Clarke 50A charger

[riiggs]

Im considering buying a CLARKE BC520E 50A battery charger from machine mart(£180) to charge a bank of 5 85AH batteries(425AH tottal)Using my Makita G1700I inverter generator(1500w aprox).Has anyone used one of these chargers or does anyone know if they are any good?Im not sure if they are 2,3 or 4 stage chargers.

Are there any other 50A chargers for around the same price that you would recomend?Or would i be better off getting a 70A charger?

Please help im new to all this boating stuff.

here is the link to the clarke charger:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/...-2/brand/clarke

[DHutch]

I personaly would be looking at geting a sterling charger, or somthing simular to that.

- IM not sure how much they got for, there designed for the job, and with 5 batterys at £50 odd each, you only have nacker one set to have made a false ecomomy. Might be worth looking at second hand units if you budget is tight. That unit looks like a very basic, all be it large, automotice charge.

 

Teds at MarketDryton seamed to have a range of secondhand sterling gear for sale.

- Or 25amp (24volt) sterling charge has done us great service for the last 15 years, and i see no reason why i shouldnt do another 15.

 

http://www.tedsboatyard.co.uk/

 

 

Daniel

[Keeping Up]

It looks to me as if it's not an intelligent or multistage charger at all, merely a big and simple charger with the added ability to put out a very high current boost charge for starting an engine. It would no doubt be fine for charging a flat battery for a while and then you disconnect it when you know the battery is full, which is basically what you want it for, but there are at least 2 possible problems:

 

If it is too simple, it may not give reliable results from the generator unless that has a good stable output (this point could only be answered by someone else with experience of actually using it, maybe another member can help yuo here).

 

You are almost certainly paying much of your money for the high boost capability. Unless you expect to need this capability for starting the engine, you would be better either to buy a cheaper charger without that capability, or else a better charger for the same money.

 

You can of course charge from a generator using a non-intelligent charger. The key is in how accurately you can estimate the correct time to stop charging. Too soon or too late and in either case your batteries have a shortened life..

[blackrose]

It looks to me as if it's not an intelligent or multistage charger at all, merely a big and simple charger with the added ability to put out a very high current boost charge for starting an engine.

 

Agreed.

 

You can get a Sterling 50amp Pro-Digital charger from Yachtbits for £328 although I'm not sure if your 1500w generator would run this. You might have to go for the 40amp charger.

 

You should be charging at anything between up to 20% of your battery bank capacity (take the total amp/hours capacity of your battery bank and then calculate the output of the charger in Amps as a %). I'm on mains so I can get away with a small charger (30amp) to charge my 405a/h domestics because the charger can stay on all the time. This equates to only 7.4%, but this is meant to be good for the batteries longevity. However, since you're talking about using the generator to run the charger I would have thought you'd need to be looking at a higher % (say 15%+) so that you're not having to run the generator all the time.

 

Talk to Kevin (01502 569079) and he will work out what size charger your generator will run.

 

http://www.yachtbits.com/sterling_power/st...ry_chargers.php

 

(I'm not connected in any way, just had good friendly service from them and the prices are ok.)

[nmptwentyone]

Im considering buying a CLARKE BC520E 50A battery charger from machine mart(£180) to charge a bank of 5 85AH batteries(425AH tottal)Using my Makita G1700I inverter generator(1500w aprox).Has anyone used one of these chargers or does anyone know if they are any good?Im not sure if they are 2,3 or 4 stage chargers.

Are there any other 50A chargers for around the same price that you would recomend?Or would i be better off getting a 70A charger?

Please help im new to all this boating stuff.

here is the link to the clarke charger:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/...-2/brand/clarke

 

i've got one. when running with my 1000W yamaha generator it settled out at 18A charge. your 1500W genny would probably be better but dont ever expect to get 50A. i've still got it, was going to ebay it, hardly used. £100 if i havent put you off too much. we went for a sterling alternator to battery charger with 100A alternator which charges at about 55A. well happy with that.

[stuart]

If you speak to Mr Sterling directly you will probably get a good deal on stuff direct from his warehouse.

[riiggs]

If you speak to Mr Sterling directly you will probably get a good deal on stuff direct from his warehouse.

 

Thank u all for the info.

Do you know how i can contact the sterling company directly?

I wont be buying the clarke charger after your recommendations i am going to buy a sterling.Does anyone know if i can run the 50A sterling charger off my makita G1700i (1.65Kva) generator?

[bottle]

Link to Sterling

 

and

 

Link to contact page Contact us

 

I have no connection whatsoever with the company.

[nmptwentyone]

Thank u all for the info.

Do you know how i can contact the sterling company directly?

I wont be buying the clarke charger after your recommendations i am going to buy a sterling.Does anyone know if i can run the 50A sterling charger off my makita G1700i (1.65Kva) generator?

 

i thought id seen this topic before! glad you didnt buy the clarke, sold mine on ebay a couple of weeks ago. i think youll be fine with your genny and the 50A charger. we've got a 120A charger but i can limit the power it can have depending on size of genny or shore supply its connected to. currently i limit it to 6A off the genny which works out about 1400W, that gives us a max of 85A charge, so you'll be fine with a max of 50A i would think. might draw 4.5A off your genny just over 1000W.

 

not actual calculations but approx values using readings taken from my current set up.

Edited June 12, 2007 by nmptwentyone