Adjustable Voltage Boondocker Converter Question

joel,

A 100a unit is a 100a unit, otherwise Errin is admitting their "consumer" model is a complete piece of crap, period. Once I get the pm3-75 into the mix, I plan to parallel it with the pm4b-45, for 120a into my four 6's. I have absolutely no doubt my bank will accept it. Of course, that would mean I must have gotten lucky, and got a pair of the 'better' units... yeah, right. :(

I'm sorry guys, but this thread has got me peeved! I'm actually starting to wonder if Randy has ever even charged a battery? I mean seriously, how can this guy be so dense when it comes to battery charging, when he makes his living selling battery charging equipment???

Draw your bank down to 50%, set Vabs at 14.5v, and let 'er rip. Anything under 100a means its not a 100a unit, plain and simple... ignore all the excuses and bovine feces. You're clearly being lead down the garden path. I wouldn't care if Randy and Errin were voted the most popular guys on the planet... a line of bs is still a line of bs. They need to man up, imo, and cough up all the return shipping to anyone receiving the wrong products. It's their fault, so why should we pay for their screw ups?

I'm very tempted to send my pm4b back, and demand a FULL refund... if it were only that simple... but I'm actually afraid to send my unit back, for fear of it going missing, like the last one, and then ending up with nothing to show for my near $300, at that point. As it is, I have more than $250 into the 45 amper. 'Nice guys' or not, I just can't afford 'friends' like that. :(

Absurd is right, yet the salesman tells you to just roll with it, that he does this for a living, and to trust him.

I am hoping Powermax gets this all sorted out, and builds a better website.

On the adjustable units, I wish the voltmeter had two decimal places, and had a switch to turn it off as it remains on when hooked to the batteries and presents some miniscule parasitic draw.

12 cells of GC220 50% discharged and not accepting 100-amperes?

Shirley You Jest

Maybe if the setpoint voltage was 13.4 but even at that low voltage I would call it impossible.

I just got back from looking at a system a few miles out of town. The guy has four LTH 208 amp hour GC's and a 12-horsepower Honda engine driving at 4875 JB Leece-Neville alternator. The negative battery stud had loosened (bad rebuilding craftsmanship), and after I had cinced up it and the positive carriage bolts, he fired it off. ONE HUNDRED TWENTY THREE AMPERES, on his e-meter, and verified with my clamp-on ammeter.

I had to wait forty minutes until the regulator reached absorbsion limit then set the voltage up to 14.6. He has a pair of 150 watt panels.

To claim 6 cells of GC batteries cannot take 50-amps is absurd. I'm beginning to wonder...

Joel, it is interesting that you topped out at 75.6 amps as if it was a 75 amp rated unit.
Glad to hear it will be swapped out.

I use 18 inches of #1 at pos and at neg with my 100 amper but I suppose 12" of #4 should work, don't know. I had #4 with my old 55amper which got 60 amps out of it.

While #4 has the ampacity, there are also the various connections to and at the battery bank that add to the R. Using fatter wire could make up for some of the connection R for an overall better result.

I talked to Errin, he said it was a 100amp unit but there was some mix up on who was supplied what kind (OEM vs more industrial type). I'm supposed to contact him monday and he will swap me out.

So looks like Randy just has some units that aren't up to the task?

Anyhow, smketter, those were all good suggestions to insure all was working as designed. Randy just said "Roll with it." You and him should swap places, as since I didn't pay you for a product but yet you still pointed the right direction, I could only imagine the service I would get if I did pay you for something. Anyhow, I figured after dragging my 4 GC2 down by a measure 200amp hours then turning on my 800W inverter and running the microwave I should see more than 75.6amps off my shunt. I did not.

12" of #4 wire for the Charger and Inverter as well. Resting voltage was 12.19, although it wasn't true "resting voltage" as I had about .25 amps coming out constantly. I did not have my hydrometer camping, so no idea on that one.

Joel

Errin wants to help. He says phone him also he has email. :)


Errin Tribble
Phone: 574-349-0078
Email: errin@powermaxconverters.com

joelabq wrote:
So I got a hold of Randy today. Randy told me that due to the internal resistance of my 4 GC-2s I would never hit 100amps, and 75 amps would have been fine. He told me just to "roll with it and not worry about it."

I'm pretty sure if I can get 4 12v Walmart specials to take close to 85 amps, I should be able to push down 100amps into 4 Gc2s?

Besides, I'd love to "Roll with it" if I didn't spend extra money for a 100amp charger. I also have a real hard time believing that at 50% depleted GC2s internal resistance lines up exactly to 75amp.

I've tried to get a hold of someone at Powermax, but no luck yet. Admittedly, I've only called twice (no message) and left one email through there support form. I'll try again next week more seriously.

Now that I've spoke with him about this, I can't recommend Randy. I think he's a used car salesmen with some electronics talent. Randy has no intention of helping me get to the bottom of this. So, be warned and stay away.

Joel

It is easy to tell if you have the 100 amper because it is bigger and heavier than the 75 and at least up till recently when they reportedly changed the number of fuses on them, the 100 had 4 -40s and the 75 had 3. Look up the specs.

I have been charging my four 6s with 100a or more for several years now and with the PowerMax 100 amper, starting at 50% it takes about an hour at constant 103 amps before amps taper.

When I did the same thing with three 35a Vectors I also got about 103 amps constant for nearly an hour before tapering began.

I posted a graph of that several times, but can't now due to data limits at the moment.

Sounds like you need to talk to Errin.

Two days ago, I paralleled the pm4b-45 with the 40a vec1093dbd for 85a into my 430Ah bank of four 6's, starting at 70%soc, no sweat.

Amps began tapering right around the 80% soc (-86Ah) mark.

Joel,

A simple way to find out if you got a 75a unit is to parallel it with a 25a charger, and see if the bank accepts all 100a. You could always video tape it, and send it to Randy... seeing is believing.

Need more details. What was the resting voltage before charging started? Or what was the electrolyte specific gravity? What size wire and length is charging connection? What was the voltage on the actual battery terminals during initial charging?

Did Randy or a post here say 100 amps would be easy into 4 GC2 before you spent money?