NOCO Genius 10x1 Charger?

[XERTYX]

I have a few questions about this charger from people who have used it. Or maybe the x2 x3 etc models.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GENPRO10X1-Fully-Automatic-Temperature-Compensation/dp/B08G3M697M

So clearly this is an automatic 10a charger/maintainer/repair tool.

So I'm assuming it would pull 120 watts (more of course as conversions aren't perfect so maybe 150w?)

I assume it can be hooked up forever to keep a battery maintained. I assume they're of high quality. Here is what I need to know.

Can the battery be used while its connected? Such as the charger is plugged into shore power and I want to keep my fridge running. Also can I run a load of more than 10 amps? Like say for instance I run a 20 amp load for an hour, will it then recharge the 20 amps? Or will it power 10a of the load and pull 10a from the battery leaving 10a needing to be recharged? 

If I were to use it to keep my starting battery maintained from my house battery would it need to be ran from a pure sine wave inverter?

I was pretty sure I had another question or 2 but they escape me at the moment.

Most likely I will be investing soon in a home base property that I'll be powering off of solar. I'll probably be spending a lot of time there setting everything up in the beginning and I'm going to want to make sure I have a way to charge my house battery and starting battery in my vehicle. 

Also I'm thinking about how viable it would be to run AC power from the cabin on the property I'm looking at to an old RV that's also on the property and possibly charging its house batteries from AC power from the cabin which would be powered 24/7.

I havent looked at the property yet but I'm thinking of going with one of the 48v all in one systems AND an additional MPPT charge controller both connected to a 48v lifepo4 bank with heaps and heaps of solar.

Maybe now I can justify the freight charge from santan solar if I buy a few Kwh worth of panels.

 

[ldsreliance]

Yes, you can use the battery while it charges. Just keep in mind that it will take much longer to charge and possibly throw off the battery charging states on a lead acid battery. If the charger has to keep switching between bulk and absorption, for example, it will take much longer to complete all the cycles.

And yes you can run a larger load than 10A while it is charging. The charger won't care. But the answer to the rest of your question is more complicated. It will have a lot to do with how charged the battery is, which will determine its voltage and resistance. I assume you are referring to a lead acid battery but you never specified.

My NOCO needs to run on a pure sine wave inverter. It may not destroy it on a modified sine wave inverter but it definitely makes noises I am not comfortable with when running on MSW.

 

[XERTYX]

Awesome feedback! Thank you bro!

Yes I'd be using it to charge lead acid most likely. The vehicle batteries for sure.

The 48v bank would probably be the only lithium battery in the equation and it would be charged by solar and possibly the AC in on the all in one unit.

When I get closer to the target I'll post a thread weighing the pros and cons of some of the cheaper lifepo4 batteries. I was considering the "big battery dot com" batteries but I'm thinking of building a 48v bank of lifepo4s from 12v 100ah budget batteries.

I'd like to have a fast charging battery bank and then the ability to run high draw AC loads as needed during the day while keeping some lead acids charged and topped up on the property. One in my van, one in the RV, and possibly one down by the creek running a pump house from the natural spring.

 

[highdesertranger]

I tried a couple of the new type automatic battery chargers last year. The smoke from fires cut my solar down so much I was rationing power.

They didn't work for me. Here was my problem the charger worked fine as long as there was no solar input. As soon as I would get the slightest solar input the charger would shut off because it was sensing the batteries were full even though they were a long way from full. As soon as the voltage came up above 12.8 the chargers would shut off. Yes I could shut the solar off but it became a big hassle having to babysit the charging. Solar up shut off charger, Solar down shut off solar start generator. jeez I have got better things to do then to babysit my charge system.

I had a Battery Tender brand and I bought a Schumacher. same results on both. In fact I couldn't even find a non-automatic battery charger where I was. I even drove to the big city, nothing. They all told me they don't make them anymore.

So I bought a Boondocker charger from Best Converter. Problem solved, Plays well with solar.

https://www.bestconverter.com/Boond...terCharger-Hard-Wire-_p_751.html#.YLUGuYWSlPY

They have all different sizes I got the 60A. It was on sale when I bought it I see the sale is over. Also note that they have hard wire ones and ones with a regular plug on a cord.

Highdesertranger

 

[XERTYX]

Hmm. That's a cool idea. Thanks for that brother.

Initially I was thinking of having just AC to DC charging for the satellite powered stuff but if there is enough sun at each outpost maybe I'll go that route.

The place I'm looking at is completely wooded except for about ¼ acre by the cabin. I'd probably clear another ¼ acre to put a garden and a big ass solar array.

For 50 bucks a panel from santan and flat rate shipping I'll probably try and buy as many panels I can get and have spares. . So.... yeah hybrid charging might well be the way to go.

