Should I Change My WFCO Converter?
Opinions have often been expressed, both on this and other RV forums, that most stock RV converters are inadequate to properly charge and maintain batteries and are often of poor quality. It is frequ...
Forum Discussion
Mike said,
"This decision has turned out to be far more complicated and difficult than I ever imagined when I began investigating to find out if I should replace the oem WFCO in my new TT, but hopefully I'm near a decision."
This is why many folks just buy another converter. (A win-win for those selling converters, wouldn't you say?)
The whole idea is to have control over the voltage. So, you either spend big for an adjustable unit, or you spend big for a unit with an automatically-temperature-compensation-adjusted PRESET voltage. Not picking on anyone here, but Snowman's purchase is a perfect example. Too many ???'s, and a good deal, lead to him purchasing another converter. But now he has absolutely no control over the voltage, (except for the wizard 13.6-14.4Vabs deal), which means not being able to compensate for varying temperatures, and the unit does not have that ability either, (AFAIK from reading the manual). So, that 14.4 volts it puts out; great on a hot summer day btw; will be more like 14v on a cold day. So, come winter, charging time will be increased significantly. (Of course, this is not an issue for those who only boondock in fair weather conditions, or those who don't mind running their genset 4-? hours a day, based on Ah usage and soc charge range).
I don't know what you pay for shipping, but the best thing for you may be to buy the older adjustable powermax, hope the thermistor does accidentally blow (hint, hint), and send it back for the upgrade. I know for me, it's $65 for shipping to me, and only $35 return. (hmmmm? I wonder if the extra $30 is factored into their overall pricing? No, they wouldn't do that. Only sellers on ebay do that, right?)
Or you could just buy a pm3-55 for $100, from adventurerv, hope the thermistor blows up, get that fixed, then pop the lid and adjust the voltage pot,(kiss your warranty goodbye), and have an adjustable unit as well, but without the knob and V meter. But it will only function well on deeply discharged batteries, at say less than 70%, because of the 15 minutes of boost it does, regardless of battery soc. (or you might get lucky and get an older version without the 15 min boost issue, and be good to go). See the 'edits' in my 1st post in "pm3's on sale" thread for further explanation.
So, a few choices, each with its own pros and cons.
"This decision has turned out to be far more complicated and difficult than I ever imagined when I began investigating to find out if I should replace the oem WFCO in my new TT, but hopefully I'm near a decision."
This is why many folks just buy another converter. (A win-win for those selling converters, wouldn't you say?)
The whole idea is to have control over the voltage. So, you either spend big for an adjustable unit, or you spend big for a unit with an automatically-temperature-compensation-adjusted PRESET voltage. Not picking on anyone here, but Snowman's purchase is a perfect example. Too many ???'s, and a good deal, lead to him purchasing another converter. But now he has absolutely no control over the voltage, (except for the wizard 13.6-14.4Vabs deal), which means not being able to compensate for varying temperatures, and the unit does not have that ability either, (AFAIK from reading the manual). So, that 14.4 volts it puts out; great on a hot summer day btw; will be more like 14v on a cold day. So, come winter, charging time will be increased significantly. (Of course, this is not an issue for those who only boondock in fair weather conditions, or those who don't mind running their genset 4-? hours a day, based on Ah usage and soc charge range).
I don't know what you pay for shipping, but the best thing for you may be to buy the older adjustable powermax, hope the thermistor does accidentally blow (hint, hint), and send it back for the upgrade. I know for me, it's $65 for shipping to me, and only $35 return. (hmmmm? I wonder if the extra $30 is factored into their overall pricing? No, they wouldn't do that. Only sellers on ebay do that, right?)
Or you could just buy a pm3-55 for $100, from adventurerv, hope the thermistor blows up, get that fixed, then pop the lid and adjust the voltage pot,(kiss your warranty goodbye), and have an adjustable unit as well, but without the knob and V meter. But it will only function well on deeply discharged batteries, at say less than 70%, because of the 15 minutes of boost it does, regardless of battery soc. (or you might get lucky and get an older version without the 15 min boost issue, and be good to go). See the 'edits' in my 1st post in "pm3's on sale" thread for further explanation.
So, a few choices, each with its own pros and cons.
