Best Stand Alone Charger?

[jwstrout]

Hello All,

I just upgraded the single 12 volt battery on my hybrid travel trailer to dual US Battery 6 volts. I purchased a Boondocker "smart" converter/charger to install into the original Elixir 45 amp panel that is in the trailer. So I believe I have handled the "smart" charging needs of the new batteries, when they are installed on the trailer, and when plugged into shore power or when using my generator.

My trailer is not stored in a location where I am comfortable leaving the batteries on the tongue. In the future, I will design, and build a locking system. But for now, I am removing them when I am not using the trailer, and storing them in my garage.

So here is my question.....

I am in need of a reasonably priced charger that will both charge, and maintain the 6 volt batteries while they are in storage. I would like to find something that kind of does its own thing, and doesn't require constant monitoring. It would also be nice if I could use the charger for my other vehicle batteries. So what would you guys recommend?

I have looked at the NOCO genius G3500, the Deltran Battery Tender Plus, and the Schumacher Speed Charge.

Any reviews of the aforementioned chargers or suggestions on something else would be great.

Thanks,

Jeff

[jwstrout]

Well, I grabbed a Battery Tender Plus today. For the most part, it gets good reviews. I also bought a decent volt meter for monitoring purposes. The batteries are hooked up, and sitting on my garage workbench. I will spend the weekend monitoring them, and their level of charge, and see how it goes.

I'm also going to get the new Boondocker converter/charger installed in the trailer this weekend, so that I can get some kind of schedule for charging with the generator when we are camping next time.

Jeff

[MrWizard]

The most popular and most recommend by forum members
Is No longer available, the vector 1093, 40 amp charger, from black n Decker

Finding one of those , like finding frog fur, or the golden fleece

[RoyB]

I have excellent charging of my batteries in storage mode using the smart mode chargers... They charge up in a fast three hour charging cycle and then maintains charge using the 13.2 FLOAT (Maintenance) mode. This float stays in place until somethings starts drawing power from the battery then it switches to 13.6VDC mode.

We all know what happens if you leave a 13.6VDC source mode on a battery for extended time. It will boil out your battery fluids over time. The 13.2VDC charge almost eliminates this from happening...

If you are able to monitor your batteries then any of the different 12VDC Chargers will work I guess... If the batteries is at a storage facility then you most likely will not be around it very much to check things...

The battery minders do not have alot of DC Current involved and will top off your battery over time just fine. Same as a low wattage solar panel. If that is what you are looking for then just pick up a low current something...

What I do here at the house is I will switch OUT my batteries and let them set all winter long. Starting out with a fully charged battery they will read around 12.6-7VDC at the terminals and sitting for a couple of months they only drop down to 12.4-5VDC. Then I will charge them back up to full charge again using my smart mode charger....

For me I would want a full blown smart mode charger that I can use with my 2KW generator if the need arises... It's all about PLAN Bs around here hehe... We camp OFF-GRID alot here and need a way to recharge our batteries after they get drawn down to their 50% charge state and bring them back up to their 90% charge state as quick as we can. Of course we can only do 12-14 of these 50-90 charge cycles without having to do a slow full 100% charge mode takes around 12 hours or so using our smart mode chargers... The worse thing you can do to a battery is only do a bunch of small 30 minute charge events. The batteries will not last long doing this... When we are in OFF-GRID camping mode no way will I start a new day/night run off my batteries unless they are at at least a 90% charge state. In my case it always got dark around the camp site around 9-10PM if I was doing alot of these short charging times. Then I would have to do a real slow full 100% charge mode to re-generate the batteries which takes 12hours or so of full charging which is sometimes hard to come up with when at off-gird camp sites where they may have generator run time restrictions etc...

I'm sure others do this differently but this has worked out good for me over the past few years when I started camping OFF-GRID in my POPUP camper.

Roy Ken

[Fubeca]

It is what you are looking for - but the phases have to work 😉

The NOCO and the AutoCraft Gold both have phases - but don't really have an absorb phase so they aren't good for actual charging of deep cycle batteries. Both would maintain a charged battery very well.

[jwstrout]

All of the ones mentioned above supposedly have multiple charging phases. From bulk to maintenance. Is that not what I am looking for?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Fubeca]

I bought a NOCO 3 years ago - but it was worthless as a deep-cycle charger. It would not hold an absorb charge but instead immediately drop to float voltage once it reached 14.4V. My current autocraft gold "smart charger" does the same.

For keeping a battery charged (maintenance) over time in your garage, most chargers will work fine but if you need to actually recharge the battery, getting one that actually holds a charge voltage is valuable.

[SoundGuy]

jwstrout wrote:
I have looked at the NOCO genius G3500, the Deltran Battery Tender Plus, and the Schumacher Speed Charge.

If you're considering NOCO you should also take a look at CTEK Chargers. Since my built in WFCO 8955 converter never bulk charges at 14.4 volts (as it's supposed to do) I turned it off and instead use a CTEK Mulit US 7002 which does achieve a proper 14.4 volt bulk charge. During the winter I use it in my workshop to maintain the trailer battery ... not inexpensive, but works great. :B

[time2roll]

I recommend the 8 amp Battery Minder brand. The rest are good also but get 5 amps minimum.
JMHO

[RoyB]

I'm still using my VEC1093DBD Portable Black & Decker 40AMP Smart mode charger...

I also have a smaller 10A smart mode charger I picked up from WALMART...

Seems like they are wanting us to use the 14.8VDC model smart mode chargers now for the two 6V GC2 batteries in series... My on-board converter/charger is a PD9260C and it only puts out 14.4VDC in BOOST charging mode. I am also just now going to a 6V GC2 battery bank so may have to deal with some changes here myself later on...

I have been running multiple 12V 85AH batteries in parallel since I purchased my OFF-ROAD trailer in 2008. Just last season the Interstate batteries started to fall off on performance and gave up the ghost... Not bad I reckon for many 50% to 90% charge cycles over the years...

Just now building up a new battery bank and going to use two groups of two each 6V GC2 batteries in series to give e around a 440AH capacity battery bank. Most of my camping is OFF-ROAD back on a creekside spot somewhere or up on a close by MTN Ridge...

I don't know if we can get away with using the 14.4VDC charger modes and just count on charging longer or not when charging the 6V GC2 batteries...

Roy Ken

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