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Smart Battery Management upgrade
I know technology has improved everything we use but I still question some things like the difference in the current (no pun intended) battery chargers versus the old ones.
We had Professional Mariner chargers for the house and chassis batteries. The three 60 amp house chargers weighed about 45 lbs. each and measured 8″X8″X16″ and took up the whole back of the bay. I replaced them with two 60 amp Intellipower smart charger/converters that weigh 6 lbs. each and measure 4″X8″X9″.
I replaced the 25 amp chassis charger, also 8″X8″X16″ weighing 45 lbs. with an Intellipower 25 amp 4.5″X8″X8″ weighing 4.5 lbs.
The old chargers said they were automatic, but I guess reducing the amperage as the volts go up was considered automatic in “the day”.
The new smart chargers even run the variable speed cooling fan only when needed.
So we reduced the weight by over 90% and now keep the batteries charged, stored, desulphated for hopefully a longer life.
It is just hard to look at the almost 200 lbs. of removed chargers and realize the 16.5 lbs. of new technology is doing a better, quieter and more efficient job.
I just hope they last, the old chargers were still working after 22 years.
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2 Replies
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Yep, 3 stage is the only way to go.
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Back in the bad old days you had to move a selector knob to whatever power source you were using, whether it was shore power, generator or inverter. The inverter was just that, not a combination battery charger/ inverter.
To maintain the batteries we used converters which put out 13.5 volts when they had 120volts to them.
The inverter was only turned on when you wanted to use the microwave or make coffee, or watch TV if you didn’t have shore power and didn’t want to run the generator.
The refrigerator was the only thing with a “brain” and it ran on electric 120 Volts if available, if not it ran on propane, and if neither was available it ran on DC power. But it was lousy because it was slow to cool and iced up quickly.
Today with the smart battery chargers, smart inverters and automatic transfer switches it is amazing how easy it is to live in the coach compared to just 24 years ago.
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