Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?

[Fisherguy]

Our old trailer (2007 Komfort) had a WFCO 8955 converter in it, I could NOT ever get it to go into bulk mode, not even when I moved it within a few feet of the batteries, tried everything. I did a thread on it. (I ended up putting a PD9280 in a new location closer to the batteries.) Any converter thread got pretty heated back then as I'm sure some of you will remember! 😉

We just bought a 2019 ORV Timber Ridge which unfortunately also came with an WFCO, this time a 8955 Lis. This is the one with a lead/lithium switch.
This trailer came with 3 - 100Ah LIthiums, has 600 watts of solar panels uptop and has a 12v Norcold fridge. (I might add another 200 watt panel and additional 100Ah Lithium if I need to?)

So are these new WFCO still as bad as the old ones?
If they're better I could replace the charger with a 8975 if it fits? (I'd have to upgrade the cables to the batteries I know)
Either way I'll be wanting to upgrade the charger for one as big as possible that will run from my Honda 2000 genny.

I'm hoping to shorten the learning curve re. lithium charging, this is all new to me.
Thx
Will

[PerryB67]

Our WFCO in our 2018 Escape camper decided to charge our AGM's at 20.3 volts destroying them. After getting our new SiO2 batteries we merely disabled the charger portion and only charged with our rooftop solar for the next two years. Worked great.

I received a different WFCO to replace the bad WFCO charger, installed it, but never used it. We sold the trailer last December.

We now have a 2026 Bigfoot 25RQ with a Progressive Dynamics 45 amp charger. By adding their "Charge Wizard" it charges our two new 100 ah SOK LFP batteries just fine, but it's also disconnected in favor of the 160 watt rooftop solar and a 100 watt portable. For the past two weeks in Arizona our SOK's have been topped off most days, but with excess ah's not topping off a day or two is just fine. The lowest we've been so far is 78% SOC.

Over two years ago when our WFCO charged at 20.3 volts I found a couple others who had the same experience with their WFCO's.

I'm glad our new camper has a Progressive Dynamics charger.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Vintage465]

My thinking......and My Opinion. A P.D. retrofit is a relatively inexensive way to address the WFCO. I installed one on mine when the WFCO conked out. Went in very textbook perfect. The other thing is, most companys(companies?)use #8 or #6 wire from the converter/chargers to the batteries and they are installed at the factory as far from the batteries as possible...sometimes in the next county. There is lot of Charge Voltage loss in that distance. I ran a #2 wire from my batteries to the coverter/charger location to minimize voltage/charge loss. Result is, with my four 6v batteries, I can charge from 12.1 volts to 13.2 volts(float)in about an hour.

[Fisherguy]

StirCrazy wrote:

ya renogy, victron there all made in china now. I know several people with renogy onely one person had an issue and he was treated good. remember on the internet you only hear about the bad, happy people don't complain haha.. I will not buy Victron as I think they are very over priced for what you get. there are a few companies making componants that fit togeather but I think for a simple rv setup a lot of that is a waist of space and overkill. if you look at quality vs cost, I would probably put renogy at the top of the list. if your looking at just quality then there is victron and a nother one I cant remember off the top of my head but for cost vs quality I would put victron way down the list. plus victron is usaly big and bulky.

you also have to look at what stuff is designed for, victron is designed for whole home type setups where you usaly have lots of space and they can make things larger because it has to run 365 days a year 24/7. for rv use how often are we realy running our inverters if we are not full timing it. not very often. In my 40 foot 5th wheel I use it maybe 1/2 to 1 hour a day and I shut it off when not using it so it isn't drawing a standby power so over the course of a year say maybe 40 to 60 hours of use which I think is a fair bit for the average camper.. but you compare this to some one who full times and has a victron which is used up to 61320 hours a year in the extream fulltime off grid user. so ya if I was full timing on solar I would probably consider making the space and paying the extra money (over 1600 bucks by the time it would get to me from amazon) but I don't so the 360 buck renogy will work just fine, and if I have to replace it two more times it will still be cheeper than the victron. My renogy mppt solar controler has been working great for 3 years now in my camper. I think they are better quality that the OLD go power (when they were high quality and based in victoria, bc. when they sold it is rumored the quality went down)

now peopla are probably going to start posting saying your crazy victron isn't bad.. no they are not, they are very good, I just don't think for camping we need to pay that inflated price for the small bit of extra quality. if you have money to burn by all means get the victron if not, renogy has turned out to be a deicent option. If I am building a solar powered off grid cabin in the mountians then ya I'm installing victron as it has to run 365 days a year, if the go power inverter dies in my 5th wheel, guess I have to use the percolater instead of the kurieg, or cook my popcorn on the stove instead of in the microwave...the only thing from victron I would spen the money on for my rv is the smart shunt, that wants realy out yet when I bought the stuff for my camper and the renogy bluethooth ap does pretty much the same thing well not quite I guess.. it is a little over priced but its cheep enough it is worth it and gives you a cleaner instalation if you don't mind looking at your power stuff on your phone.

