Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Would hooking up a stand alone battery charger to the system cause the converter/charger to go bad?

Is this a rhetorical question, as in something you've recently experienced or in preparation for a possible future event?

If you have access to an AC source why would you not use the 3-stage charging function on the WFCO?
Enquiring minds and all...

If you are asking if you were to hook a battery charger to the battery while the onboard charger is NOT plugged in I have done that with no bad results.

I don't ever remember ever hooking a battery charger to the battery while the onboard charger WAS plugged in and working so I don't know what happens I would think nothing, but I have thought wrong before.

I'm asking this because from what I have seen written in many different sites that the 3 stage chargers will never get the batteries to a full charge because they take power from the batteries in order for them to work. I have seen this on boats before with shore power/charge systems and have installed an on board stand alone charger in addition to the one in the unit with no problems. I was just wondering is these RV type chargers are different. Mine got fried and the guy I bought it from said that was the reason it burned up and why there would be no warranty.

mx842 wrote:I'm asking this because from what I have seen written in many different sites that the 3 stage chargers will never get the batteries to a full charge because they take power from the batteries in order for them to work. I have seen this on boats before with shore power/charge systems and have installed an on board stand alone charger in addition to the one in the unit with no problems. I was just wondering is these RV type chargers are different. Mine got fried and the guy I bought it from said that was the reason it burned up and why there would be no warranty.

I can tell you that the WFCO 8900 series is a decent unit. The only converter I would prefer over it right now (in a similar price class) is the Progressive Dynamics charge wizard stuff. The only reason I say that is that with the PDs you can manually command bulk charge mode which is nice when out in the boondocks and charging off of a genset.

I personally own an WFCO 8945 (same deal, 10 amps less capacity) which has zero problems charging my 440 Ah battery bank (4-6V golf cart batteries in series/parallel) and maintaining it at 100% SOC. I monitor that bank carefully (it's a sizable $$ investment and I want it to live a while) and am quite pleased with the performance of the WFCO.

If you feel the need to run an outboard charger (I do not see a need myself) then I would disconnect the WFCO when running the outboard.

- Frank

fromeo wrote:If you feel the need to run an outboard charger then I would disconnect the WFCO when running the outboard.

- Frank

That's what I would do, too. Better safe than sorry.

mx842 wrote:I'm asking this because from what I have seen written in many different sites that the 3 stage chargers will never get the batteries to a full charge because they take power from the batteries in order for them to work. I have seen this on boats before with shore power/charge systems and have installed an on board stand alone charger in addition to the one in the unit with no problems. I was just wondering is these RV type chargers are different. Mine got fried and the guy I bought it from said that was the reason it burned up and why there would be no warranty.

Not sure where you're getting the above information but it sounded kinda wierd based upon what I read and my expernece.

So, I called WFCO (and spoke to John at (574) 294-8997). He was very nice, knowlegeable and explained the following:

When there is a load on the battery or the battery voltage is low and the WFCO unit is powered up it will provide 14.4 volts. This is called the "bulk mode". When the load on the WFCO unit drops to about 5 amps at 14.4 vollts for about 4 hours the unit will drop down to 13.6 volts and stay there. This is called the "absorption mode". The unit will provide 13.6 volts unless the load increases in which case it will return to the "bulk mode". While in the "absorption mode" if the unit sees no load on the battery for approximately 48 hours it will drop down to 13.2 volts and maintain the battery there until a load is detected. According to John 13.2 volts is perhaps 95% fully charged.

I asked John specifically if hooking up a brute force battery charger with the WFCO unit hooked up will damage the WFCO unit and he said it would not. If a battery is reallly dead, the WFCO charger (like many microprocessor controlled chargers) won't start the process and charge the battery) and you may need to hook up a brute force charger to get things going. I resurected a battery just last week (it was realllllly dead) by doing this. It only got up to 12.5 volts but it started the hydraulic unit so I could sell it. I did, though, tell the buyer the battery was suspect, a new one is twenty bucks, and he stole a $4,700 unit for $700 (but I paid $100 at a garage sale so I was happy). I digress.

I'm not sure who one should believe but my money is on John at WFCO. Too many "old wives tales" on the internet with no basis in fact.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

eamarquardt wrote:

mx842 wrote:I'm asking this because from what I have seen written in many different sites that the 3 stage chargers will never get the batteries to a full charge because they take power from the batteries in order for them to work. I have seen this on boats before with shore power/charge systems and have installed an on board stand alone charger in addition to the one in the unit with no problems. I was just wondering is these RV type chargers are different. Mine got fried and the guy I bought it from said that was the reason it burned up and why there would be no warranty.

