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Old 08-06-2018, 10:49   #1
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Relacement for Cristec battery charger

We have two Cristec chargers on our L450, a 60A and a 40A. The 40A stopped working, and we had a Cristec agent look at it and it required a new control board. A repair would cost about half the price of a brand new charger.

My questions as follows:
Do I repair - or am I potentially throwing good money after bad, and rather spend double and replace?

If I buy a new charger:
Do I buy another Cristec 40A? Or is there another manufacturer to consider? And if so, is it ok to combine different makes of charger?
Any benefit to upgrading to a 60A (so then have 2x 60A units)?

Our battery bank is 6x 140amp Gels (which themselves are on the way out, but that's another story )

Thanks!
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Old 08-06-2018, 12:25   #2
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

Quote:
Originally Posted by Millerslocal View Post
We have two Cristec chargers on our L450, a 60A and a 40A. The 40A stopped working, and we had a Cristec agent look at it and it required a new control board. A repair would cost about half the price of a brand new charger.

My questions as follows:
Do I repair - or am I potentially throwing good money after bad, and rather spend double and replace?

If I buy a new charger:
Do I buy another Cristec 40A? Or is there another manufacturer to consider? And if so, is it ok to combine different makes of charger?
Any benefit to upgrading to a 60A (so then have 2x 60A units)?

Our battery bank is 6x 140amp Gels (which themselves are on the way out, but that's another story )

Thanks!
you can take any brand as long as the charger has either a GEL program or is programmable. Some good brands are Victron, Mastervolt etc. If you are thinking about upgrades of your inverter, there are combi units like the quattro or multiplus, from victron, they provide a great charger up to 220A from the 5000VA inverter.

But of course you can stay with cristek too.
It depends on your plans for the life after your GEL bank ceases...
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Old 08-06-2018, 13:45   #3
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Relacement for Cristec battery charger

Look hard at a Sterling Pro charge ultra, 60 amp.
I would not buy any charger that wasn’t fully programmable myself, just too many good ones are to accept a preset program that may or may not be correct.

You may also consider an inverter / Charger combo
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Old 09-06-2018, 02:24   #4
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

I was trying to figure why the factory put a 40 and 60 instead of two 60. It could be the reason they have a 40 and 60 amp is to keep the AC input current below 15Amp 115 V shore power circuit and or to balance the load on the generator if it is being fully loaded (with for example 4 Aircon units + water heater + + + ), just a guess though.
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Old 09-06-2018, 03:31   #5
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

I spent a lot of time, and money, 5 years ago trying to make the system charge better. Ended up with a Sterling Alternator to Battery Charger. Didn't really get a much of a result and I tolerate it and love the solar now. See attached L450 system and how I changed my one.
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Old 29-11-2018, 10:56   #6
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

Hi all. I'm being kept awake at night with my own rendition of this issue.

Dave, you "didn't really get much of a result"; do you mean you would not go this route again if given the option? I looked at your schematics provided...awesome for doing so as usual!

The Sterling A to B charger eliminated both OEM chargers. For the OP, has this been a better option than a combo inverter/charger?

I do like the independence of separate charger and inverter in theory. If the charger quits the inverter is still operational and supported by solar/battery bank. Vice versa, if he inverter quits the charging isn't altered and a cheap inverter or other means can be used.

What am I missing?
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Old 29-11-2018, 13:51   #7
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

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Originally Posted by sv Stella Maris View Post
Hi all. I'm being kept awake at night with my own rendition of this issue.

Dave, you "didn't really get much of a result"; do you mean you would not go this route again if given the option? I looked at your schematics provided...awesome for doing so as usual!

The Sterling A to B charger eliminated both OEM chargers. For the OP, has this been a better option than a combo inverter/charger?

I do like the independence of separate charger and inverter in theory. If the charger quits the inverter is still operational and supported by solar/battery bank. Vice versa, if he inverter quits the charging isn't altered and a cheap inverter or other means can be used.

What am I missing?
sheer power and cost savings.

A 5000 Quattro is a 5kVA inverter and a 220A charger. You barely find a 220A stand alone charger for this price and the inverter is also neat.
By the combination of both you get even more features you would miss with independent units - like power assist etc.
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Old 07-12-2018, 13:04   #8
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

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Originally Posted by CatNewBee View Post
sheer power and cost savings.

A 5000 Quattro is a 5kVA inverter and a 220A charger. You barely find a 220A stand alone charger for this price and the inverter is also neat.
By the combination of both you get even more features you would miss with independent units - like power assist etc.
you mean 220 V?

Good idea for when time comes to replace cristec's.

Although cristec is fine for charging gel here and there. I would never use shore power anyway, unless my solars pack up.
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Old 07-12-2018, 15:55   #9
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

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you mean 220 V?

Good idea for when time comes to replace cristec's.

Although cristec is fine for charging gel here and there. I would never use shore power anyway, unless my solars pack up.
Nope, I mean 12..14.8V / 220A configurable charger running on 240V either of shore power or generator.

The Cristec are 40A-ish, the quattro is 5 times more powerful as charger.
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Old 09-12-2018, 16:01   #10
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

I installed the Victron Multiplus 3KW inverter with 100A charger and almost never use the Cristecs anymore. The installation was part of installing a 1600AH LiFePO4 battery bank to replace the 800AH of AGM that were installed when I purchased the boat. The Multiplus is fully programmable for any battery chemistry and I added a Victron BM700 series to monitor the whole installation. I've been very happy with the Victron products (I used five of their MPPT controllers for my solar installation) and when the ENAG inverter that came with the boat failed the Multiplus happily picked up the load (pun intended).

The Cristecs are mostly used as supplementary chargers when I'm looking to increase the load on the rare times we run generator.

Cheers!

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Old 09-12-2018, 18:24   #11
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

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Originally Posted by CatNewBee View Post
sheer power and cost savings.

A 5000 Quattro is a 5kVA inverter and a 220A charger. You barely find a 220A stand alone charger for this price and the inverter is also neat.
By the combination of both you get even more features you would miss with independent units - like power assist etc.
The other advantage with Victron is their energy management system, CCGX, VENUX CCGX etc. allowing you to adjust pretty much anything, and do updates to the software remotely. One time I was flying out and forgot to put the inverter/ charger to only charging, so a quick connection and I changes the state of the equipment.


The 5000 Quattro comes in 240 and 110 V
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Old 10-12-2018, 00:13   #12
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

Well, the CCGX is one of the things I dislike about the Victron family, I do not want to be remotely tracked and monitored, nor I like the idea to tweak my settings on the manufacturer hosted web site and let them tweak remotely my gear. Many of the functions like history etc work only on their portal and not on a disconnected environment. The systen is also attackable by hackers and vulnerable to errors stemming from unwanted OTA software updates from the manufacturer. Even worse, it could produce horrendous costs on satellite data if you not block this traffic on the ocean when connecting for weather updates and mails.

This always online thing may be an advantage on a stationary system, but not on a boat.
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Old 10-12-2018, 04:50   #13
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Re: Relacement for Cristec battery charger

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Many of the functions like history etc work only on their portal and not on a disconnected environment. .
Then you don't connect to their online environment and only use it locally, all you need then is a little memory card to retain the data locally, and view it locally. No worries about hacking or anybody else seeing your data

And yes the ONLY computer which is not hackable is inside a yard of concrete on the bottom of the ocean, anything else is always hackable.
I am waiting of the moment that a car driver hears over his ONstar system "Sir you have not paid your cable bil, please until you pay this you can not start your engine".
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