Star Dreamer Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 I have an inteli-power convertor 60 amp 9200 series with a charge wizard not currently being used. Can I hook this up to the HDT battery's (4) and use it as a charger to maintain all 4? It shows that it does normal, boost, storage and desulfation charges but doesn't show how many batteries it can handle. I am hoping to use it this winter instead of buying a new battery maintainer. Any thoughts or drawbacks to using it? Dave 2005 Freightliner Century S/T, Singled, Air ride ET Jr. hitch 2019 46'+ Dune Sport Man Cave custom 5th wheel toy hauler Owner of the 1978 Custom Van "Star Dreamer" which might be seen at a local car show near you! Check out http://www.hhrvresource.com/ for much more info on HDT's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yarome Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Can I hook this up to the HDT battery's (4) and use it as a charger to maintain all 4? Any thoughts or drawbacks to using it? Yes. Not a one. That's a fairly decent converter. Refer to your owners manual to set the type and size of your battery bank. If you have wet cells, don't forget to check your water levels periodically, but other than that it should suit you just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyA Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Progressive Dynamics makes a decent converter/charger in the 9200 series. Yes, you should use the Charge Wizard - plug it in to the converter and forget it, noting else to set. Yes, it will handle 4 batteries. My only two negative comments are the unit is extremely susceptible to damage from water so be sure to keep it high and dry. 2nd, it has a somewhat negative power factor which can make it difficult to operate the converter at maximum output from a small inverter generator (<1600 watts). But, since that does not seem to be a concern for your application you have a nice piece of equipment on hand to keep your HDT batteries charged. Go for it. Randy, Nancy and Oscar "The Great White" - 2004 Volvo VNL670, D12, 10-speed, converted to single axle pulling a Keystone Cambridge 5th wheel, 40', 4 slides and about 19,000# with empty tanks. ARS - WB4BZX, Electrical Engineer, Master Electrician, D.Ed., Professor Emeritus - Happily Retired! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 I have an inteli-power convertor 60 amp 9200 series with a charge wizard not currently being used. Can I hook this up to the HDT battery's (4) and use it as a charger to maintain all 4? It shows that it does normal, boost, storage and desulfation charges but doesn't show how many batteries it can handle. I am hoping to use it this winter instead of buying a new battery maintainer. Any thoughts or drawbacks to using it? Dave Yes that will technically work, but over time your batteries will become unbalanced and possibly become damaged in colder weather...If your just looking for something to maintain all the batteries topped off while the vehicle is not in use, get one of these off ebay... Battery Balancer and Charger.<--- Click there.., its designed for RC car market, but it has the same output as most battery tenders out there and if you wire up the balance leads and mount the charger in your battery compartment, you could just plug it in and forget.. it works awesome and i have never had a single battery ive attached it to give me issues since it keeps them all balanced out.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yarome Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Yes that will technically work, but over time your batteries will become unbalanced and possibly become damaged in colder weather. I would disagree. A fully charged wet cell will 'not' be damaged by cold weather nor become 'unbalanced' through regular charging. There are battery tenders better suited, however, the OP was specifically trying to avoid purchasing an additional tending unit. As long as water levels are regularly checked there should be no issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rif Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 I would disagree. A fully charged wet cell will 'not' be damaged by cold weather nor become 'unbalanced' through regular charging. There are battery tenders better suited, however, the OP was specifically trying to avoid purchasing an additional tending unit. As long as water levels are regularly checked there should be no issue. X2 2000 Volvo 770, 500HP/1650FP Cummins N14 and 10 Speed Autoshift 3.58 Rear 202" WB, 2002 Teton Aspen Royal 43 Foot, Burgman 650 Scooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 I would disagree. A fully charged wet cell will 'not' be damaged by cold weather nor become 'unbalanced' through regular charging. There are battery tenders better suited, however, the OP was specifically trying to avoid purchasing an additional tending unit. As long as water levels are regularly checked there should be no issue. that is completely wrong, fully charge a battery, then take one that is 1-2 volts lower and connect it in parallel and connect the battery charger to the circuit.. the weaker battery will never be charged to full charge because the highest volt battery in the circuit is tripping the cut off circuit on the charger to stop charging the batteries.. this is not the same as when the truck is running and the voltage from the alternator is constantly pumping out atleast 12V in most cases.. the weaker cell will be exposed to the voltage no matter what and balance out at that voltage... Battery chargers have cut offs built into them to charge tell the voltage meets the range programmed in the charger, then it cuts off and just senses the battery every so often... What all of yall are telling him to do is called top balance, which in short term works, but over time the weakest battery in the circuit will wear down faster... the balancer i posted above will keeps ALL his cells bottom balanced.