 

[highdesertranger]

I should have added that I got the 60A because the Honda 2200i could easily handle it. Highdesertranger

 

[XERTYX]

Gotcha. I'll probably be posting follow up threads on gen sets as well.

This project will not be a bottomless well of funds but I will be getting some inheritance I had forgotten about. So I should be able to as you so often say "buy once cry once".

But still on a budget. The goal for this property will be to be my forever home in the woods that's a homestead, but also a jump off point for travel across the midwest and southeast US.

 

[ldsreliance]

Awesome feedback! Thank you bro!

Yes I'd be using it to charge lead acid most likely. The vehicle batteries for sure.

The 48v bank would probably be the only lithium battery in the equation and it would be charged by solar and possibly the AC in on the all in one unit.

When I get closer to the target I'll post a thread weighing the pros and cons of some of the cheaper lifepo4 batteries. I was considering the "big battery dot com" batteries but I'm thinking of building a 48v bank of lifepo4s from 12v 100ah budget batteries.

I'd like to have a fast charging battery bank and then the ability to run high draw AC loads as needed during the day while keeping some lead acids charged and topped up on the property. One in my van, one in the RV, and possibly one down by the creek running a pump house from the natural spring.

I can't recommend enough to get one battery and not individual batteries in series or parallel.  Until they start making easily networkable BMS'es that can "stack" and operate together as one unit, you will always fight problems with your bank.

For example, I have a lot of customers that are fishermen and use my batteries in their boats for their trolling motors.  Most trolling motors are either 24V or 36V so they usually use multiple 12V batteries in series because that gives them more available options as there are few 24V and 36V batteries (of that size range) available and their boats come with group 24 or group 27 battery boxes that are designed for multiple batteries and don't work with larger, single batteries.

Anyways, one of the problems we continually run into with customers that cycle their battery banks all the way is that unless you can get absolutely PERFECT wiring and you have 3 batteries that all have cells perfectly balanced (not possible) and you discharge the bank to the point that one of the battery BMS'es cuts off power then they have to be manually woken back up.  Most multi-bank chargers will see that there is no load on those leads and not provide a charge and thus cannot automatically wake the battery back up.

So while that may be a unique thing with bass boats, the same thing can apply with solar banks or RV banks.  Even if you don't discharge to 0% SoC, you will invariably put a bigger load on one of the batteries in the bank and that battery will wear out faster over time (years and years).  With a single battery with one BMS that can balance all the cells in the "bank", you don't ever have that problem.

Look me up when you get to that point.  I have a bigbattery dot com "powerwall" and love it.  I am pretty sure I can get you a discount with them.  I also have several 24V and 48V battery options that I sell.

 

[Scott3569]

I thought you had a DC -DC charger?? Or am I thinking of someone else

 

[XERTYX]

I dont have a DC-DC charger. Right now I have 200 watts of solar and a flooded lead acid battery. But I'm hoping to build a homestead/jump off point to travel from.

I went back and looked at big battery dot com since it was suggested to go with ONE lifepo4 battery.

I was thinking 4x 12v 100ah lifepo4s in series for around 500 a piece online. 2 grand. BUT last time I was at big battery I didnt see their Cadillac 48v battery. They call it "KONG" I can see why. 12Kwh capacity. Jeez. 4 grand so double the cost of 4 cheapo batteries but nearly 3x the capacity.

I wont go to in depth with what I'm researching in this thread as this is about noco chargers, but the route I'm thinking is going with about 9kw of solar. I'll never need that much but I'll be able to use an air conditioner on the cloudiest of days if I like. And I'll have plenty of AC power to charge up outpost areas using lead acids.

 

[ldsreliance]

48V 100Ah for $2,200 - https://bigbattery.com/products/48v-hsky/

 

[XERTYX]

Yeah I've seen that one. I like the KONG. Nearly double that price BUT 12kwh. Craziness. Oh and my plan to use an additional MPPT controller seems like a no go. The Kong only supports 4500w charging. So the renogy 48v all in one would be the only charger I'd be using. It supports 4400w but 16x 250 watt panels from santan (4Kw) would kit that out well.

I doubt I'd ever use 4kwh in a day anyway. About an hour to fully charge? Hells yeah. Haha. Plus then I can use other devices throughout the day. Crock pot, coffee pot, microwave, whatever. Just off the panels with the battery floating.

If I ever do use a massive 8kwh overnight 2 hours in a perfect world and I'm full again. I like those numbers. So far in the van the most I've ever used in a day is about 450 watt hours. I'm not a power hog, but it's nice to have. I like my streaming. Netflix, Hulu, etc.