We payed the price for convenience

[schlep1967]

Let's start with last year. End of the season, last trip. As we are hooking up to head home the battery dies and we have to use jumper cables to raise the fifth-wheel to hook up the truck. Battery was old so I assumed that was the issue and replaced it.

We made our first camping trip this year. All set up Friday evening, playing some cards with friends and the ceiling lights are getting dim. We are plugged in to shore power. Guess it wasn't the battery after all. No cell service at the campground so Saturday morning we head out to locate an RV dealer that has our converter in stock.

We end up in Thurmont Maryland at Beckley's Camping Center. They have the matching converter for the low low price of $327. Now had I thought a little bit I would have searched for the price of this converter after I had service. But I didn't. Afterward we stopped at the outlets in Gettysburg for the ladies to shop so in the down time I did a Google search. I could buy the same thing from Amazon for $123! With free shipping!

Like I said the price for convenience.

Moral of this story ..... if you THINK your converter might be going bad, order one! Before you need it to keep your refrigerator running so your food doesn't spoil.

By the way do not pay someone to install a converter. It took an Allen wrench, a phillips screwdriver and 10 minutes of my time to change out.

[wa8yxm]

You said you got a "Matching Converter" What make and model was it?

Many RV's come with either WFCO, (A product known for a short Mean Time Between Failurs) or a Parallex 7300 series (Single Stage)

I would never replace with anything other than a Progressive Dynamics wizard model.

[Dakzuki]

I have a 10 amp charger/maintainer mounted in the battery compartment. If the converter fails I still have limited capacity for 12 volt power until I can fix the converter.

[mpierce]

The WFCO specs SAY it bulk charges at 14.4, but in actual practice, it almost NEVER goes into bulk, and when it does, it does not do it for very long.

Lots of posts about that. So, it charges at the mid 13v rate, which takes a long time.

Do what you want. A number of us are just trying to lead you to a much better charger. But, if you like and want the WFCo, fine by me. Good Luck.

[Dave_H_M]

et2 wrote:
We had a new fiver years ago that came with a bad one. Found it out on first trip. Bought a battery charger for $30 and plugged it in - hooked to batteries and it worked fine. Got home and had it fixed.

So now we always keep a charger on hand - even in the MH.

I been there and did that once.

[mgirardo]

We had the same thing happen to us last year. A few weeks into a 6 week stay, the battery wouldn't hold a charge. It was 5 years old and had accidently been drained twice (once by me, once by dealer) so I replaced it. A few days later, the new battery is running low. I don't hear the fan running on the converter.

I borrowed a battery charger to charge the battery, then went to buy a new charger. We had a few other issues on this trip and didn't want to bother with replacing the converter. Let the battery charger on 2 amps the rest of the trip.

When we got home, I bought a Progressive Dynamics PD9245c for about $155 on Amazon. On our MH, the converter is under the fridge, so it was a pain to replace. More like 90 minutes vs 10 minutes for you. Replacement was simple. Getting to it, removing it and putting the new one in place took most of the time.

-Michael

[schlep1967]

mpierce wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:

mpierce wrote:
Ouch. You got a crappy WFCO? Ones everyone on here, me included, say to get rid of because they do a terrible job of charging the battery?

Lol did you see the part where I said I didn't have cell service. Had I been able to do research I would have done several things differently. The original got us through 4 years of hard use and we used one battery in that time. Next time I'll be better prepared.

My suggestion? Why wait until this WFCO dies? It will NEVER charge your battery adequately, unless plugged in for DAYS!

Spend the money, get the PD with pendant, NOW. Put your NEW WFCO up for sale on ebay. You will get a portion of your money back. You WILL be amazed how much better the PD charges your battery.

I swapped a NEW WFCO out of a new toy hauler, and put in a PD9280, with pendant. Soooooo much faster, and fills the battery to full MUCH sooner.

