"Fast as I dare" agm battery charging

[phil4501]

I have a 12K onan,diesel, aircooled generator. I will be upgrading my marine converter to a Xantrex RS3000 inverter/charger and 8 lifeline 8d batteries. I want to bulk charge as fast as is practicable with the generator, then finish off with solar.

What is the best way to accomplish this. This is a boondock only coach, only pluged in when parked at my house.I was planning on Ample or similar AC chargers to suppliment the RS 3000.  I have not bought anything yet but plan to start soon. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Phil,

I also have the RS3000 w/ 12.5 Q diesel, I am able to get 150a charge off the gen set, 180a on land line!
My batt bank is 840a FLA, Can recharge to 95% in 3hrs but, I don't have solar for finnishing. I usually am not boondocking
for very long. So I finish with secondary Alt while driving
The RS3000 is a good choice for your application because, their Power Factor Corrected charging is the most efficient inverter/ charger out there!
The RS control panel takes the place of other Batt monitoring devices. Solar is right for you but, I have no expierence there!
Nick Badame-

I have a 12K onan,diesel, aircooled generator. I will be upgrading my marine converter to a Xantrx RS3000 inverter/charger and 8 lifeline 8d batteries. I want to bulk charge as fast as is practicable with the generator, then finish off with solar.

What is the best way to accomplish this. This is a boondock only coach, only pluged in when parked at my house.I was planning on Ample or similar AC chargers to suppliment the RS 3000. I have not bought anything yet but plan to start soon. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[phil4501]

is the generator capable of running additional chargers? How many 12v amps of  ac charging would be the max? Would adding an alternator to the genset motor be a better choice. Solar will come later an will only be relied on to top off when the generator ceases to be efficient.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Your  gen is 12,000watts [lots of leftover power on a/c side] Do the math!
[Would adding an alternator to the genset motor be a better choice.] well, better choice than bus engine while parked but, still not efficient!
Other than solar, Hook a altenator to a stationary bicycle and get your exercise. LOL!
With alot of boondocking, your most efficient choice for finishing is still solar.
Nick-

is the generator capable of running additional chargers? How many 12v amps of ac charging would be the max? Would adding an alternator to the genset motor be a better choice. Solar will come later an will only be relied on to top off when the generator ceases to be efficient.

[phil4501]

Why does the rs3000 only put out 150amps on the gen. compared ta 180 on shore?

Would 80% of the 12000 watts be the sweet spot to shoot for on the bulk charge

Thanks for the help
Phil Zisakis

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Phil,

I'm not sure. But, one factor that I can think of- Mabe I just have not depleted my batteries enough yet!
The RS sences automaticly how much charge to put out and I don't see why the gen would be any differnt
than house current. I may be wrong?
Nick

Why does the rs3000 only put out 150amps on the gen. compared ta 180 on shore?

Would 80% of the 12000 watts be the sweet spot to shoot for on the bulk charge

Thanks for the help
Phil Zisakis

[TomCat]

Hey Phil,

I have a Xantrex RS3000 in my coach and have found it to have a very efficient battery charging system. When it's fed properly, the Bulk and Absorption stages are very fast, however the Float stage drags on for a while.
Since you only listed 'Bulk' and 'finish up' charge modes, I can't tell from your post if you would like to 'add' charging power from another device to the RS3000s charging power while in the Bulk and Absorption stages. If this is the case, I'm curious how the RS3000s charge controller would deal with it. Just having a temperature change while charging my four 8D AGM's will modify the charge rate somewhat.
If your solar panels can produce 13.7/8v, it would be just about right for the Float stage of charging, and may give you the ability to shut down the genny for that portion of your charging needs.

Jay
87 SaftLiner

[phil4501]

I want to force feed the agms using the genset for as long as I am making good use of the power available. The solar could finish up. I was thinking that point would be at the end of the bulk charge. Is this correct?

If the additional chargers will cause the rs3000 to decrease output then I would choose not to add them or use a different inverter/charger. Would using outback stuff make this any easier?

[TomCat]

Phil,

Based on my experience with the RS3000, I would think you'd be better served to generator charge your batteries through the Bulk and Absorption stages, and then fall back to your solar supply for the Float portion.

Jay
87 SaftLiner

[FAST FRED]

Why does the rs3000 only put out 150amps on the gen. compared ta 180 on shore?

This is very common on small gensets .

Over about 10KW from a really good gen head youre charge rates will be the same as at the Power Pole.

The small stuff really has less power in its 120V than the big stuff.
The"Area under the curve" of the sine wave output is what power is avilable .

So  basicially there is less "there" there on the tiny stuff.

Most bat chargers are happy if they can create 75% on a wee noisemaker.

FAST FRED

[phil4501]

  OK It makes sense to run the genset through both bulk and absorbtion stages. Would it save much runtime to run the additional ac chargers during both of those phases. If so, is there a way to have the rs3000 control those chargers. How does it sense the difference between batteries being charged from another source and fully charged batteries?

  Right now I have a marine style converter and 6 sammy's golf carts. My next purchase was to be the xantrex rs3000. After that I would upgrade batteries to the  8d lifeline agms. Then I would like to add the additional AC chargers and solar panels as my budget allows.

[Dallas]

This might be a stupid question, but!
I've been using the same group 31 truck batteries since 1999, I think it was September.
I have used them in 3 diffrent vehicles, 1 IH truck and 2 buses.
They still put out about 93% of what they did when new.
I charge them with the generator on the engine, the genset at 20amps and a supplemetary charger that charges at 6A. I did just upgraded this to a 25A smart charger that will charge in four stages,
My care of the batteies is to clean the posts once a year and to fill them twice a year.
Now, to get to my question:
Why are my lasting so much longer than yours?
Dallas

[phil4501]

There is nothing wrong with my present batteries. They do not have the capacity for the job that we intend to use the coach for. the golf cart batteriies will rotate to my Dad's class c.

[Dallas]

Ok, Maybe my question was misplaced.
I was asking as a general question why, with my small charging regimen, my batteries last so far, about 6 1/2 years and most people are switching out at 2 or 3 years?
Could it be possible that high amp charging is not good for batteries?
My engine generator puts out 160amps with a dual field, giving it a total of 320 amps, My Generac 4.5 genset charges at 20 amps, and my recent upgrade charger gives a 4 stage charge with a max of 25 amps.
I understand that engineering says you can do this or that, but, my batteries seem to outlast most of the ones I've heard of on this or other boards for longevity.
I also can run my 12cu' house fridge, lights, Microwave, 2 computers, and other stuff off of the inverter for about a day and a half. I wasn't counting the waterpump, step light, interior lights, or vent fans.
As FF said, do it your way, my way seems to work for me.
Dalls

[phil4501]

High amp charging is what I am looking to do. Can I accomplish this by adding additional chargers to a rs3000 and still have it operate at its top capacity?