Charger: Meanwell 10a or Iota DLS 15?

Niner, if my Iota proves to be defective, I may replace it with that 80A MegaWatt unit. I'll buy another converter when I sell the rig. If I go that route I'll post a thread with some questions (I've never start to finish manually charged my batts before always used the converter first).

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Meanwell with owner's IQ control. Use a wind up timer just in case you doze off in the hammock.

Camping is different than boondocking which is different than off-grid which is different than occasional Wal-Mart parking lots, races, tail gate parties, etc.

No way in hell is a "smart charger" more efficient than a MeanWell. No way in hell is a smart charger of the same amperage potential going to charge a battery as quickly as a MeanWell. All it takes is a tiny bit of intelligence to know when is enough "Honey the generator has been running eleven hours - is that enough?

Three state chargers have an appropriate time and place. Unless you have long term generator usage habits, there is no way on the face of the earth a "Smart Charger" can equal a MeanWell. Been there done that, classified, and recorded, and documented it.

Bogart Engineering has come out with a truly SMART solar controller. Why is it SMART? It is fully adjustable by the user.

But plugging into a power pedestal regularly or just zapping the batteries one or six times then returning to the driveway allows the use of a halfway decent SMART charger - up to a point.

If the OP needs a home charger than this changes things. But for dry camping I dare anyone to try and beat the efficiency of a straight switching charger, an adjustable switching charger.

About 2 weeks of being up around Yellowstone with the 30 Amp MegaWatt switching power supply, dry camping, confirmed this. Start up generator, warm up generator for 2 or 3 minutes in "Eco" mode, turn Eco mode off, turn on the MeanWell, wait 6,7, 8 minutes, turn the Eco mode on again. 30 to 40, 45 minutes, and my T-1275 is ready for the top off charge and the portable solar panel and charge controller, it too set at 15.0V. Works like a charm, the MeanWell and generator does the heavy grunt work getting the charge up to 80-85 or 90%, and the solar panel finishes it on sunny days. Run out of sun that day and solar panel doesn't get it done? Run the MegaWatt for an hour or so, the last hour before 9 pm, while you also have the TV lights, maybe the microwave on.

For me, it's about efficiency. A switching power supply is exceedingly efficient, for amount of time your gas generator is running, for the first hour or two, from 40% SOC up to perhaps 85-90% SOC, for amount of fuel consumed.

Yes, I run 15.0V. Yes, on an industrial grade battery, it's a non issue. Yes, it gets the job done quickly and efficiently. And yes, perhaps I sacrifice a small amount of longevity on the battery doing so. It's a tradeoff I can live with compared to amount of fuel saved and amount of hours on my Honda generator. YMMV.

Meanwell with owner's IQ control. Use a wind up timer just in case you doze off in the hammock.

Camping is different than boondocking which is different than off-grid which is different than occasional Wal-Mart parking lots, races, tail gate parties, etc.

No way in hell is a "smart charger" more efficient than a MeanWell. No way in hell is a smart charger of the same amperage potential going to charge a battery as quickly as a MeanWell. All it takes is a tiny bit of intelligence to know when is enough "Honey the generator has been running eleven hours - is that enough?

Three state chargers have an appropriate time and place. Unless you have long term generator usage habits, there is no way on the face of the earth a "Smart Charger" can equal a MeanWell. Been there done that, classified, and recorded, and documented it.

Bogart Engineering has come out with a truly SMART solar controller. Why is it SMART? It is fully adjustable by the user.

But plugging into a power pedestal regularly or just zapping the batteries one or six times then returning to the driveway allows the use of a halfway decent SMART charger - up to a point.

If the OP needs a home charger than this changes things. But for dry camping I dare anyone to try and beat the efficiency of a straight switching charger, an adjustable switching charger.

I was hoping that temperature compensation(TC) would get a little more traction as a topic.

You see, it is a rare AGM where the mfgr fails to mention TC and post a table of appropriate voltages to match the battery temp during charging. OTOH, it is a rare FLA that gives any info on TC.

Jacking up the Volts is a wet/flooded battery charging practice because the only effect is to cause bubbling when the battery gets too warm.

We AGMers do not have that privilege. We need to pay attention to battery temp. That is why I suggested you get an IR gun so you can know when the charge Volts are too high, or too low. When the battery temp is higher that the chart suggests, we back off the volts and the opposite when the battery temp is below the chart.

Now, I don't wish to sit by my AGM and point the IR gun while manually adjusting Voltage on the charger. That is why I mentioned a charger with a sensing cable where the charger will monitor and adjust Volts depending on the battery's temp. You are free to move about. I prefer to maximize the R in RV.

The DLS does not know the battery temp either.