I'm not sure how much faster you can charge a battery. Here is the 3 stage output from the WFCO
Output Ranges:- Nominal (Absorption Mode) 13.6 Vdc (includes charging and load)
- Boost (Bulk Mode) 14.4 Vdc
- Trickle (Float Mode) 13.2 Vdc (after 48 hrs.)

You say it will take days to charge the battery. Others on here say it charges them too fast and causes them to boil. I'm not one that gets on the internet and believes everything he reads and then turns around and tries to tell everyone else it is true. And I hope others on here would agree that does none of us any good.

And I'm also not sure of how I could save any money by doing as you say. I'm already out $325. I could maybe resell it for $100 if I am lucky. And then spend another $270+ to replace it. So now I'm out $500. And this new fancy converter still won't make me breakfast in the morning.



I may not have bought the best out there. But I bought what I knew would replace what was in there at the time. The dealer didn't offer me any other/better options. I spent the money and I hope it will outlast the first one that was in there. If it doesn't I'll look at replacing it with something else at that time. To my mind getting 4 years of use out of that $325 beats getting a weekend of use out of it and selling it at a $225 loss + the cost of the replacement.
Heck for all I know I will replace the current trailer with another one before I need another converter.

[colliehauler]

Same with truck part's, cheaper online but if you need it now you pay.

[Lantley]

To the OP don't sweat it. It happens. It won't be the first or last time you have to buy something because you need it now. There are times to take on- line savings and there are times to pay full Retail because you need it now.
I knocked my Jack TV antenna off with a branch in SC a few summer ago.
Luckily I found a new one at the local RV dealer and found a mobile guy to install it. The new one was installed by noon time and I was able to continue on with my vacation.
Sure I could have saved money by buying on line and installing myself. But I would had to put up with a damaged roof in the mean time.
I was happy to pay the rate and have the matter resolved. As the saying goes........Stuff happens

[bhall]

Chris Bryant wrote:
I'll just say there isn't a decent converter out there that I could buy wholesale for $123. The OP didn't imply it, but don't always assume that a local is necessarily gouging on price, when comparing to online prices.

As a "local", Beckley's is not known for their affordability.

[westend]

schlep1967 wrote:
We camp every 2-3 weeks at sites with electric. The camper is plugged in at the house 24/7. Thanks for the advice but I don't see any reason to waste more money.

The bad news/truth of this deal is that the WFCO maybe wasting your money. Some folks have luck with them I guess but this Forum is full of posts about failing WFCO converters and dead batteries because of that. If you feel that buying a battery every couple of years and a converter every once in awhile is a situation you can live with, so be it.

[schlep1967]

We camp every 2-3 weeks at sites with electric. The camper is plugged in at the house 24/7. Thanks for the advice but I don't see any reason to waste more money.

[mpierce]

schlep1967 wrote:

mpierce wrote:
Ouch. You got a crappy WFCO? Ones everyone on here, me included, say to get rid of because they do a terrible job of charging the battery?

Lol did you see the part where I said I didn't have cell service. Had I been able to do research I would have done several things differently. The original got us through 4 years of hard use and we used one battery in that time. Next time I'll be better prepared.

My suggestion? Why wait until this WFCO dies? It will NEVER charge your battery adequately, unless plugged in for DAYS!

Spend the money, get the PD with pendant, NOW. Put your NEW WFCO up for sale on ebay. You will get a portion of your money back. You WILL be amazed how much better the PD charges your battery.

I swapped a NEW WFCO out of a new toy hauler, and put in a PD9280, with pendant. Soooooo much faster, and fills the battery to full MUCH sooner.

[schlep1967]

mpierce wrote:
Ouch. You got a crappy WFCO? Ones everyone on here, me included, say to get rid of because they do a terrible job of charging the battery?

Lol did you see the part where I said I didn't have cell service. Had I been able to do research I would have done several things differently. The original got us through 4 years of hard use and we used one battery in that time. Next time I'll be better prepared.

[mpierce]

Ouch. You got a crappy WFCO? Ones everyone on here, me included, say to get rid of because they do a terrible job of charging the battery?