Charger selection help please

hammick wrote:

Priorities are:

Getting 208ah batteries fully charged from 75% SOC to full quickly (<1-2 hrs ?)
Able to use my 2000w Yamaha without maxing it out
Hopefully avoid rewiring and difficult install
Portability if going the stand alone charger route (wheeled charger is cumbersome)
Price

Meeting #1 and #2 is pretty difficult !

With a 2000W generator, you are going to be limited to about a 600W power supply. A Mean Well SE-600-15 is only going to give you 40A @ 15v. That is going to seriously impact #1.

If you want "fast" charging, you are going to need 1000W-1500W and the in rush current of that big of a DC power supply will likely bog down/stall/trip the breaker of your generator.

Either a) abandon #1, b) get a bigger generator or c) figure out how to use the alternator (probably good for 100+A) on your TV to charge your house bank via a good battery isolator and some VERY LARGE (0 gauge ?) battery cables.


EDIT : After more thought ...

Forget c). Most (all ?) "modern" (built in the past 10-15 years) light and medium duty vehicle charging systems are OPTIMIZED to recharge the starting battery. The PCM controls the voltage regulator and you will NEVER be able to get the proper voltages to do a 3 stage charge with a fast (high current) "bulk charge" cycle.

Conclusion : Buy a high current (1000W-1500W) 3 stage battery charger AND buy a second 2000W Yamaha generator (I assume it is an inverter generator like a EF2000iS that you can run 2 in parallel to increase the available current).

You still may NOT succeed in achieving #1 BECAUSE once a 3 stage charger goes from "bulk" to "absorption" mode the voltage stays constant and the current ramps down (i.e. charging SLOWS DOWN).