PD9180ALV

Yes some people seem to have lotsa money to pour into the RV's electrical systems. You go to the FB groups and in most cases everything is from Victron with 1000 Ah or more worth of Lithium batteries. (The trailer we just bought has 3 - 100Ah Relion batteries, was thinking of adding a 4th but they're over $2100 Cdn!)

We use our inverter probly 4-5 hours a day when we're camping but we only use our RV at most 8-10 weeks a year so I hear what you're saying.

Ya the Smart Shunt would be handy, might get the GX-50 too just so I'm not depending on my phone to monitor the battery when we're camping, or maybe the 712 display. Have a Trimetric in the old trailer.
Thx
Will

[StirCrazy]

Fisherguy wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:



personaly I stay away with "all in one" setups. only because if somthing brakes your replacing the whole thing so its a big price tag. also they are usaly bigger than just an inverter or converter so you have to find a place they fit in some situations and run new wiring.

so just looking at amazon (can probably find better pricing through dealers, but who knows) anyways that is 500. you can also get a 2000watt renogy pure sign wave inverter for 360. so if you bought thoes from amazon you at just over 1/2 the price, and if something ***** out down the road it is cheeper to replace. I use renogy for my solar controler and I love it.. a good north american company thats putting out a decient product. I have my 2000 watt inverter wired directly to my power center so when I am dry camping and turn on the inverter it can power the whole 5th wheel, but if you do that you need to put the converter on a breaker if it isnt already so it can be shut off when you don't have power. I do mine throught the auto transfer switch so I don't have to worry about that step.

Steve

Hi Steve,
So you're saying the PD9180ALV lithium converter is $500 on Amazon? I couldn't find it on there.
I asked about Renogy in a FB group and heard mostly negative comments. They rebrand a lot of their products with China built stuff they say, spend more on marketing and advertising than product development etc. Have also heard their customer support is terrible but I have no first hand experience myself. I've heard nothing but good things about Victron, they seem to be the latest craze no matter where you look, all bluetooth compatible etc etc but when we boondock I really don't want to be tied to my phone to see what's going on.
The trailer we bought came with a Renogy 40amp DC to DC converter that I also need to look into and wire up my truck etc.
On our old trailer I used a PD9280 and a Xantrex inverter wired through an Iota transfer switch to the power center so I could do that again in the new one.>

Hmmmmm.....? :h :h
Thx
Will

ya renogy, victron there all made in china now. I know several people with renogy onely one person had an issue and he was treated good. remember on the internet you only hear about the bad, happy people don't complain haha.. I will not buy Victron as I think they are very over priced for what you get. there are a few companies making componants that fit togeather but I think for a simple rv setup a lot of that is a waist of space and overkill. if you look at quality vs cost, I would probably put renogy at the top of the list. if your looking at just quality then there is victron and a nother one I cant remember off the top of my head but for cost vs quality I would put victron way down the list. plus victron is usaly big and bulky.

you also have to look at what stuff is designed for, victron is designed for whole home type setups where you usaly have lots of space and they can make things larger because it has to run 365 days a year 24/7. for rv use how often are we realy running our inverters if we are not full timing it. not very often. In my 40 foot 5th wheel I use it maybe 1/2 to 1 hour a day and I shut it off when not using it so it isn't drawing a standby power so over the course of a year say maybe 40 to 60 hours of use which I think is a fair bit for the average camper.. but you compare this to some one who full times and has a victron which is used up to 61320 hours a year in the extream fulltime off grid user. so ya if I was full timing on solar I would probably consider making the space and paying the extra money (over 1600 bucks by the time it would get to me from amazon) but I don't so the 360 buck renogy will work just fine, and if I have to replace it two more times it will still be cheeper than the victron. My renogy mppt solar controler has been working great for 3 years now in my camper. I think they are better quality that the OLD go power (when they were high quality and based in victoria, bc. when they sold it is rumored the quality went down)

