SternWake, your thoughts on this Meanwell HEP-600-15

[dogear52]

For "quick" recharging my 2 US2200 deep cycle batteries. My PD only maxes @14.6v makes for too long to recharge. I looked up the RSP-500-15 you use, called a vendor and was told about this.

 

[SternWake]

For "quick" recharging my 2 US2200 deep cycle batteries. My PD only maxes @14.6v makes for too long to recharge. I looked up the RSP-500-15 you use, called a vendor and was told about this.

The PD series are supposed to do 14.4v.  The pd9245 I had for a while was 14.56 in 'boost', but amps tapered to the high 30's once it got hot.

The HEP series seems neat since you can adjust voltage and amperage.  I do not know how easy it is to adjust these parameters.

It says it has no fan that the casing is just a huge heat sink.  

When maxed out charging depleted batteries with the amperage all the way up and voltage set to 14.8v I will guess it will do 50 amps  or so and the casing will get very hot.  I'd say to have some fans aimed at it if you run it at max output.  I put extra heatsinks on the casing of mine, and those combined with my extra fans really help it run cooler, and it is heat which kill electronics.

It does have constant current limiting on overload, which is required for depleted batteries.  I think it should work well if properly ventilated.

I don't use some of the features of my RSP-500-15 such as the voltage sense.  Not having any direct experience with the HEP series I do not know what more I can add, other than Meanwell makes one heck of a power supply .

If your PD has the wizard/pendant and actually does 14.6v when the button is pushed to force boost mode, then I do not know how much benefit the HEP will really have, other than the precise manual control and 10 more amps or so and the ability to achieve 16v for the occasional equalization charge.

if those are USbatteries they have some 15.3v 'finishing; charge recommendations if you find their charging PDF.  In my experience with my last USbattery the 15.3v was absolutely required to max out the SG and prevent rapid  SG Decay when cycled deeply daily.  16V was required rather often too for a true equalization.

So if the HEP is affordable to you, and you want the more precise control to regularly top off the GC batteries and keep them as healthy as possible, then go for it.  It is really hard to know if the PD will keep them healthy enough if you hold them at 14.4v for the 4 hours after forcing 14.4 via the pendant.  Some swear by the PDs, but they also have a pretty low 'good enough' threshold and do not really know as they do not take specific gravity readings.

If you are recharging on a generator, then certainly get the MW HEP-600-15, as you can bump the voltage to 15 or 15.3v and recharge to 90% significantly quicker than the PD would.

The Meanwell rsp-750-15 would likely do ~60 amps and costs about 40$ less than the HEP-600-15

 

[dogear52]

Thanks for the reply. I made a mistake in my post re PD voltage....boost is 14.47v, not 14.6v. While I've been waiting to to hit the road I've been cycling 1 x per week and floating the rest of the time and noticed a few weeks ago the sg was in the white after 12 hrs after charge so the PD needed to push out more so today I started overriding via pendant to keep it on boost mode and it's taking a looong time to increase sg. Since I'll eventually need to recharge every other day once I'm boondocking, I'll need the voltage prescribed by US Battery for these 2200's. The HEP looked like a good candidate and I think it's voltage range is 12.x to 15.7. Probably will sell the PD and buy the HEP or the RSP.

 

[SternWake]

Are you taking one week to do a deep discharge, then recharging? If so, this is very hard on the batteries.

When SG only responds slowly to absorption voltages, you gots to go higher. Especially if the batteries are cold.

My USbattery was stubborn. It needed 14.9v daily for a few hours and then 15.3v for the rest of the afternoon when recharged solely by solar. Higher amp sources from the most depleted state allowed lesser times at lesser voltages.

The 40MM fan on my Meanwell is loud and would cycle on and off at only 6 amps. Part of the reason I added the Noctua fans to the lid was to help keep this fan off and it was largely effective. It only comes on now after several minutes at 40 amps, and shuts off when amps taper to ~ 34 amps at 70F ambients.

The HEP not having any fan, and having a current control dial, makes it pretty sweet in my book, I would just have to add some airflow to its casing to dissipate the heat it will generate.

My voltage range is much wider than the spec sheet claims. Mine with the 10 turn potentiometer wired in to replace the original tiny voltage pot, is 13.12v to 19.23v. it was 13.34 to 19.23 with the original. 1K ohm potentiometer. 1000 ohms =13.12v. 0 ohms = 19.23v.

