Quote:
Originally Posted by Brown Dog
PWY, with your experience in regard to Anderson Plug (I had a good system with basic redarc controller on my Pajero) do you know much about the BCDC1220 Battery Redarc Controller? I was told that it will charge the battery with available battery voltage including condition charging different types of batteries?
Cheers
Browny
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Browny,
I have not used the BCDC1220 myself, we usually prefer CTEK. However the BCDC1220 is a good quality DC to DC charger which basically takes any reasonable input voltage and turns it into a proper charge voltage for your second battery. You can think of it as a standard car charger (the type that you plug in to 240V mains power) but instead of getting the power from 240V it will take it from the alternator/primary battery.
Of course there is a bit more to that but it's the same principle.
Charging with a BCDC1220 or a similar unit is pretty much the best you can do to your battery as they do a much better job that the crude way of charging through the alternator. But there is one big gotcha...
The BCDC1220 has a max charging rate of 20A and while this seems to be a lot, it is only 1/4 (or less) of what the alternator can deliver. So charging through a BCDC1220 will take 4 times longer compared to a simple VSR and direct alternator power! This will be an issue if you have high capacity batteries and don't drive long enough to recharge the batteries fully.
If you want faster charging you need to go to the BCDC1240 which gives you 40A output.
Another option is the CTEK Dual (20A output) and add a CTEK Smartpass for 80A output.
The best advise I can give you is to make sure you understand the implications of the different options before you pay big $$. Usually the products work fine and do what the advertising says but often people ignore the parts they don't understand and later are surprised why they do not get the desired result.
