Charging batteries: inverter vs charger

Yes, but it's called a converter.

Depends. Need brand and model number of each.

You will need to post what brand and model CONVERTER you have before we can tell you how fast it will charge.

Also, bear in mind that you will be limited to the output of your generator. Within that wattage, you can certainly use BOTH converter and supplemental charger at the same time.

I am assuming this is the Rocky Mountain Natl Park in COlo. Depending where you are staying they have generator restriction times. This is from their brochure "Where allowed, generators can run from 7:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. – 8:30 pm."

Not a whole lot of time to charge your batteries so hopefully you have the smart-mode technology charging capabilities.

My on-board converter is a smart-mode PD9160C charger and I connect my 30AMP Trailer Shore Power Cable directly to my 2KW Honda Gnerator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A long adapter (WALMART). This will allow my on-board converter to re-charge my 255AH battery bank back up to its 90% charge state in as little as three hours. This time should fit into the allowed generator run time stated in the above brochure. However it seems there may be other locations at the Natl Park park where generators may not be allowed at all. Probably something to check with the Natl Park folks first...

I like using my generator direct connected to the trailer for this short time as this gives us a chance to make some good fresh ground bean coffee for the day while the generator is running.

I am setup with a 600WATT PSW Inverter connected to my 255AH battery bank and we can draw some 20AMPs from the batteies using the 600WATT PSW Inverter watching HDTV and running some other 120VAC items between the 8PM to 11PM time frame. This drops my 255AH capacity battery bank down to around 12.0VDC each morning at 8AM when I re-charge it all back up to to its 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again from the next day/night run off the batteries... I can do this 50% to 90% charge cycle for about 12-14days before I have to re-charge to a full 100% charge on my batteries without doing harm to them. The problem to doing a full 100% charge state is it takes 12-13 hours of generator run time to do this... Most places we go to here on the East side of the USA does not allow that much generator run time.

Works great for us camping off the power grid but it does take some planning to be successful about it.

Food for thought
Roy Ken

Use your digital voltmeter (an essential part of every RVers kit) to measure voltage accross the two batteries in series while converter is running, then voltage while external charger is connected. Current into batteries will be a function of that voltage, so use the arrangement with higher voltage.

Just to be sure you get your batteries re-charged follow this brochure statement from Progressive Dynamics on how long it takes to re-charge a deep cycle battery. This is battery science so not many ways to get around it...

"Progressive Dynamics ran this test on the amount of time it took a PD9155 (55-amp) converter/charger set to three different output voltages to recharge a 125 AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was fully discharged to 10.5-volts.

14.4-VOLTS (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 3-hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.

13.6-VOLTS (Normal Mode) – Required 40-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78-hours to reach full charge.

13.2-VOLTS (Storage Mode) – Required 60-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100-hours to reach full charge."

NOTE: It doesn't matter how you get the 14.4VDC at a 20AMP or more capacity to charge your 12VDC battery. If you only have a few hours to charge the battery then you need to be using the 14.4VDC level so you can get to the 90% charge state in as little as three hours time.

Just charging at 12VDC or 13VDC levels you can see how long it will take from their brochure. You don't have that much time in one sitting.

If you don't have the smart-mode on board converter then you will have to bring along a smart mode portable battery charger like the Black and Decker VEC1093DBD model and plug that into the 2KW Honda generator 120VAC receptacle and then connect the battery charging cables across the 12VDC leads going to the batteries. Since the portable battery charger is a 40AMP model then it will re-charge two 12VDC batteries connected in parallel or two 6VDC Golf Cart batteries connected in series in the three hour time frame.

just saying...
Roy ken

smkettner wrote:
Depends. Need brand and model number of each.

Agree, no way anyone can provide a useful answer without this information.

He says inverter so I suspect that like me he has no converter but an inverter with a charge function, like our Xantrex Prosine 2.0 PSW inverter. It's battery charging is capable of up to 100 amps of charge current, user programmable, as is the voltage. I have mine set for 96 A, which is the manufacturer's recommended C20 rate for my 4 GCs, at 14.8V for the bulk charge.

If I were in his position with 2 6V GCs with an Amp Hour rating of about say 240 and go with a C20 charge rate, or about 48 Amps or for a faster charge perhaps even the C30 rate which would be 72Amps, though not without temperature compensation.

But as has been said, WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT CHARGER YOU HAVE!

Canadian Rainbirds wrote:
He says inverter so I suspect that like me he has no converter but an inverter with a charge function,!

Could be, but the term 'trailer inverter' doesn't sound like it. We'll see!

Now we wait.

2oldman wrote:
...Now we wait.

and wait!