now peopla are probably going to start posting saying your crazy victron isn't bad.. no they are not, they are very good, I just don't think for camping we need to pay that inflated price for the small bit of extra quality. if you have money to burn by all means get the victron if not, renogy has turned out to be a deicent option. If I am building a solar powered off grid cabin in the mountians then ya I'm installing victron as it has to run 365 days a year, if the go power inverter dies in my 5th wheel, guess I have to use the percolater instead of the kurieg, or cook my popcorn on the stove instead of in the microwave...the only thing from victron I would spen the money on for my rv is the smart shunt, that wants realy out yet when I bought the stuff for my camper and the renogy bluethooth ap does pretty much the same thing well not quite I guess.. it is a little over priced but its cheep enough it is worth it and gives you a cleaner instalation if you don't mind looking at your power stuff on your phone.

PD9180ALV

[Fisherguy]

StirCrazy wrote:



personaly I stay away with "all in one" setups. only because if somthing brakes your replacing the whole thing so its a big price tag. also they are usaly bigger than just an inverter or converter so you have to find a place they fit in some situations and run new wiring.

so just looking at amazon (can probably find better pricing through dealers, but who knows) anyways that is 500. you can also get a 2000watt renogy pure sign wave inverter for 360. so if you bought thoes from amazon you at just over 1/2 the price, and if something ***** out down the road it is cheeper to replace. I use renogy for my solar controler and I love it.. a good north american company thats putting out a decient product. I have my 2000 watt inverter wired directly to my power center so when I am dry camping and turn on the inverter it can power the whole 5th wheel, but if you do that you need to put the converter on a breaker if it isnt already so it can be shut off when you don't have power. I do mine throught the auto transfer switch so I don't have to worry about that step.

Steve

Hi Steve,
So you're saying the PD9180ALV lithium converter is $500 on Amazon? I couldn't find it on there.
I asked about Renogy in a FB group and heard mostly negative comments. They rebrand a lot of their products with China built stuff they say, spend more on marketing and advertising than product development etc. Have also heard their customer support is terrible but I have no first hand experience myself. I've heard nothing but good things about Victron, they seem to be the latest craze no matter where you look, all bluetooth compatible etc etc but when we boondock I really don't want to be tied to my phone to see what's going on.
The trailer we bought came with a Renogy 40amp DC to DC converter that I also need to look into and wire up my truck etc.
On our old trailer I used a PD9280 and a Xantrex inverter wired through an Iota transfer switch to the power center so I could do that again in the new one.>

Hmmmmm.....? :h :h
Thx
Will

[Fisherguy]

waexplorer wrote:

Make sure you check the actual watts on Victron Multiplus inverter. They list a 2000 and a 3000. The 3000 is 3000VA which is not 3000 watts but 2400 watt inverter. I think (not sure) the 2000VA is 1600 watt. So double check the specs on Victron's site.

Yes good point, but we've managed fine with our little 600 watt Xantrex for over 10 years so 1600 would be fine for us.
Thx

[StirCrazy]

Fisherguy wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:


did they offer a deicent price. personaly if it was me there wouldn't be a WFCO in there as soon as I bought it but thats just cuz every trailer I have had that has had one has failed in the first year, some times killing batteries some times not. so the last two I have bought new part of the sale was they swap in a PD converter and havn't had an issue. that way you can also get the exact model you want and just replace the converter section of the panel.

Interesting you asay that. I put the PD9280 up close to the batteries in the old trailer and kept the WFCO in place as a back up which now does nothing when I turn the breaker on.

Price was $54 shipped here (near Wms Lake)

Right now I'm trying to decide between the newer PD9180ALV lithium converter paired with a small inverter or a Victon all in one job with 2000 watt inverter and a 80 amp charger ($1550 Cdn on Amazon)
Whats your thoughts? (We only have a 600 watt inverter in the old trailer)
Thx

personaly I stay away with "all in one" setups. only because if somthing brakes your replacing the whole thing so its a big price tag. also they are usaly bigger than just an inverter or converter so you have to find a place they fit in some situations and run new wiring.

so just looking at amazon (can probably find better pricing through dealers, but who knows) anyways that is 500. you can also get a 2000watt renogy pure sign wave inverter for 360. so if you bought thoes from amazon you at just over 1/2 the price, and if something ***** out down the road it is cheeper to replace. I use renogy for my solar controler and I love it.. a good north american company thats putting out a decient product. I have my 2000 watt inverter wired directly to my power center so when I am dry camping and turn on the inverter it can power the whole 5th wheel, but if you do that you need to put the converter on a breaker if it isnt already so it can be shut off when you don't have power. I do mine throught the auto transfer switch so I don't have to worry about that step.

