what on-board charger to buy?

Comment

Comment by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on February 26, 2009 at 7:33am

5 amp chargers are slower but give you a better charge, and extend the life of your batteries, other than Rolls batteries which need to boiled when charging.

Comment by RFatt16 on February 23, 2009 at 9:14pm

I can tell you what not to buy. I have went through 3 XPS 3 bank 5amp chargers from BPS. I thought the first one was a fluke. I had it 3 months and it went out. The second one went out just after i had it 6 months. I called and tried to get answers to see if i was doing anything wrong. I read the manual......YEAH I SAID IT. I READ THE MANUAL. I understand if you want to take my man card but i was getting pissed changing my charger bi-yearly. LOL Anyway after i read it i followed their directions to a T. After the 3rd one went out I decided to move up to the MinnKota. I have had it for about 6 months and no problems yet. Knock on wood.

If you think you'll have better luck with the XPS one i have a never used one from BPS that they sent me instead of a refund like i asked for. I am just lazy and haven't sent it back to them yet.

Comment by Chris Blandi on February 21, 2009 at 5:45pm

I have a Promariner 3 bank, 10 amps each. I've had issues with Promariner in the past. Most important thing with this brand, is to always upplug the cord from the wall. If you unplug the cord from the charger itself, so you don't have to walk the distance to the wall plug, your charger will go bad. It only takes once, I would know. It states this in the owners manual, so make sure you read the manual no matter what brand you buy.

Comment by Chris Howell on February 20, 2009 at 11:30pm

Oh, and one more thing, just a testiment for Dual pro. My livewells have a "fill to" plug you have to remove for the low water and high water fill. So you turn on the aerator and the well fills to that outlet...unless of course you forget to pull that plug out. Stupid me actually did that twice last year, and in that swamping of my back deck compartmets my on-board charger was fully submerged not once but twice. It survived, so far, without a hitch. --knock on wood--

Hope that all helps you.

Comment by Aaron Christel on February 20, 2009 at 11:25pm

Good info, thanks!

Comment by Chris Howell on February 20, 2009 at 11:23pm

There are several key features you should take into consideration before you buy an on-board charger. First would be if the charger will shut down after the battery(s) are fully charged. Some chargers will switch down to maintience mode which will just keep the batts at full charge for as long as it's plugged in.

Second is how fast do you want to charge you're batteries (faster means mo' money). There are several different amp charges per bank...such as 5amp per, 10 amp per, 15 amp per. 5 would be slow, where as 15 will get you charged up and running quicker.

Lastly would be where do you want to put the on-board charger (most are not small) and how long are the charger cables. If you're installing the charger in the batt compartment you shouldn't have any worries, but if you have to mount it else where because of room issues then you may have to purchase an extension kit for the charger cables.

Just for an example, I was at Banks last Sept for 10 days. I left my boat in the whole trip and my batt's went dead on day 9 (didn't want to waste time pullin' the boat and chargin' batts when I was catchin' fish), it took about 24 hours to charge them back up with my 10 amp per on-board charger (10/10/10). This is not what you should do with a deep cycle battery, in fact it's not good for them at all. It's much better to keep them at full charge at all times, but sometimes laziness and greed get the better of us.

Comment by Aaron Christel on February 20, 2009 at 11:03pm

Also, 10 amp vs. 5 amp? Looks like the only difference is charge time. 4-6 hours vs 10-12 hours. Either one make the batteries last longer? It's a big price difference. The mk210 is $140, the mk220 is $215. It proboably is a better idea to go too big than too small though, huh? Those are Cabela's online prices.

Comment by Aaron Christel on February 20, 2009 at 10:54pm

I saw that West Marine had thier in-house brand ones on sale for like $120 for a 2 bank. I just know nothing about them. I just spent $800 on a Lowrance HDS5, so I guess I should just man up and get a good charger too...

And yeah, I trust Ron's advice 100%.

Are there any specific features that I might want to consider?

Comment by Chris Howell on February 20, 2009 at 10:38pm

This sport is too expensive, but I wouldn't skimp on your battery charger. There's too much money, and demand, wrapped up in batteries to run your boat through out the year.

I bought an on-board charger and installed it on my boat about 2 years ago. It's a 3-bank Dual Pro SE charger and it works great. It was easy to install and even easier to use. I haven't had any problems with it.

Ron gives advice of experience, and I would not take that lightly. Whatever you do, don't buy the bass pro xps charger. They are known to go bad right after the manufacures warranty.

my 2 cents

Comment by Aaron Christel on February 20, 2009 at 10:36pm

Sounds good. I only need a 2 bank, but a 3 at the right price would be fine too. Arn't you supposed to be sleeping with a tourny tomorrow and everything? I can never fall asleep the night before... Good luck, stick it to them!

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