Battery charger for gel deep cycle? Help! (please)

[MotorVation]

I bought two new Renogy 12 volt 200ah gel deep cycle batteries last night. I got a very good deal on them. I'll go into that if anyone wants me to. The batteries will be here next week and I won't be connecting them to my solar panels/charge controller right away.

I'm going to need a good battery charger that I can run off shore power to maintain the batteries for now. I'm looking further down the road however and am wondering if there's a decent charger out there that will run off my Sportsman 1000i generator should I run into a long spell of bad weather or other problems with the solar that may arise? I have DKS (don't know sh#t) but I'm aware that gel batteries have special charging requirements.  

(I'm not looking to buy the best and most expensive unit out there. Just something reliable that will get the job done). I'm going to wire the batteries in parallel for a total of 400ah.

Thank you........

 

[Gr8ful]

There are several brands, I have 3 deep cycle chargers I've collected over the years. I have one that will do any battery from 6-48, it reads the voltage & I punch in the type of battery, works well. I'll be in the the shop later & get the model for you.

 

[mjbeam]

I've been using this one for a few months on 2 100AH AGM deep cycle batteries I have connected in parallel:

https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-353-...ry+charger&qid=1561675050&s=automotive&sr=1-4

They make higher capacity and higher voltage versions. This one says up to 150AH but it's been working great on my batteries.

 

[MotorVation]

Thanks, I've been reading till my eyes bleed and I can't find a charger that has all the specs listed. I haven't found one yet that lists how much power it pulls. I have to be sure my small generator will run it (Sportsman 1000i). It's also pretty hard to find specs that describe in detail if the charging amps and voltages are 100% user programmable to battery type, exact voltage, amps, etc..

I have a good solar controller and it's totally programmable so I'm not concerned with that, but I'm not going to put the new batteries in the van until either it cools off here in Florida or I put a window unit AC in the van and run it off shore power. The Florida heat will barbecue the batteries if I just let them sit there

 

[Gr8ful]

It's a Stanley but I can't find the model listed anywhere & it will run off your genset fine.

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

motorvation, i feel your pain on finding a proper charger and even just finding specs on how much power they draw, or what their voltage setting are. i am of the school where for my batteries i want a fully programmable charger just like my solar controllers.

i have a promariner 1230p it is a 12 volt 30 amp constant current charger with bulk/absorb/float and can also equalize, though with GEL you wont be using that. it has a custom setting that allows you to set the absorbtion voltage and the float voltage. the real nice thing about it, is that it is power factor corrected. this means that my 30 amp charger while charging at 30 amp and 14 volts (420 watts) draws almost exactly the same as it is putting out. i also have the same 1000 sportsman generator and it run it just fine. i have even run a 40 amp charger from the same

if a charger is not power factor corrected they generally will draw around 40% more than they are sending to the battery, sometimes even more

the promariner chargers are not cheap, i think mine was around $350 but for me, it was well worth it

 

[MotorVation]

Charger

Controller

Thanks for the info, I appreciate that.

The above links are for 30 amp charger by Iota. In order for it to be a smart charger I'll have to add the controller that's specifically for Gel batteries.
The charger is 133.95 and the controller is about another 25 bucks.

Aside from being a charger, it can also be used as a 12v power supply that's rated at 400 watts. They also sell, compatible to the charger, other controllers to be used with other battery types.
Here's that part that sucks. The controller is for Gel but..............it doesn't say exactly what voltage it puts out during bulk or float. Until I get to the bottom of that I'm holding off.
The batteries I bought from Renogy call for a 14.2 volt charge and a 13.5 volt float voltage. Most chargers that I've found online that are Gel compatible put out 14.1 volts during bulk. AAAAGGGGGHHHH! I'm going to call Renogy about that.

I'll keep the charger you mentioned in mind and will do some research on it also. It's not clear to me that the Iota is power factor corrected and in fact, I really didn't know that was something I should be aware of until now. Thanks for that...

Tomorrow is a weekday so it may be easier to get some answers.

Did I mention that my Sportsman 1000i sprung a gas leak yesterday? I have to split the case to get to the bottom of that. I'm pretty sure it's a fuel line but I can't get to it just by removing the side covers. I'll update on that after I get it figured out.

