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wmcunninghamii · 13-08-2020, 14:34

I just replaced my 13 year old lifelines. Great longevity and performance over the years. Unfortunately I have learned enough to worry. When I purchased the Lifelines I also bought a balmar externally regulated alternator and a xanterx shore charger. I simply set both up for AGM and tweaked ARS 5 belt manager per Balmar recommendations. Done. I have little 2GM20F engine.

Anyway, after years of fussing around with the charging system and adding solar ( normally a local cruiser but did a couple of singlehanded Transpacs so wanted some charging backup to engine) I became a lot more aware of charging parameters, voltages and so on.

On both my ARS 5 regulator and my Kid MPPT I can finely tune the various charge sequence voltages but the Xantrex dip switch is set to "AGM" and that's that. The AGM setting provides output which is within 10% of batt spec but I would prefer to be right on if possible, or at least closer than 10%.

My batteries specify bulk, absorption and float voltages. Are there shore chargers which allows the same configurability as my other two charge sources (Kid and ARS 5)?

**a64pilot** · 13-08-2020, 14:56

Pretty much any good charger will be fully programmable. I hate to say it this way but only the cheap ones have dip switches.
But if you got 13 years out of the last set, I wouldn’t touch anything, that’s a phenomenal record.

wmcunninghamii · 13-08-2020, 16:17

Thanks for the response. I should have made it clear I did not replace them with Lifeline cause I can't afford them. I now have VMAX AGMs and they have a little different voltage requirements than the Lifelines.

I have been looking at various chargers online and it has not been apparent to me that they are programmable. Could you do me a huge favor and just throw out a brand you know to be fully programmable? I am not picky with regard to brand. I will be prepared to pay a premium for a programmable.

Many thanks.