Replacement charger for 1992 Hymer S670 ? (1 Viewer)

[veevee]

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Looking for advice on a quality replacement charger for a 1992 Hymer S670, this was fitted with a Schaudt LA 200 charger as original.

The original charger appeared to fail a while ago so bought a Schaudt replacement, a LA 1210 which was the more modern direct replacement. This has completely failed too for the following reasons -

With both a combination of batteries well beyond their life (ABS (battery supplier) only give a short Warranty as even they think their batteries won't perform to spec after that time) and too big a battery bank you have stretched the charger too far and taken it outside Warranty.

So having a 10 amp charger ( the LA 200 & LA 1210 are both 10 amps rated) trying to charge 2 x 85 amp batteries = 170 amps, (I have now learned that a 10 amp charger will charge 100 amps only), and having leisure batteries which came with a 2 year warranty being 5 years old which is too old as I am told, this charger failed.

I think the full ramifications of matching charger to battery bank size and age are not fully understood by the majority, hope this example helps others.

That is now water under the bridge and wish to move forward. I will replace the batteries with either 85 or 100 amp batteries, so 170 or 200 amp leisure battery bank.

Can anyone recommend a suitable motor home charger for this classic Hymer set up please?

 

[dave newell]

CTEK, they do 3.6 Amp, 7 Amp, 10 Amp and 25 Amp. All are intelligent chargers and very robust and reliable. I use a 25 Amp in my camper and a 7 Amp as a workshop unit. I also have a 3.6 Amp unit which happily ran my workshop radio via a battery for five years withjout being switched off and is still fully functioning now.

D.

 

[Wissel]

Not sure where you heard a 10 amp charger will only charge 100ah of batteries but it's not correct.

A lot of manufacturers recommend having a charger that can charge between 5% and 10% of your battery capacity per hour (so in your case between 8.5 and 17 amp) but this is just a recommendation and a lot of people use the small Aldi type chargers which have a smaller rating with no problems.

If your looking for a recommendation on a great battery charger then I agree with Dave Newall - the CTEK units are excellent.

I use a CTEK MXS 25 (25a) charger myself and have 400ah of batteries.

Edit - I see now where you got the 10a, 100ah thing - the Schaudt LA 1210 says on it's website it's only suitable for 100ah of batteries. Every other manufacturer of 10a chargers that I've looked at can charge far more than 100ah.

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[FULL TIMER]

I'am a great fan of the Sterling Power products, not cheap but great quality and good backup and service. there are many chargers to choose from on their website worth a look some examples here http://www.sp-shop.co.uk/Pro-Charge-Ultra-Battery-Charger/ but maybe worth calling them and speak to Charles Sterling for advice on which charger would most suit you ,your budget and your battery type / bank. I have used their equipment for many years now mainly in emergency service vehicles, but also have one of their previous model 24v 25 amp chargers in our conversion which is used continuously as we live in the van, no problems with it so far in almost two years use.

 

[veevee]

Not sure where you heard a 10 amp charger will only charge 100ah of batteries but it's not correct.

A lot of manufacturers recommend having a charger that can charge between 5% and 10% of your battery capacity per hour (so in your case between 8.5 and 17 amp) but this is just a recommendation and a lot of people use the small Aldi type chargers which have a smaller rating with no problems.

If your looking for a recommendation on a great battery charger then I agree with Dave Newall - the CTEK units are excellent.

I use a CTEK MXS 25 (25a) charger myself and have 400ah of batteries.

Edit - I see now where you got the 10a, 100ah thing - the Schaudt LA 1210 says on it's website it's only suitable for 100ah of batteries. Every other manufacturer of 10a chargers that I've looked at can charge far more than 100ah.

Yes you found it too.

Have now seen that modern chargers will handle batteries up to 20 times and more of output, maybe it's because the charger I was using was an older type.
It does still puzzle me though that the original charger the LA 200 lasted 21 years and is still going just that I didn't pick up the internal break in the sensing cable, and that it coped with batteries theoretically far in excess of it's capacity.

Like the idea of an intelligent charger noiw, in particular as the recommendations here are so enthusiastic.

Thanks

 

[Terry]

if you don't want to pay ctek prices
terry

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[hilldweller]

if you don't want to pay ctek prices
terry

That looks a proper job charger and that's what gets me with ctek, although they seem to have a good reputation they look like something from the bargain bin of Aldi.

 

[Terry]

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/ better and cheaper
terry

 

[Terry]

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if you like the Sargent unit
terry

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