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Date:         Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:35:26 -0500
Reply-To:     Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Tests with eliminator/shumacher 2/8/12A charger.
Comments: To: Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
In-Reply-To:  <283833.7388.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

This is what you want. http://www.progressivedyn.com/power_converters.html

The 9130 with the charge wizard will handle all your charging needs. Designed, listed, and approved for installation in an RV. And this things work really well and the price is reasonable. Shop around and look for sales.

Dennis

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Poppie Jagersand Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 1:26 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Tests with eliminator/shumacher 2/8/12A charger.

I've been looking for an inexpensive, yet efficient coach battery charger and shore power supply for my '82 Westy. The '94 has a built in constant voltage (13.8V) unit. However, that is not the ideal charge cycle, and buying one also for my '82 would cost a ridiculous $400.

So I tried to use my $49 Canadian tire eliminator 2/8/12A charger instead. A peek inside reveals it is a re-branded shumacher unit. (says shumacher on pcb). The fan was annoyingly noisy, but that can be solved by replacing it with a computer chipset fan. This is a switched supply, but unlike most its switching frequency is in the audible range, so it also has a bit of high pitched noise. Not too bad though.

So on to tests:

1. I already knows it charges batteries well with it's 4 cycle program. In fact much better than the alternator, so I use it occasionally to revive the battery capacity.

2. Now connected it to the westy coach battery, connected a 100W load. This also worked fine. Charge current settled at 8A, which is about what the load was using. Hence power supplied by charger and not battery when connected to shore power.

3. Connected charger, charged battery, then connected load. Here is where it failed to do the best thing. Normally after charging it goes into a desulfatation mode, giving short pulses of 15-16V. this is good to condition the battery.

However, after connecting load, the battery voltage would drop to about 12V, but the charger wouldn't switch back into bulk charge mode by itself. I had to power cycle the charger to get it into charging mode again. This is a bit annoying. Anyone knows if other "automatic" chargers behave the same?

In particular I saw this very inexpensive one, which should be good for my AGM: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4506 (10A smartcharger for only $32) Anyone have experience with this model?

Anyone knows other sources for chargers or 14V constant voltage supplies useful for campsite powering?

Thanks, Martin

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