltage for charging is much different based on the temperature of the battery. This feature many times will need the purchase of an optional temperature probe. Some chargers may support cold and high temp setting, which while not as good as the temperature probe would be better than most.

Charger sizing
Your charger current should be sized for the size of your battery bank, 15% would be a minimum while 30% would be good for the high end.

If looking at moving to lithium at some point you might want to see if you have more control over the absorption stage. In general Lithium likes to have short absorption stages.

In general I usually find more features on the Inverter/chargers than in stand alone chargers, but a couple of good units are Xantrex TRUEcharge2 XXA, 12V Battery Charger and KISAE AC1260 Abso 60A, 12V Battery Charger.

-greg

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by basssears

So the one downside here, but I don't think it's that substantial (and is overcomeable) is now my charging capacity is limited by the size of the Orion DC-DC I install (I plan on going with the 18a one because I don't want to overload my alternator) so those few times when I have a pretty discharged battery set and want to charge up with my generator it will take longer, but that's a pretty infrequent issue these days with a decent solar setup.

Also, sorry if I hijacked the OP's thread, wasn't my intention and seemed we were talking about the same things.

-- Bass

I upgraded to a 200A alternator when I went to lithium. It had a test tag on it stating it can do 130A at idle. The Stock 135A alternator does around 60-70 ish amps at idle and the my van draws about 60A or so at idle...so hardly any headroom, especially when I've got the radio/amps on.

The lithiums have really low input resistance when at a low state of charge and will take all the current they can get so I wasn't comfortable with the lack of headroom at idle with the stock alternator.

Here are the alternator curves as of 2008...