There are recent reports of PD converters sold on Amazon arriving in a plain box with no labels and with no serial numbers, and PD disavowes any responsibility of these saying they are counterfeits.
With a seller listed as 'unknown' I would not trust it.
When you plug in to the grid to recharge, how long will you have. 6 hours? 12 hours? more?
Trojan on their non RE line say absorption voltage should be 14.8v( at 77F). They list a wider range of acceptable absorption voltages on their RE line but this could be their marketing department throwing a hissy fit imagining their competitor's RE batteries selling faster.
Because of this, PD now offers a PD9245-14.8 model with a 14.8 absorption voltage.
As far as I know this is the only place that retails these higher absorption voltage models:
http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-9245C-148-45-Amp-RV-ConverterCharger_p_610.html#.WEZLBNIrKQM
The PD with charge wizard is Automatic, but can be forced to seek and hold 3 voltages, press button once and it will Shoot for 14.8v with a maximum of 45 amps output, and hold it for 4 hours. Press and hold button for longer and it will seek and hold 13.6v. Press and hold button even longer and it will seek and hold only 13.2v.
If time to recharge is limited to 6 hours or less, or one is running a generator, then the 45 amp 14.8v PD9245-14.8 would be a very good charger for t-105's. The regular pd9245 has a 14.4v absorption voltage. This is a bit slower to charge the battery, and when the batteries age, 14.4v might not be able to fully recharge the batteries no matter how long one holds the 14.4v via the remote wizard.
But 14.4v on new batteries would just slow the recharging a bit, but I would go for the 14.8v model simply as Trojans says 14.8v. One can always force it to a lower voltage after only a hour at 14.8v, if one is plugging in to the grid for a week and does not need to reach a high state of charge As soon as possible.
The Iota dls-45 will seek 14.8v at 45 amps, and hold it for 15 minutes, then drop to 14.2v. I am not sure how long it holds this lower absorption voltage. It is a bit more gentile on the battery, but charges slower, and perhaps not fully
About the bayite battery monitor/ power meter, I have not tested one and do not know how accurate they are. I have used another ammeter with the same shunt( precision resistor) and it was poor at reading low currents. A 0.71 amp load would register as 0.00a. But at 2.5 amps it was somewhat accurate. Mine could be calibrated, but if calibrated for 5 amps, would be off at 20 amps.
I do not know how useful it would be if it is as inaccurate, and I bet some of these sold will be OK and some others likely off by a good amount.
So I hesitate to recommend it for a newbie to wire up and to trust, without having set one up myself and measured it against other tools.
But a Battery monitor is not a requirement. One can simply choose to shut off loads at a certain voltage, Like 12.2v, and remain confident they are above 50% state of charge. But if one is running a 10 amp load at 12.2v then shuts off all the loads, the voltage might then rebound to 12.42v indicating an estimated 63.% state of charge and one could have kept draining the battery for a it longer. I am not actually looking at trojan's state of charge/voltage graph, but I do know they list a SG reading as it equates to state of charge, so one could actually dip a few cells and see pretty much exactly how discharged it is and take note of the voltage and the Amps flowing from battery at that time for future reference.
If one is only running small loads and one reaches 12.2v, then that would likely be much closer to an actual 50%.
VOltage under load is not a great indicator of state of charge, but as long as one recharges before 12.1v, their batteries will Be okay.
The only real battery monitors I would recommend are in the 200$ range. i am not saying the 20$ bayite meter cannot be good enough, only that I have not tested that product myself and do not really have much faith in a 20$ battery monitor.
This is also something which can be added later, if/when the simple voltmeter no longer gives enough confidence, or one becomes more curious.
The following meter does not require a shunt, just slide the round sensor over a single battery cable and it will read amperage into or out of battery. It also is a voltmeter. Very easy to wire.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DDQM6Z4/ref=s9_dcacsd_bhz_bw_c_x_3_w
It does not count and subtract AH or KWH like the other meter, but will show battery voltage and how many amps are flowing into or out of battery with fairly good accuracy.
Regarding the solar, if the solar controller has adjustable setpoints, then you should set absorption voltage to 14.8v, and if you can program its duration, well that time is variable depending on several factors, but with the hydrometer, you can set it for longer if it is not getting the cells to 1.275 or higher.
Generally the slower the solar panels gets the batteries to 14.8v, the less time it needs to be held there, where higher amp charging sources will get it to absorption voltage quicker, at a lower state of charge, and then Absorption voltage needs to be held longer
DO NOT believe that just because a solar charge controller reverts to float voltage, that the batteries are indeed full. This belief has prematurely sulfated many many thousands of batteries and is doing so right now to many thousands. It takes a long time to reach a true full charge, and the hydrometer will prove this time and again, and the person with a Hydrometer and uses it, and can adjust absorption voltage and its duration, will get many more deep cycles from their batteries.
It would not matter if Lead Acid batteries did not require occassional 100% recharges to keep sulfation at bay, but they do, and when deeply cycled every day, the proper duration to hold absorption voltage will greatly extend battery life compared to the person who believes the flashing green light indicating float voltage, on their charge controller.
it is really a shame when the sunlight is there to achieve a true full charge, but the solar controller prematurely reverted to a lower float voltage for the rest of the afternoon.
Converters do Not come with cables to go to the battery. One will need to run 4 awg cables to battery terminals. Wire size is important here, as voltage drop will also slow battery charging and could induce premature sulfation. So I recommend short and thick wires from converter output to battery terminals.
http://www.genuinedealz.com/custom-cables
I'd recommend against Auto parts store cables. They tend to use Steel ring terminals, which will rust and corrode quickly in the presence of battery fumes, and get highly resistive. SAE 4 gauge is also 6 to 12% thinner than 4AWG.