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star Dreamer Posted October 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Thank you everyone for the responses. Storx, I downloaded a user manual for the imax B6 and a couple of issues: input is in DC volts which means a separate transformer is required to go from AC to DC, it specifically says to not hook it up to batteries that are connected to other electrical devices. Since the intent is to leave the batteries in the truck hooked up, otherwise I would just pull them out and charge them inside like I do my trailer batteries. I will stick with the RV convertor for this winter and see how it does. Randy brings up a good point it that the location is not very weather tight, so I need to make sure the charger is mounted such that snow and rain can't get to it but that it has adequate ventilation. Dave 2005 Freightliner Century S/T, Singled, Air ride ET Jr. hitch 2019 46'+ Dune Sport Man Cave custom 5th wheel toy hauler Owner of the 1978 Custom Van "Star Dreamer" which might be seen at a local car show near you! Check out http://www.hhrvresource.com/ for much more info on HDT's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yarome Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 fully charge a battery, then take one that is 1-2 volts lower and connect it in parallel and connect the battery charger to the circuit.. the weaker battery will never be charged to full charge because the highest volt battery in the circuit is tripping the cut off circuit on the charger to stop charging the batteries.. What all of yall are telling him to do is called top balance, which in short term works, but over time the weakest battery in the circuit will wear down faster... the balancer i posted above will keeps ALL his cells bottom balanced.. Whoever taught you that is how wet cells, in series or parallel, charge was misinformed. What you're talking about, "refreshing/balancing" a wet cell by performing a complete discharge then recharge, doesn't apply to wet cells. Cycling a wet cell like that will kill your cells in nothing flat. Rechargeable NiMH's/NiCD's would benefit from a cycle like that (if done sparingly), but the charger/balancer you linked to would be death for a wet cell. There's no arguing physics. I won't argue with you, though. You're free to do as please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Thank you everyone for the responses. Storx, I downloaded a user manual for the imax B6 and a couple of issues: input is in DC volts which means a separate transformer is required to go from AC to DC, it specifically says to not hook it up to batteries that are connected to other electrical devices. Since the intent is to leave the batteries in the truck hooked up, otherwise I would just pull them out and charge them inside like I do my trailer batteries. I will stick with the RV convertor for this winter and see how it does. Randy brings up a good point it that the location is not very weather tight, so I need to make sure the charger is mounted such that snow and rain can't get to it but that it has adequate ventilation. Dave Ya, that is a little misleading, i had the same question after i bought all of mine, but after contacting they said that is really meaning you shouldnt have it turned on trying to balance the batteries when it has something else drawing power off of them, so when the truck off it will work perfectly fine, it just cant balance the batteries properly when they are under a load...I use one on my Corvette, Motorcycles, and Dirt bike without a single issue, ive never had any of the batteries give me issues... They sell other wires for different countries and such, like ive seen cig lighter ones, and just plain alligator clips if your trying to use another 12v source to maintain them.. the iMax runs off 12v/8a input Whoever taught you that is how wet cells, in series or parallel, charge was misinformed. What you're talking about, "refreshing/balancing" a wet cell by performing a complete discharge then recharge, doesn't apply to wet cells. Cycling a wet cell like that will kill your cells in nothing flat. Rechargeable NiMH's/NiCD's would benefit from a cycle like that (if done sparingly), but the charger/balancer you linked to would be death for a wet cell. There's no arguing physics. I won't argue with you, though. You're free to do as please. I understand what you are talking about, but many chargers off the shelf now are so cheaply made that they just use logic code to turn them off once XX.X voltage is detected through mosfet switching.. I know the iMax will cycle the "FIT's" to balance out all cells, but i have never seen it cycle more than 2 times while charging multi cell batteries that were not way out of balance, yes if the cells are poorly balanced yes.. but 1-2 times on healthy batteries and the discharge is so minimal i dont even think you can count it as a discharge cycle on the battery itself.., for example when i wired one up to my grandparents golfcart for when they go back up north and its stored during the summer in florida, it will charge the batteries up to 6.31v the first time, then discharge down to 6.29v, then back up to 6.31v tell all cells read 6.3v+, their golf cart was bought in 2004 and its still running off the same batteries since and i didnt add the balancer tell 2009 after noticing how poorly balanced they were when performing maintenance on the batteries for them... Now every Summer since 2009, the iMax is plugged in and left on while its stored for a few months....with no issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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