The new WFCO's any good ?

BFL13 wrote:
Note that the Iota charge controller is not the same as a PD's Charge Wizard at all. The Iota one does not let you force it into 14.x by pushing a button.

Yes and the IOTA will run the 3 stage program every single time at start up and once a week for maintenance.

Hmmmm, SCVJeff... "my friend"... subtle.... very subtle.... ;-) You got a lot more bites than I did. Haha! Must be that gray day weather down there in Q, and winter doldrums starting to set in? :B


If you want to know about a WFCO, fire the Honda up, plug in, read the voltage at the WFCO and at the battery terminals. Log for 4 hours, every 15 minutes, voltage at the battery terminals, and you'll have your answer... I KNOW you know how to do this, I pulled all your Trojans out for you the last time due to your health conditions, so you could do so on the Meridian.

What a sneaky fisherman. :W LMAO, nice one!

Note that the Iota charge controller is not the same as a PD's Charge Wizard at all. The Iota one does not let you force it into 14.x by pushing a button.

All it does is turn their basic single stage converter into a three stage converter, with its own sort of charging profile--see their website on that.

BTW a single "stage" (voltage) charger does two "stages" on the battery-Bulk and Absorption. So, eg I just set my single stage charger to 14.8v and let her rip. When the battery is full at 14.8 I can yank that charger and swap to a single stage 13.7 Float charger or else dial down the 14.8 to 13.7 on the first one.

Terminology matters :)

Are they boondockers recharging off of a generator or pedestal campers? If it were me, and they are boondockers, I'd look for the Progressive Dynamics model that puts out 14.8V in bulk charge mode, not the 14.4V model, assumming they are using regular vented lead acid batteries.

If they have AGM batteries in their future, that don't corrode all your battery wiring and terminals, then I would go ahead with the regular 14.4V Progressive Dynamics model.

The exact chemistry of the batteries they run should determine the bulk charging voltage of the charger. Flooded lead acid batteries, 14.8V in bulk mode, AGM batteries, 14.4V in bulk mode, so they don't gas off.

Any of these will run off the Honda Eu2000i. The 60 amp units are most commom, easiest to find, and won't bog down the Honda and run fine in Eco mode on that generator. Make certain your friend warms up the Honda in Eco mode for 2 minutes before subjecting the motor to the charging load, then plug it in.

In either version, the 60 amp model will be fine, I think. These are boondocking dry camping suggestions. I haven't a clue for pedestal campers, I think it's far less critical for them, just float at 13.5 to 13.8V so you don't boil off the electrolyte.

If your friend is cheap, set him up with a pair of those Megawatt power supply units, dial in the voltage on that tiny set screw, and leave it alone, just watch the voltage come up and the amps come down, then shut the generator off. Set one of them up for 14.8V for bulk charging, and the second one up for 13.8V for float charging, if they are on the pedestal.

Mexico wanderer could provide all your answers, if your friend really wants to do it right, but someone here p*ssed him off royally, so he's gone buh bye... maybe you can email him for a better response, I am sure he'd help your friend out, if your friend wants to pay attention and listen. What you will get from him is a very specific answer, but there are many,many variables to consider what is most important to your friend. Battery life, gasoline and generator expenses, and life, and on and on and on. It really depends on how an*l or lazy your friend is on conserving or wasting money, vs convenience.

If your buddy is a boondocker... Get a Megawatt S15-40 from the guy up the road from you, set it up for 14.8v for him for bulk charging mode, first thing in the morning. Run that first on the generator, then let his WTF CO do the absorption charging on the generator at 13.8v (huge waste of gas) or get enough solar panels later to absorption/float charge the rest of the day, once the generator and megawatt have done the heavy lifting.

He has a 2000w Honda anyway so for this purpose the 1000w charge limitations are moot. It would be NICE to be able to make 25A per battery but I don't see that happening with 4.

The reason for the indecision on the batteries at this point is there is a CPAP involved and he's doing Kill-O-Watt tests on it probably last night to see what it draws with humidifier, etc., since we have no clue if it's a cycling or constant load. THEN the rest can be factored..