 

[dogear52]

Every weekend I discharge the batteries down near 50% in about 6-7 hrs using a strong circular fan plugged into an inverter, then hook up the PD and let it go thru it's stages and finally float at 13.2v until the next weekend. It looks like the batteries really have never gotten a full 100% charge and a few weeks ago sg started to test in the white. I just took for granted the PD was doing it's "smart" thing. Yesterday I spoke with US Battery and the tech said keep the 14.4 voltage going (over ride the pendant) until the sg comes back to green.....and find a higher voltage charger if it takes too long to recharge given my application, which will be using the batteries to run a dc ceiling Max Fan and maybe a couple small load electronics (small sine wave inverter, laptop, Water Pik, cell phone charger). I figure every other day I'll need to hook up to recharge before night comes (I'll need the fan to at least provide white noise so I can sleep). Now that I have a better understanding I'm going to test run to see if I can get a 100% recharge under 12 hrs with the PD. I still would like to have the HEP regardless for faster charge.

 

[SternWake]

Are you running this fan JUST to cycle the batteries? Or are you actually needing such significant airflow once per week and do not have grid power available?

I'd recommend not cycling the batteries this deeply unnecessarily.

Keep in mind Peukert.  232 AH capacity rating at 20 hour rate  is achieved  under a 11.6 amp load.  Loads higher than this reduce overall battery capacity available, so you might be discharging well below 50% depending on actual amp draw of the fan on the inverter.

14.4v on my flooded group31 USbattery never seemed to get the SG into the green, no matter how long I applied it, but a 12v car jar battery and a GC battery are different as to their requirements to reach full charge.  My USbattery needed 14.9v for 2.5 hours before being bumped to 15.3v for the rest of the afternoon to perform OK, and it still needed 16v EQ charges for 50 minutes to 2 hours every 14 cycles to get high up into the green at 1.280.

But high amperage alternator contributions threw a monkey wrench into these Solar setpoints if I drove for more than 10 minutes in the morning blasting the battery with 60 to 85 amps.

It sounds like the MeanWell HEP or RSP could certainly benefit your batteries compared to the PD if you do not mind the manual factor.
  Which PD do you have?

The PD9245 I had for a portable powerpack project for a friend started out at 46 amps but quickly tapered to high 30s when it got hot, but this was into a high quality low internal resistance lifeline AGM battery.  Those recharging on generator into flooded batteries report much less amperage from this unit even if thickly wired to battery.

My Meanwell holds 40 amps until battery voltage gets within 0.25v of the voltage I chose before i plugged it into the depleted battery.  Often i crank up the voltage higher so it maintains higher amps until 14.46 is reached at My Northstar AGM's terminals, and then I keep lowering the voltage to keep it from surpassing 14.46v.  There is some voltage drop on my wiring from meanwell which makes this difference worse, and more frequent voltage lowering to keep maximum amps flowing at absorption voltage, which this AGM likes.  Not as necessary on Flooded batteries unless time to recharge is a factor.

I use anderson powerpoles in the 45 amp flavor on my Meanwell DC output.  i set the voltage with these disconnected and no load on the Meanwell then connect the powerpoles, then boom, instant 40 amps..  One cannot set the desired end voltage when hooked to the depleted battery as the battery voltage drags down the Meanwell voltage.

Another Option is the POwermax Adjustable voltage Manual converters.  These only goto 15.5v though, but they are robustly built but significantly larger than My Meanwell rsp, which is only 40MM thick.

  Talk and order directly from Errin at Powermax if you go this route, not Randy at BestConverter.  There were some unit mixups earlier this year with 75 amp units being passed off as 100 amp units  and Randy's responses to this mixup were insulting and Dishonest in my opinion.  He  telling people to just 'roll with it' or that two depleted group31 Northstar AGMS in parallel could not accept more than 75 amps, which is utter bullshit, as my single group 27 Northstar can easily accept 110 amps for a little while before it reaches absorption voltage and amps taper.  Pay for 100 amps, get 75 and then told by the purveyor to roll with it?  So yea, Avoid Randy at best converter.com in my opinion.

It is nice having a Finger twist voltage potentiometer rather than having to bust out a jeweler's screwdriver.  My 10 turn aftermarket potentiometer allows for precise voltage control down to 0.01v, but I had to disassemble the unit completely, and void the warranty to do so.

 

[dogear52]

Yeah, I was mostly cycling for the sake of it and learn (I guess what not to do). After I get back to green or cusp I'll keep them on float. I need to check that fan's amp draw....probably did go under 50%, but after pulling the fan off the batteries the voltmeter was reading 12.30 after an hr before I hooked up the PD. Guess I should have checked sg instead. I'll get it figured out eventually hopefully before I kill the batteries.

 

[SternWake]

Rebounding quickly to 12.3v after load removal s a sure sign they are still above 50% and still healthy. There is a little SG lag. It will rise 0.005 after charging source is removed, depending on temperature.

How quickly voltage rebounds after load removal can be indicative of battery health.

 

[dogear52]

That's good news on the voltage rebound....what I was hoping for. SG is climbing slowly into green. Thanks.