| Author |
Message |
dougtheboneifiedbusnut
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 7:18 pm: | |
Hey all,
Well I got my heater installed. So now I have to power it. The heater works great off the batteries. So I bought me a converter to run the heater. Problem is, it won't start the heater motor. So I figured I would just run the heater off the batts.Oh ya, this is all temporary untill I get the whole wireing system done and I'll be able to sleep in the bus untill it's done.
Then I buy this cool batt charger and say to myself,"Why can't I just leave the charger in parralell with heater motor, and leave the charger going all the time?"
So the domb question is will it harm the charger to be connected while the heater motor is running? |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 9:25 pm: | |
Battery chargers as a rule do not output clean pure Direct Current. If you want anything to last you need a converter with real d.c. output.
Battery chargers charge batteries.
Converters make d.c. power from a.c. power.
They are usually plentiful and cheap too! Just
remember not to use a converter to charge batteries or you mileage may vary. |
Wayne Newland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 10:17 pm: | |
Most of the members of the GMC (Motorhome) net have switched over to the InteliPower converter
to keep their batteries charged up. I personally use the P9140A with Charge Wizard. I then replaced the battery isolater with a West Marine Combiner50 that allows the 9140 to keep both the house batteries and the engine battery charged, either from land line/Onan or alternator. Both the combiner and the converter come in several models to meet different needs.
Wayne Newland F9300 |
FAST FRED
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 6:11 am: | |
Did a post on Marine batt chargers, in the Archives.
The good ones work excellent as a power source and need no batt in the system.
AS usual you ONLY get what you pay for.
FAST FRED |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 8:48 am: | |
Doug, did you buy a "converter" or a "Power supply"?
Later in your post you say you got a "cool battery charger"...
If so, it will work fine to leave it hooked to the battery and run your heater.
If you got a "power supply" you could make it work with some diodes but it wouldn't be as easy to do correctly and it wouldn't keep the batteries very happy.
For David, it doesnt' matter if the output is "clean DC" because the battery will act as a giant filter and smooth it out if it isn't "clean"... the charger will maintain charge as it's supposed to, and provide extra for the motor when needed.
Example: an alternator isn't "clean" either.. it's output contains a horrible mishmach of variable frequency ripple because the best an alternator can do is 95% or so DC...( the rest is that whine you often hear in car stereos that aren't filtered well enough)
The battery that the alternator is hooked to does the "polish job" on the alternator's power and insures pretty pure DC is supplied to the system under all circumstances (well, except maybe starting)
Wayne, Right on! I've used an Intelli-power with charge wizard for 4 years now, hooked up exactly as Doug suggests, to power my bus during "shore-time" and keep my T-105 house banks happy. I use them also in some of my weird Burning Man vehicles to keep my batteries alive during the years of non-use between events. It is a highly recommended device, at least by me...
And Fred, you're absolutely right, you get what you pay for (although I got both of my intelli-power units for ten bucks each!!! Wheee!!!).
That said, even if Doug has a cheepie, he said this is only temporary- it probably won't hurt a thing.
Doug, if you're worried about it at all, just use a cheap battery and if it dies in a year, its' no biggie.
There you are..... |
dougtheboneifiedbusnut
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 5:44 pm: | |
Thanks all,
Ya Gary initially I put a converter so I could run the heater without taxing my starting batts. Problem was the converter would not start the heater fan.So I put a cheep battery in parrelell and it worked fine.Thats when I wondered if I could just put a battery charger in parrelel to keep the batts fresh and at the same time run the motor. You as usuall answered the origanal question,many thanks to you and all. |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 3:11 pm: | |
In th event of trying to use a ripple-happy unfiltered battery charger as the only source of power for the fan motor.
There apparently was a "context" error on my part, Sorry !!!
And Yes a battery does act like a huge absorbtion filter by its chemical nature.
The context was an issue with leaving a "dumb" high amperage charger/converter across the batteries for extended times even though the secondary load is intermittant.
A buddy just had to replace all of his batteries in his motorhome because he left a cheap charger running all the time even though his house lights and furnace used power on occasion. Cooked the juice out of the batteries by overcharging.
Of course that problem is a maintence issue and people do tend to ignore batteries for long periods or just don't know they need checking.
Another person that I know thought that you were supposed to run his bank of T105's down to ZERO after the inverter shut down before starting the generator to charge them back up with the Inverter/Charger. His batteries literally grew in width and were jammed in the frames. His 2-year old $300K motorhome now needs new batteries. He is complaining that the dealer told him to run the batteries dead before recharging... DUMB ! |