Good point in leaving it in place.. the OEM certinaly makes a nice backup.

iOTA is also in the running only because I use them on isolated radio sites to keep the Batteries up, and have had past discussions with the factory, and the guys answering in tech support are as smart as the ones at Magnum Power. IOTA also has some sort of "charge wizard" that I have no experience with since my radio batteries are floating across the radios and are AGM.

Does PD or IOTA have or provide thermal compensatation for the batteries?

I too support the recommendation for Progressive Dynamics Charge Wizard models (I have a 9180 with charge wizard, optional on that model, myself).. I have researched and researched and a better converter I've yet to find.

WFCO's do have a lot of failures, but most they "Fail Safe" they simply do not go into BULK mode.. Remain in Float forever (Turn into a darn good single stage converter)

The older Magnetek 6300 Series, and one assumes some others in their product line (Sold to Parallex who discoutinued the 6300 and made major imporovements, also now a good SINGLE stage, but of course Single Stage is not the best)

Well they were well known as battery boilers. They have very poor voltage regulation.

It is all about the VA needed from the generator.
-DC output 14.4v x 55 amps = 792w
--Converter efficiency, say 88% so input watts = 900w
--WFCO PF is 0.7 (as reported by those with Kill-A-Watts) so that means VA needed is 1286. Which is why a "1000w" gen can't run a 55 amper of any brand, never mind a WFCO.

BTW my PowerMax 55 amper on my Kill-A-Watt shows PF 0.70 too, and with Honda at 126v unloaded, shows 124.7v, 11.06a, VA 1383, 980w with output of 56.8a, and set at 14.8v with battery rising through 13.7

---time2roll doesn't mind a slower charge than I can stand for :)

A 35 amper on 220AH takes about 3 hours to do a 50-90, while a 70 amper takes about 2 hours. (A 55 amper takes about 2.3 hours.) So I prefer the 70 amper to save an hour of gen time. But that means a bigger generator of course.

mike-s wrote:

time2roll wrote:
Also 35 amps can be powered by a 1000w generator.

So can a 55A one. Choice-supportive bias?

Too many posts say no.
Have you driven an IOTA or PD at 55 amps to the battery with a Honda 1000?

braindead0 wrote:
The WFCO on our TT charges fine, float mode appears to work properly. I often leave the TT in the driveway connected to shore power, for months at a time. Battery is nearing 4 years old and has never needed water.

Sure, my 9 yr old Interstate which has been maintained by three different WFCO converters still maintains a charge BUT so what? - it's also not been subjected to frequent deep discharges since we normally camp on electric sites. The WFCO drawback most owners complain about is that when it is asked to restore a deeply discharged battery it doesn't deliver it's advertised bulk charge of 14.4 volts to the battery. :M This is partly because of how it senses the need to go into bulk charge mode and partly because trailer manufacturers pay little attention to installing converters with wire gauge suitable for the length of cable required to get from the battery location to the converter. The WFCO 8955 in my current Coachmen is located at the rear of the trailer 25' from the tongue where the battery is located yet the manufacturer used inadequate 6 gauge cable, the result being the battery never sees any more than 13.6 - 13.7 volts bulk charge. :M Float voltage does drop to it's advertised 13.2 volts so overcharging or boiling my battery has certainly never been an issue. :R My solution has been to turn off my WFCO and instead use a CTEK portable charger located in the trailer's front pass through cargo compartment, connected to the battery with a short 6' run of 4 gauge cable, the result being the battery now does see a properly applied 14.4 volt bulk charge - problem solved. :B

In his original post the OP said - "Asking for a friend....

This one in his new TT is a WF-8735-P ...

He (we) will likely replace the GP24 with a couple of U-2200's, or 4, so boiling is not allowed!"

IMO, the trick is to first select the batteries, then a converter / charger that best matches the charging requirements for those batteries, paying particular attention to it's bulk charge voltage, charging rate, whether it offers temp compensation, it's equalization voltage, and how it enables that equalization mode. Whether the current converter is pooched or not I'd just leave it as is, turned off, and mount the new converter / charger as close to the new batteries as is practical, using heavy gauge cable so the charger can deliver it's best to the batteries - and based on my experience that ain't a WFCO. :W

The WFCO on our TT charges fine, float mode appears to work properly. I often leave the TT in the driveway connected to shore power, for months at a time. Battery is nearing 4 years old and has never needed water.