Rick,
This is exactly the type of analysis I was looking for. It confirms my
suspicion that my recharging process is not very efficient due to the
design of the Magnetek's safety features.
Thanks for your help.
Jerry Roberts
________________________________
From: AirstreamList@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:AirstreamList@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Rick Davis
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:57 AM
To: AirstreamList@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [A/S] Re: Battery Charging
I assume when you say plug in the trailer cord you mean the 120 volt
cord so you are charging through the Magnatek?
The Magnatek is an excellent converter but it will taper the charge to
a low level very quickly. A good trait when plugged in normally but not
so good when charging from a generator and time is important.
Due to it's ( magnetek) design it relies in part on the 60 cycle line
frequency to regulate the charge rate. I have an old Honda EM600
generator and by changing the line frequency slightly to 58 or 59 cps
instead of 60 I can get a constant charge rate of around 20 amps and
charge fairly quickly.
I suspect the frequency change may not be possible with the newer
inverter type generators..
I know at least one of the new smart chargers has an overide to make it
a little less smart for generator charging situations but can't lay my
hands on the info right now.
At any rate you do not need a bigger converter, just some way to
overide the normal regulation of these things. When doing this you also
need some good metering so you know when you approach full charge and
can shut things down.
Sometimes the newer smarter stuff has a definite downside.
As an aside doing this properly should not have a serious affect on your
batteries. I have been doing this for years when our solar is not doing
the job due to tree cover. My 2 golf cart batteries are into year 9
Rick Davis 1602
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