I have installed my
LiFePO4 house bank and all is well so far. I have the usual
charging equipment with regulators set for lithiums, including
solar, a DC genset, main
engine alternator, and an older Trace 2000w inverter/charger (which I have limited options for regulating). I also have an Xantrex Echo
Charger to use to take excess from the lithiums to the start
battery (AGM Optima spiral). I have a
Honda 2000i DC genset for any times I need to supplement or replace my
solar or other
power sources while on the hook, or underway, which I hope is never required.
The
Honda needs to be run through an AC
charger of course. I don't have a lot of long term faith in such an old inverter/charger but for now it is working fine. It puts out a steady 100+A to the lithiums but I don't run it continuous as it starts to heat up and the fans run strong for a long time after I shut it down. It may be fine with that but it sure stresses it.
I can parallel the start
battery so that any charge the lithiums get can get to the start batt if need be but I can't set my regulators to fine tune for both battery types.
The Echo Charger works OK but not really the best for really maintaining the
AGM battery. I would like to get opinions on the
current state of the art regarding AC battery chargers that would give me an alternative AC charge backup, as well as the sole charge to the start battery when at the
dock so I don't have to leave it on for the house lithiums. I prefer to manage that manually even though I have the shut off contactors to (hopefully) stop
charging them if voltage gets too high.
It would have to be 110-220v self-ranging but I think most have that now. It does not have to be a large charger - bigger is usually better but prices escalate quickly and if the primary goal is to maintain the start battery with a good charge profile, not really required.
I really suspect that charger tech has not changed very much since a few years ago when I first started looking and from when discussions on this forum really got in to it. The large "Using
LiFePO4 as House Bank" is too big to deal with but I know there is good discussion in there on this, but the thread is just too big to sort through right now.
Any thoughts and opinions on a reliable programmable
current state-of-the art AC multi-battery charger on the market right now, which is reliable with good customer support and accurate claims as to battery programming? The best of all worlds would be a charger which can have separate charge profiles for two different banks but that is highly unlikely to be on the market right now, so far as I can see.
I am looking at the usual suspects: Mastervolt, ProNautic/Sterling, Blue Sea (new), Xantrex, Magnum, et al.
Thanks.