WFCO Quality

RJsfishin wrote:
And then to add insult to injury, we have Randy still selling the POS to the unsuspecting souls. But one thing about Randy, at least he stocks the power control boards for them when, (not if).... they blow up !
Why ? Their wholesale price is cheap, and their retail price is high. Which makes for a real nice profit margin.
Why doesn't the MFG fix them ? Why would they ? That would cost them money, and they are doing just fine the way they are.

I agree. Why recommend that junk when I explained my needs and how I'm going to use my rv. I ended up with a PD 4655 but it's just a substitute for a real battery charger.

A bit different perspective - Seen the insides of hundreds if not thousands of Converters,Inverters, Inverter-chargers, Control boards for Frig and heaters, CRT TV's, CCFL LCD, LED LCD, Plasma flat screen TV's, etc..

Suggest replacing just the defective component not the circuit module which is a bit more challenging and time consuming but far less in parts costs. As a point of reference typical parts cost for a converter repair run less than $3.00.

PD's 9100 & 9200 series, Iota, Todd, WFCO 8800 - 8900 & 9800, Magnetek, Parallax, etc.. they ALL have similar failure modes and ALL include off shore parts even the "Made In America" units. Most failures are due to defective capacitors and can be repaired in a matter of a few minutes with the proper test equipment / tools. Even better there are several simple modifications that improve the "Boost" sensing circuits on ALL of them, Yes even the newer WFCO units. Many of the older WFCO's include the external RCMS / TCMS interface similar to the PD 9200 series. A simple push button switch and a led are all that's needed for full manual control of them.

Mine WFCO 8955 never worked right from day one. It's in the shed some where collecting dust. We use the TV between CG's and solar to keep the batteries up.
If it's been a week to 10 days without sun and if we have shore power I carry a small 3 stage smart charger that really is a true three stage. It's also smarter then I am!!!

fla-gypsy wrote:
It could be that most of us chumps don't depend on properly charged battery banks to do our RV'ing. It is rare to see more than 1 12v battery on the typical TT with a WFCO convertor just like mine.

Perhaps, but this "chump" has owned several different trailers, all with WFCO converters, and has never had an issue with any of them. :B My current Interstate G27 battery is now 7 yrs old and although I had been planning to replace it this season simply because of age there seems to be no reason to as it continues to perform it's task just fine even though it's been "abused" by WFCO converters. I put this WFCO bashing down to nothing more than a popular internet pastime worthy of little serious consideration as there are countless other hundreds of thousands, if not millions by now, of WFCO converter owners who like myself haven't had any premature converter or battery failures either. JMO. :W

It could be that most of us chumps don't depend on properly charged battery banks to do our RV'ing. It is rare to see more than 1 12v battery on the typical TT with a WFCO convertor just like mine.

The WFCO 8725P that I installed in place of the original Elixir ELX-20 works fine and I have no complaints.

The Elixir failed when one year old, the WFCO is now 5 years old and the batteries are 4 years old.

And then to add insult to injury, we have Randy still selling the POS to the unsuspecting souls. But one thing about Randy, at least he stocks the power control boards for them when, (not if).... they blow up !
Why ? Their wholesale price is cheap, and their retail price is high. Which makes for a real nice profit margin.
Why doesn't the MFG fix them ? Why would they ? That would cost them money, and they are doing just fine the way they are.

I love the layout and the performance of the WFCO POWER DISTRIBUTION CENTERS. I am currently using the WFCO 8900 series.

The CONVERTER/CHARGER unit that comes with the POWER DISTRIBUTION CENTER just never worked for me. I guess I have never really understood the way they are suppose to work.

I would think they are suppose to monitor the % of charge status and kick into the various smart modes to maintain the batteries to their designed performace mode and capacity.

I replaced my brand new 2009 WFCO WF8945 Converter/charger unit with a Progressive Dynamics PD9260C Converter/charger and it works just like I expected it to - Every time...

I tried everything I could think of to make the WF8945 unit to work out of the box without mods. I tried large DC cables first.... Then I tried shorter DC CABLES feeding the battery banks (Even tried direct connected 12-inch long cables)... The WF8945 continued to put out 13.6VDC. Every now and then you might see 14.4VDC but only for a few seconds then it would jump right back to 13.6VDC output.

I tried to make it go into smart mode at different % charge states. Even going do to 20% charge state and lower it would not go into into BOOST CHARGE modes for more than a few seconds. I always thought I must be doing something wrong and not be understanding why they don't work for me since the new trailers still keep coming out with them installed. I stopped trig to make them work after 2010. Reading the different forums I see everyone still complaining about them...

As you have stated they seem to be the manufacturer power converter of choice as they different RV trailer models all seem to come out with them installed.

When the batteries start failing from always coming up dead the guys finally suspect it is the power converter fault and of course go out of their way to replace the unit with a new like WFCO product. Why not - the trailer originally came with the WFCO unit when bought new so this is what is suppose to be there... Then after a few years the batteries all go dead again the same way as before... Buy new batteries and you are good again for a few more years... Problem must be the batteries - right!

Only the guys that know what to look for survive with them I suspect...

After giving the situation a good college try in the early days I finally just gave up on them....

Since I changed to the PD9260C converter/charger unit my original standard issue GP24 12VDC Interstate batteries installed in 2008 are still performing. I am not the easiest guy on batteries doing my off-road style of camping. I cycle my batteries from 50% to 90% charge state every day on my trips. I am just now starting to see a slight drop off in battery performance after 6 years of use..

This gives me more time to worry about other important things like trying to figure out why my propane sensor monitors keeps going off in the middle of the night even when we have the propane tanks shut off at the main valve... This is probably due to my 50% charge state depleted batteries or perhaps from all the good beans we like to eat every day...

Believe it or not there are tens of thousands of rigs who's owners would never dream of not plugging into 50-amp power. Their batteries go bad every year or so and they chalk it up to maintenance. This folks are the sole target of RV manufacturers who lavish genuine poly vinyl chloride walnut look alike cabinets with faceted plastic glass and push-a-button lifestyle. Lile I quipped not long ago if these knotheads could manage to cram a bidet into the bathroom and insinkerator garbage disposal inder the sink they'd do it.

A converter has no glamour so the-cheaper-the-better. RV manufacturers argue to the death with vendors over a nickel and have bouncers in assembly areas to keep Mexicans from knifing the Nicaraguans...