How about a portable $50 15A Schumacher from Wal-Mart? It has an AGM button. I used a 12A Schumacher for years.

HTH;
John

greenrvgreen wrote:
As for PF, does this work for me or against me? Can I use more watts or less? Help!

Xantrex white paper on Power Factor

afaik the 30 amp IOTA will run on a Honda 1000 (900va rated) so I assume the 15 amp will run on your 450.

Didn't mean buy a 1093. There were 25ampers on boatandrv last time I looked. Just guessing that would work with that gen, be close.

A power factor means you draw more from the gen. PF correction fixes that, but is found more in some of the high amp (over 60a) chargers so they can still work on 15a (120v) circuits instead of needing 20a.

BFL--The only Vector 1093's I see online now are $175 shipped. You have some secret source?

Kettner--Yes, I think it's the DLS 15. Too much potential to doze off while the Meanwell cooks up my batts. And the Vector sure would be a tastey option if it were still under $100.

As for PF, does this work for me or against me? Can I use more watts or less? Help!

DLS with built in IQ controller.

greenrvgreen wrote:
This is a followup to the thread I posted a couple weeks back. I want a capable portable charger for a 100ah AGM battery bank, mostly fed by solar. The constraint is that my generator is limited to 450 watts output. The max draw of the DLS 15 is 400 watts (3.7a @108v), while the meanwell appears to draw 350 watts. Both are fine in that respect.

My question is, which will give me better charging performance? I can set the meanwell to a high voltage (14.5 or higher), but I am limited to 10a. The dls 15 will go to 14.8 if I let it (14.4 normally), but its internal logic will decide the charging voltage. It appears to charge at 15a throughout, as long as the amps will fit.

The Iota is more than twice the price, but 50% more amps. Will I get 50% better performane, even though the volts will drop down?

Thanks!

IMO, no.

The DLS need the IQ4 to do that 14.8 business. 15a on 100AH is like my ugly graph's 35a plot on 220 for charging time and charging profile, roughly. (See that ugly graph a couple pages ago in the thread about the PowerMax running now.)

Hard to answer in detail without knowing the SOC of the battery at the time of the comparison test. At high SOCs amps are low anyway, so may not matter if one can do 15 and another 10 if the batt will only take 8.

I am leaning towards the Meanwell over the Iota in this application, since you can maintain the voltage higher with that, which will have it delivering as many amps as the Iota at the higher SOC range of the battery. You have no boost button with the IQ4 to jack up the voltage. The IQ4 is not like the Charge Wizard in that respect.

BTW it remains true that a 20a Vector draws 320VA from the gen, so any Vector even the 40a set at 20a will do the same. As previously posted, IMO you might be able to run a 25a Vector with your gen, so why are you looking at 15a and 10a gizmos??? :)

greenrvgreen wrote:
This is a followup to the thread I posted a couple weeks back. I want a capable portable charger for a 100ah AGM battery bank, mostly fed by solar. The constraint is that my generator is limited to 450 watts output. The max draw of the DLS 15 is 400 watts (3.7a @108v), while the meanwell appears to draw 350 watts. Both are fine in that respect.

My question is, which will give me better charging performance? I can set the meanwell to a high voltage (14.5 or higher), but I am limited to 10a. The dls 15 will go to 14.8 if I let it (14.4 normally), but its internal logic will decide the charging voltage. It appears to charge at 15a throughout, as long as the amps will fit.

The Iota is more than twice the price, but 50% more amps. Will I get 50% better performane, even though the volts will drop down?

Thanks!

Your 450W genny is limiting your options.

With AGM, you want to maximize Amps over Volts.

I have one system with a 100AH AGM, 170W solar and a 50A Magnum MMS1012 - inverter/charger. The charger uses a BTS cable to adjust Volts according to actual battery temperature. The genny is a Yammi 2k and during bulk, the Magnum pulls as high as 1055W. The Magnum is PF corrected to .99 so Volt-Amps(VA) are the same 1055W.

The BTS helps with unattended charging by automatically adjusting Volts throughout the charge.

Now, with that 450W charger, you will be hard pressed to find a automatic charger with BTS and PF features to realize the fast charging advantage of AGMs. A 10 - 15A rate is a far cry from a bulk charge rate for a 100AH AGM.

If the two chargers you propose have a PF of .65, which is normal for small portables, the VA could be much higher than the Watts. I have a small portable 12/8/2A charger. At the 12A setting it displays 250W and 360VA on my Kill-A-Watt.

The PF affects the genny's fuel consumption; lower PF means more fuel.

At a minimum, get an IR gun to measure your battery's temperature before jacking up Volts. You do have a charging temp chart for your AGM, right?

HTH;
John