Steve

[waexplorer]

Fisherguy wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:


did they offer a deicent price. personaly if it was me there wouldn't be a WFCO in there as soon as I bought it but thats just cuz every trailer I have had that has had one has failed in the first year, some times killing batteries some times not. so the last two I have bought new part of the sale was they swap in a PD converter and havn't had an issue. that way you can also get the exact model you want and just replace the converter section of the panel.

Interesting you asay that. I put the PD9280 up close to the batteries in the old trailer and kept the WFCO in place as a back up which now does nothing when I turn the breaker on.

Price was $54 shipped here (near Wms Lake)

Right now I'm trying to decide between the newer PD9180ALV lithium converter paired with a small inverter or a Victon all in one job with 2000 watt inverter and a 80 amp charger ($1550 Cdn on Amazon)
Whats your thoughts? (We only have a 600 watt inverter in the old trailer)
Thx

Make sure you check the actual watts on Victron Multiplus inverter. They list a 2000 and a 3000. The 3000 is 3000VA which is not 3000 watts but 2400 watt inverter. I think (not sure) the 2000VA is 1600 watt. So double check the specs on Victron's site.

[Grit_dog]

2k Honda will run a 80A charger. It’ll be doing full bore work. Similar to a small roof AC. Without the startup loads. So no problem there.
The inverter is personal choice. How much inverter power do you want or need?

[Fisherguy]

StirCrazy wrote:


did they offer a deicent price. personaly if it was me there wouldn't be a WFCO in there as soon as I bought it but thats just cuz every trailer I have had that has had one has failed in the first year, some times killing batteries some times not. so the last two I have bought new part of the sale was they swap in a PD converter and havn't had an issue. that way you can also get the exact model you want and just replace the converter section of the panel.

Interesting you asay that. I put the PD9280 up close to the batteries in the old trailer and kept the WFCO in place as a back up which now does nothing when I turn the breaker on.

Price was $54 shipped here (near Wms Lake)

Right now I'm trying to decide between the newer PD9180ALV lithium converter paired with a small inverter or a Victon all in one job with 2000 watt inverter and a 80 amp charger ($1550 Cdn on Amazon)
Whats your thoughts? (We only have a 600 watt inverter in the old trailer)
Thx

[Grit_dog]

^What he said….

[StirCrazy]

Fisherguy wrote:

I've since heard back from WFCO who told me the previous owner didn't install the 12V circuit board that has the 'lithium switch' on it so I won't get 14.6V. They offered to sell me the DC board.

did they offer a deicent price. personaly if it was me there wouldn't be a WFCO in there as soon as I bought it but thats just cuz every trailer I have had that has had one has failed in the first year, some times killing batteries some times not. so the last two I have bought new part of the sale was they swap in a PD converter and havn't had an issue. that way you can also get the exact model you want and just replace the converter section of the panel.

[waexplorer]

Fisherguy wrote:

waexplorer wrote:

I suppose now it's up to you to decide your best solution. If you want a converter go with Progressive Dynamics. If you want charger/converter/inverter go with Victron. The choice is yours. At this point with your current charger your lithiums are charging to about 80% with non lithium charger. Of course MY opinions are worth what you paid for them. 😉

Thanks for the help.
I put a PD 9280 in our old trailer and if I go that route it would be the PD 9180 ALV.

Victron Smart Shunt is on my list for sure and on the fence weather to go separate charger and inverter or an 'all in one' Victron.
The PD and a smaller inverter would be cheaper.

Advantage to Victron is less wiring, fuses etc. Once you add all the supporting mods to separate components your right there at Victron price.

[Fisherguy]

waexplorer wrote:

I suppose now it's up to you to decide your best solution. If you want a converter go with Progressive Dynamics. If you want charger/converter/inverter go with Victron. The choice is yours. At this point with your current charger your lithiums are charging to about 80% with non lithium charger. Of course MY opinions are worth what you paid for them. 😉

Thanks for the help.
I put a PD 9280 in our old trailer and if I go that route it would be the PD 9180 ALV.

Victron Smart Shunt is on my list for sure and on the fence weather to go separate charger and inverter or an 'all in one' Victron.
The PD and a smaller inverter would be cheaper.