Not sure where you're getting the above information but it sounded kinda wierd based upon what I read and my expernece.

So, I called WFCO (and spoke to John at (574) 294-8997). He was very nice, knowlegeable and explained the following:

When there is a load on the battery or the battery voltage is low and the WFCO unit is powered up it will provide 14.4 volts. This is called the "bulk mode". When the load on the WFCO unit drops to about 5 amps at 14.4 vollts for about 4 hours the unit will drop down to 13.6 volts and stay there. This is called the "absorption mode". The unit will provide 13.6 volts unless the load increases in which case it will return to the "bulk mode". While in the "absorption mode" if the unit sees no load on the battery for approximately 48 hours it will drop down to 13.2 volts and maintain the battery there until a load is detected. According to John 13.2 volts is perhaps 95% fully charged.

I asked John specifically if hooking up a brute force battery charger with the WFCO unit hooked up will damage the WFCO unit and he said it would not. If a battery is reallly dead, the WFCO charger (like many microprocessor controlled chargers) won't start the process and charge the battery) and you may need to hook up a brute force charger to get things going. I resurected a battery just last week (it was realllllly dead) by doing this. It only got up to 12.5 volts but it started the hydraulic unit so I could sell it. I did, though, tell the buyer the battery was suspect, a new one is twenty bucks, and he stole a $4,700 unit for $700 (but I paid $100 at a garage sale so I was happy). I digress.

I'm not sure who one should believe but my money is on John at WFCO. Too many "old wives tales" on the internet with no basis in fact.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

Well Gus I am inclined to agree with you misinformation is everywhere and on the internet it is easy to get cross tracked because it is sometimes hard to explain things and have someone else understand what you are saying.

I think what some were saying about the unit is that it is hard sometimes hard to get the unit to go into bulk mode and with the unit itself using roughly 10 amps to run itself in some cases you may not get a full charge.

I wanted to have an on board charger in the system just to be safe because you never know when something electronic is going to quit on you and it never hurts to have a backup. Also there is no reason it should bother the unit and I believe the e-bay guy was just saying that to get out of having to deal with it.

mx842 wrote:I wanted to have an on board charger in the system just to be safe because you never know when something electronic is going to quit on you and it never hurts to have a backup. Also there is no reason it should bother the unit and I believe the e-bay guy was just saying that to get out of having to deal with it.

I always like having an "alternate plan B" also and think a back up is good idea. I think I'd contact the factory about your failure and see if they will help you and I wouldn't do business with the EBay fellow again.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Gus

eamarquardt wrote:

mx842 wrote:I wanted to have an on board charger in the system just to be safe because you never know when something electronic is going to quit on you and it never hurts to have a backup. Also there is no reason it should bother the unit and I believe the e-bay guy was just saying that to get out of having to deal with it.

I always like having an "alternate plan B" also and think a back up is good idea. I think I'd contact the factory about your failure and see if they will help you and I wouldn't do business with the EBay fellow again.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Gus

Yeah I'm with you on that. No matter how this turns out all the run around has kind of put a bad taste in my mouth. I'm going to send in my info to the factory tomorrow and see what happens, I've had enough of the RV store.

Went through the warranty paperwork this morning and faxed it to the factory. they called me this afternoon with a RGA # and told me to box the unit up and send it back for review. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Good deal! My Fluke 83III just failed. Covered under lifetiime warranty! Took about two weeks from ship to back in my hands. They didn't notice that I had replaced the battery clip with a much better one, ha!

Cheers,

Gus

Well as you know I sent off the burned up part and today I got conformation from my tracking # that the part was delivered today. Now we wait to see what happens.

My buddy works for a company that has like about 500 trailers all over the country and he raided the parts house before he left to come home and he brought me a brand new Todd PC75a charger/converter and told me they would let me have it for $100.00. I got to checking this unit out and from what I can tell they are pretty much junk. After about 2 weeks looking and searching the internet I finally got in touch with a guy at a company called Master Teck. They used to sell these units and he told me they were good equipment at one time but they got greedy and cheapened them up and that move put them out of business.

The company my buddy works for bought like 40 of these thing years ago because they gave them a really good deal. From what they say some of the units were alright but most of them would last about a year and then quit working.

I may use this one if WFCO don't fix my other one. If they do thenI'll probably get my buddy to send it back. I'll let you know when I find out something.