Battery Chargers -- Opinions Wanted

[john61ct]

FYI

Power Products, LLC is owned by San Francisco-based private equity firm Genstar Capital

Its Global Marine and Mobile Division bought Blue Sea a while ago, added it to their Marinco, Mastervolt, Ancor, BEP, ProMariner, Lenco, Park Power, Progressive and C-Zone brands.

Brunswick recently purchased the lot, and has folded it into its Mercury Marine division.

[Garry S]

Someone asked for the reason I'm replacing the Xantrex Freedom 10 Inverter/Charger.

1) It's 18 years old, but has been bench-test twice in two years and was found to be in good shape.

2) During the summers it becomes intermittent. I'll show up at the boat some days and find I have no 110v AC on the boat even though there is juice at the shore power cord. This is not a big deal unless I want to keep the 12v (no 110v) refrigerator on, which I do.

I've had supposedly-knowledgeable guys suggest it's spikes in the shore power that's tripping the breaker. Okay, then why aren't other boat owners reporting the same problem?

I figure, after 18 years, the Xantrex is showing its age with this intermittent problem--caused or not caused by shore power spikes--and it's time to get a new one.

It's that simple.

[Garry S]

Originally Posted by john61ct

FYI

Power Products, LLC is owned by San Francisco-based private equity firm Genstar Capital

Its Global Marine and Mobile Division bought Blue Sea a while ago, added it to their Marinco, Mastervolt, Ancor, BEP, ProMariner, Lenco, Park Power, Progressive and C-Zone brands.

Brunswick recently purchased the lot, and has folded it into its Mercury Marine division.

Very interesting! I wonder how this consolidation will affect quality. Time will tell.

[Souzag818]

Originally Posted by Garry S

I'm replacing my 18-year old Xantrex Freedom 10. I'm going to NOT get an inverter/charger. I'll just buy a charger. I'm wondering if anyone has opinions of the following companies: Blue Sea Systems, Xantrex, Pro Mariner, Mastervolt, and Victron Energy.

I have two banks (start and house) with 375 ah in the house bank. My needs are simple--refrigerator, electronics, stereo.

I like that Blue Sea and Victron have 5 year warranties.

What do you guys think? Thanks!

I've got a Mastervolt charger and have been happy with it for the past 8 years. And tech service has been really good in getting back to me when I have a question. That being said, I also am very impressed with Victron products. My 2 cents...

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by sainted

I like the features of the blue sea products, but I've installed several on customers boats and had them fail. I like sterling's products and victron's, though victron's require a PC and a special interface cable to program at a deep level. Newmar's chargers are bullet proof but expensive.

The Blue Seas products that do not use AC power are excellent. Their chargers not so much. Their early chargers, all models, had a lot of failures and I would avoid.

True Victron needs a PC to adjust, although a good product.

Pass on Xantrex for reasons posted.

My choice would be Promariner Pronautic P. Many settings plus a custom mode, quiet and 5 year warranty. I do not believe there is a better charger for the price available today. Sterling is virtually the same product, joint design with Promariner.

With a bank the size you have I would suggest 50 amp or 40 amp Pronautic P

No change in quality since Brunswick purchased Power Products or for that matter when Power products purchased these companies.

[john61ct]

My thought was that they may decide to use products developed for one brand under another's name.

For example putting the Blue Sea lable on that (fine) Promariner charger.

I had never come across Blue Sea mains chargers, so by default would avoid.

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by john61ct

My thought was that they may decide to use products developed for one brand under another's name.

For example putting the Blue Sea lable on that (fine) Promariner charger.

I had never come across Blue Sea mains chargers, so by default would avoid.

The companies are all independent of each other. No product changes I have seen from either purchase. Hopefully it stays that way.

[stnick]

I have a 100 Amp master volt charger . gives mw no problems.

[waterman46]

For your house bank you need a 100Amp charger. Just as important to get a charger that uses external shunts along with a battery monitor, to control a complete charging cycle.

Now the important thing is that acceptance to float mode switching can only be done accurately by monitoring charge current into the batteries, not by a timer or voltage measurement.

But any charger that does not use an external shunt on the batteries to determine when to shift from acceptance to float mode, will be confused by external current loads that you are running at the same time you are charging the batteries. That charger will not be able to determine the battery charge current separately from it's total output current which includes the external load.

To be clear, what I refer to as external load is anything you have connected to the charger other than the house battery, that is drawing current from the charger. Big loads for example would be a 12V reefer, a starting battery that is being charged simultaneously, watermaker, etc. But even a small external load will confuse the charger, since your switchover to float mode should take place at about 2% of AH capacity or 8 A battery charge current in your case.

I don't know specific brands that use external shunt control, only that I have a 20 year old Heart Freedom 2000 that does, and it has worked great for me.

[Exile]

In 2010 I had to revamp my 12v system, and had to replace both my charger and my batteries along with other electrical work. I decided to have it all professionally done, and had a Xantrex XC 5012 (50A) charger installed. It failed almost immediately. Xantrex promptly sent a replacement and it's been flawless the past 8 years. Go figure . . .

Fwiw, Xantrex says the avg. lifespan of their chargers is roughly 10 years.

[john61ct]

Their products have historically been fine.

Warranty replacements no problem.

But trying to get repairs after warranty is done can be a nightmare.

Talk to the guys in their authorized service centers, parts are often just not available even on newer gear.

Corporate expects you to throw it out and buy a new one.

Sometimes they can scavenge off a scrapped unit, but when I spend thousands on gear I expect better.