Should I Change My WFCO Converter?

liketoride2 wrote:
Thanks to both of you for more great info. I really am an ignoramus regarding both electricity in general and especially regarding Rv electrical systems. I'm not new to Rving, having owned both a 5th wheel toyhauler and small class A in the past, but both of those where bought used with a pair of 6 volt batteries in place. The prior owners said both electrical systems worked perfectly and battery life had been excellent so I paid little attention to what the components were and simply tried to keep the batteries well watered and well charged. Everything went very will - ignorance really can be bliss sometimes! :o)

So a lot of the terminology and abbreviations I've encountered on this thread are new to me. The latest - what is C3, C4, etc.? Just to be sure I understand the manual operation of the Boondocker BPCM, do you mean if I want to do a 3 mode charge, the voltage would need to be manually set for each mode and each mode started and stopped using a switch, manually setting the bulk, absorption, and float modes each time a charge is done? Or can the voltage for all three modes be set in advance, the charge started, and it would cycle through all three modes without further input needed? I suspect it's the former, but just want to be sure I fully understand one before I purchase it. I do plan to call Best Converter on Monday.

Could I either replace the WFCO with the Boondocker or can both be used, each one doing some functions, like the Boondocker for charging and the WFCO for float mode and/or the converter function?

Sorry to be so painfully uninformed. Once again, I greatly appreciate all the assistance I've gotten on this forum.

Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving, except you Canadians but only because it isn't your Thanksgiving Day. :o) Btw, thinking of Canada, I know a whole lot more about hockey than I do electricity!!

Mike

I don't know how to get rid of those faces - they were intended to be smiley faces but they were changed to what's in the post, whatever those are intended to be.

The three charging stages are Bulk, Absorption, when charging a battery up, and then Float when that is done and you just want the battery to stay charged. The BPCM does the first two by itself with the voltage you set (14.8v say) Now the battery is charged up, so you don't want to leave it at 14.8 so you manually dial that down to say 13.6 if you are going to leave it on as your converter.

Now some converters are also called "three-stage" but that is not the same thing at all. These stages are just three different voltages. The 14.4 stage is like the 14.8 as above and the battery will do Bulk and Absorption at that. The 13.6 is the normal operating voltage to run your RV as when on shore power. The 13.2 is for when not using the Rv but just for keeping the battery charged and is the Float stage.

You can use the BPCM as your converter and unplug the WFCO as long as you remember to change the BPCM down from 14.8 to 13.6 once the batteries are charged up. Or you can shut off the BPCM then and only ever use it at 14.8 while then leaving the WFCO to run the rig at 13.6. You can use a timer on the BPCM so it is running at 14.8 for three or four hours and then it shuts off by itself, leaving the rig on the WFCO at 13.6. Now you don't have to be there for that.

You will want an ammeter that can read up to 100a DC (at least) to make this all easier so you know what is going on like when to shut off the BPCM or dial it down to 13.6.

You can't tell from the voltages at the time you are charging them what the battery state of charge is. You would have to use rough and ready rules of thumb like noting when the batteries reach 14.8 and then let it run for another hour and then drop to 13.6. That will get you by until you can get an ammeter.