I'm carrying a Charles Industries C-3000 charger supporting 3 8A4D AGM batteries. That's the first uh-oh for me given that the C-3000 (Ferroresonant) was not designed to manage AGM batteries. The batteries are about 4.5 years old according to the date labels. We bought the boat in 2021 and all has been good until now. Question: Is it possible that the Charles charger reduced the life span of the batteries? The house battery is dead. The two engine start batteries require "both" setting on the selectors to turn the Cat 3126 turbos. I know Charles is defunct. So, with the remove and replace facing me should I swap out the Charles for a charger that accommodates AGMs? And, if so, what is a good choice?
Yes you need a charger capable of charging AGM at the right voltage and set it for AGMs Despite all the claims, I have never had AGM lasting more than 4 to 5 years, even using a modern charger set to AGM so if yours are 4 1/2 years old and have been charged at the wrong voltage they may not last much longer
Flooded and standard AGM batteries have such a close charge profile, That I don't see many issues with a good standard charger.. You may have been reading to much internet ship that AGM batteries last longer. AGM batteries may offer more Amp/Hour performance over flooded batteries, 4 years is about end of life for both. Now before the peanut galleries come down on me, I typed standard AGM. The wanna-be fancy AGM batteries may call for a slightly different spec (tenths of volts) but IMO; does not really change the EOL ratio. You may have been reading to much internet ship that Charles Ferro chargers are good. Lots of ship.. You do have an interesting installation and may not fully understand it. Charles Ferro chargers are a disaster in progress. The cheapest of them all with poor performance. Just that your batteries lasted more than 6 months means you have one of the better (luckier) chargers that work closer to specs. Sadly, with Charles chargers mostly off the market, This leaves you in a pickle; Purchase new batteries and possibly a better charger? Since your fixing to spend a bunch of bux, let me help you wipe out some of your credit cards; Ensure starting banks and house banks are separate. Starting batteries are high cranking rated. House batteries are long Amp/Hour rated. Inverter batteries get their own Amp/Hour rated bank. This will require two battery chargers; House/inverter charger (could be the inverter charger) and starting battery charger. Now, if your a dock queen; Never mind..
Hence Why I mentioned; Charles Ferro chargers are a disaster in progress. Ed just got lucky for a while. Hopefully he will deep six his charlie charger and get a real battery charger.
I think Brother Pascal will agree, ProMariner makes good equipment. But I also like MasterVolt and Victron. Whatever you do, Stay away from anything related with xantrex.
I ve always had good luck with Pro Mariners bit in my boats and the boats I run. I have two pronautics (12v and 24v) on my hatt and a 4x12v on my electric sailboat. Good equipment
I'm sorry, Your on it, Got my Pro-somethings confused. Pro-nautic for big boats Pro-mariner for not so big boats.
We've had banks of Odyssey AGMs last at least 11 and 12 seasons, respectively. Former was replaced slightly early with 6Vs to increase capacity so may have lasted longer. Latter were still find when we sold that boat, ditto may have lasted longer. Lightweight battery use, though. We've has ProMariner chargers, mostly (maybe all?) the same as Sterling. The older circa 2003 ProTech was still fine, a newer ProNautic (can have the addition of a remote display panel) ditto, and a combi inverter/charger... all worked well for our installation, even the old one, since it would still supply voltages close to what Odyssey recommended. We currently have an older MasterVolt charger and a new Victron MultiPlus inverter/charger, and even the older one supplies the recommended voltages to its two Lifeline AGM banks. -Chris
the Pro-Nautic series is made by ProMariner and over the years I have had a number of chargers fail on various boats, incl Charles and Dolphin. To date no PM failure
Gents: Thank you. Just what I needed. I know the Charles is old and needs replacing. And, while I anticipated better performance from the AGMs on board after buying the boat, also feel certain that the old Charles probably contributed to earlier demise than normal. And the surveyor missed it 3 years ago. All this said, I'm not running an inverter. Only converting shore power to 12V for house operations when docked or generating. One interesting comment here is that I should plan on TWO chargers: 1 for the two engine batteries and generator starting battery (small series), and another charger for the deep cycle house battery. Before I try to wade through the internet ship is this really necessary? Are there single chargers with either selectable outputs or "smart" enough to take care of two different types of batteries (deep cycle and high cranking)? Thanks, again. This is why I subscribe to this forum.
I brought up 2 chargers for a few reasons. Cranking batteries and house batteries may be different types of batteries. Flooded and gel batteries can not be charged from the same charger. In my attempt to spend your money above (post #3), I do recommend a different charger for your cranking batteries and a dedicated bank or two for the house with it's own charger. Also, in emergency conditions, a twist of some battery parallel switches can temporally offer some charging back-up from the second charger. I read you are all 12Vdc. Probably a simple blessing. 12V main engines starting/cranking?? Were 32, 24 & 12V.
Ralph: Thank you. I plan to use all AGM in this round of replacing the batteries. I have one house (8A4D), two starting (8A4D) for the 3126s, and one generator starting battery (Group 34). All AGM. All wiring, fusing, and switching is in place and secured from the last refit. It sure would be easier to just put a single charger in the same place as the Charles to accommodate the 4 batteries. No inversion is necessary.
Ralph: No, I have not really looked yet. I wanted to talk to the smart guys here. And ask. Interesting. Is it possible that there is NOT a 4 slot charger with AGM functionality? Darn... If not, then I will need to adjust. Hmmm...
I have a 4x12v Pro Mariner to charge the 48v propulsion bank on my sail boat. I don’t recall off hand the amps it put out…. But 4 output chargers exists
Pascal: Thank you. I just finished a 30 minute call with another smart guy. I think I have this figured out. Ralph is right. I should go with two chargers, given the way in which I want to use and recharge. One for house, and another for starters. Then, just to make sure I know how the refit guys wired all of this some years back, diagram the logic and confirm where the alternators are sending power, as well as how the switches are directing and combining battery output to the engines from the batteries. It appears that they also installed an option to pull power from the House battery if needed. So, bottom line: I think I have this figured out and just need to get on it. By the way, the smart guy manages one of the leading yards here on the east coast. He likes Victron these days. Has had good results and stability from them. Thanks, all, for your insight and advice.
If all of your 4Ds are the same brand/type... so they all want the same charging profile... one approach could be a 3-bank charger for engines and house... and then either a separate smaller charger for your genset battery... or even no charger at all for the latter, if your genset alternator is working. Not lots of draw on a genset starter, and AGMs don't really self-discharge all that much. We did the latter on our previous bot, worked fine. Although we also had jumper cables on board too. -Chris
