Battery Equalizer - Why?

[wagwar]

I have a Sure Power battery equalizer and a 12 volt center tap on my house bank. I've tested the EQ and it seems to be working, but the half of my house bank that has the center tap still gets out of balance from the other half. I've checked voltages, connections, etc. and I'm fairly certain I have it connected properly.

So, I'm thinking: Just get rid of the 12 volt center tap all together?  I can wire the EQ as a simple converter and draw my 12 volt loads directly from it. That way, I don't need to balance the batteries and I'll only have a singe 24 volt connection to/from the house bank.

Any problems with that?

I'm thinking - Why not do that on the bus start batt side too?  Just use the Vanner EQ as a converter and avoid the whole 12 volt center tap for the headlights? The Vanner is a 60 A unit and it can certainly handle the headlights.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Brian Diehl]

Yes - I'm interested in this too since my batteries never drained down before I put in an equalizer .....

[Geoff]

You need to separate the 12v house system from the 24v center tap.  Get a 12v truck alternator to supply your 12 v needs and keep the 24v just for starting and the few 24v loads you have.  I don't know how far your electrical system has bought into the 24v B.S. about being more efficient, but house systems are meant to run on 12v.

--Geoff

[luvrbus]

Geoff is alive and well lol I agree Vanners are a PITA  ot here but how are you doing on Johns bus Geoff

good luck

[Brian Diehl]

I have only a couple of 12 volt loads including the electronics on the engine and the transmission.  I'm not running a 12v system just for them.  I'll await any more feedback on the aforementioned configuration of the vanner equalizer.

[belfert]

I run a Vanner equalizer on my house batteries and I've not noticed the two halves of the battery bank getting out of balance.  The Vanner doesn't seem to drain the batteries when everything is turned off and the charger is disconnected for a few days.

I have a 24 volt house bank because it matches my alternator and the wires to my inverter can be smaller.  I run 4/0 cable to my inverter and it is marginal for the distance.  I would hate to have to buy cable larger than 4/0 if I used 12 volt.  I didn't want to mess around with adding another alternator for 12 volt.

[Tony LEE]

My MC8 was 100% 24V with no centre tap, so when I converted it I installed 24V stuff wherever possible.

For items not available in 24V - such as stove ignitors, propane HWS control, radio and the like, I just installed a 24V to 12V DC-DC converter to run them


Have a reasonably large solar system that handles most of the house supply, so if I did it again, I would probably go for an all 12V system for the house and if necessary, install a DC - to DC battery charger to allow on the road charging from the engine alternator.

[wagwar]

Thanks for the info and sharing, but back to the original question: Is there any disadvantage in wiring my Sure Power EQ as a simple converter vs wiring it as an equalizer?  It is not feasible or practical to change my system to be 12v especially since I have that big 4000w 24v inverter.

As for the Vanner, if I can wire it as a converter vs an equalizer, then it just seems like it would be much simpler and eliminate any possibility of unbalanced batteries?

[scanzel]

Have you tried the Vanner web site to see if you can talk to customer tech service ?

[luvrbus]

What you are trying to do is the reason Vanner make the VC series a 24 to 12 volt converter

[uemjg]

are there other brands other than Vanner that do the same? Cost?

[luvrbus]

The last 30 amp 24 to 12 volt converter I bought was around 120 bucks made by Samlex fwiw probably cheaper now

[scanzel]

So what is the general opinion, use a Vanner equalizer or use a converter. The reason I ask is my battery bank will be 24v with a 4000 watt Magnum inverter. But I will still have some 12v house needs like my Proheat unit and some other items so basically I need 24v & 12V from my battery bank.

[Emcemv]

Steve

In my opinion, anytime the 24v is made from two 12v batteries in series, the best way to get 12v would be the equalizer. If the 24v is a single battery or batteries in parallel, then the converter would be the best approach.

[luvrbus]

There is no need for a equalizer unless the system has a 12v center tap