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

right off the bat, i see in the link you posted the charger is only 80% efficient. so with 30 amps charge output at 14 volts the output watts of 420 your input draw on the genny is going to be at least 500watts even if it is power factor corrected.

i love the sportsman 1000 generator i have. but it is certainly not a 1000 watt unit. i have tested it several times and it faults out and quits within seconds of outputting anything over 800 watts. it does seam to be able to do high 700's but i would not run it continuous above 700watts. if you go through the manual and parts diagram. you will see the "inverter" replacement part is listed as 700 watts. if the power factor on the Iota is .7 or worse, it may be hard on the genny if it will even run it.

while i have not had "hands on" with that exact model from Iota. i have had hands on experience with 2 similar chargers from Iota. the first one was a 70 amp 12v model. it was definitely not power factor corrected and was drawing more than double the output watts. the other thing i noticed, is that even though that 70 amp model claimed to have bulk/absorption/float stages. it did not behave in that fashion, when i was testing it on a friends system. his batteries were down around 60% remaining and we fired up his honda 2000 inverter generator. while it did run it we were quite disappointed in that the peak charge current going into the batteries was only 38-40 amps and at that the voltage was only 13.5-13.6. we found that it was in, i guess what they call power supply or converter mode. so we switched it over to the other mode where it was supposed to bulk charge up to 14.4 before going into absorption. even at that we never got it to put out more than 40ish amps even though the volts remained in the high 13's. my friend was ok with that as he uses it just to throw some extra amps into his system in the winter and lets the solar finish them off. for him the cheap price made up for the lack of output

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

continued...


the second one was a 40 amp model that the owner had paid extra for an upgrade to have multi stage charging (per their description) not sure if it was the extra controller module like you listed or something different as it was installed where i could not see it. when we checked the voltage while running it never got above 13.8 and was only drawing about 200 watts per the kil-O-watt meter i put on the generator. if it was a true bulk/absorb/float charger it should have been putting out a full 40 amps till the batteries came up to the 14.4 volts the bulk was supposed to be. that would have been around 550 watts with PF(power factor) correction and 100% efficiency.

these are only 2 experiences that i have had, but figured i would share.

if you go with that, i would recommend buying from some place with a good return policy and test the output and input as soon as you get it. i would be interested in hearing what the results are. perhaps this model is better or they have upped their game

bummer on the fuel leak, i hope it is a simple fix

when checking into the chargers i mentioned, know the same company also markets the same chargers under the sterling brand. i think the only real difference in the promariner is targeted at the boat market

 

[MotorVation]

I emailed Renogy support asking them to recommend a charger(s) that will charge at the specs they list for my batteries. I was going to call but I figured it would be better to get it in writing. For now, I'm going to wait for that info before I jump on anything.

Thanks again

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

good luck with that. please come back and share what you find. this is a common problem for many people and sharing sources for proper chargers can benefit many others

 

[MotorVation]

Okay, Renogy got back to me via email with a canned answer.

Here's the body of the email:

https://no.co/products/charging/multipurposeHi Bob H,

Thank you for contacting Renogy.

The only item we recommend that we know works well with our batteries would be the Noco Genius line of AC to DC chargers.  https://no.co/products/charging/multipurpose 
They will have a mode for AGM, Gel, and Li batteries while keeping the batteries topped off and trickle charging once the battery is full. 

If you have any further questions please let us know.

Thank you,
Matthew S.

So, I went to the Noco site and checked the specs on their chargers. None of them have a setting for Gel batteries but they claim they're ok for them. They lump one setting for AGM and Gel together. That will fry the gel batteries in a short amount of time.

I bought them via Wal-Mart and they're due here in town tomorrow night. I just went to the Wal-Mart site and cancelled the order.
Enough is enough. I'll let you know what ends up happening from here.
I can just picture what would happen if I make a warranty claim to Renogy for fried batteries even though they recommended the wrong charger...
PS The writing in green will take you to the Noco site. I didn't do that purposely.
Thanks again..

UPDATE: I just went back to the Wal-Mart site and the order is cancelled and the refund is processed on their end.

 

[highdesertranger]

I didn't mention this in your thread because I thought you already had your gel battery. but I have never had good luck with GEL's and I wouldn't recommend them for boondocking use. they are just to touchy. highdesertranger

 

[MotorVation]

I didn't mention this in your thread because I thought you already had your gel battery.  but I have never had good luck with GEL's and I wouldn't recommend them for boondocking use.  they are just to touchy.  highdesertranger

I did some research before I bought them but I didn't find out about the charging nightmare until I had already sprung for them.

This is supposed to be CheapRVLiving. You know, where the living is easy and the buffalo roam. Or something like that. I spent much of the last few days trying to find an affordable charger with the exact specs Renogy is calling for. I'm in no way willing to babysit those batteries for the next few years. Nope, I'm already worn out from worrying about them..