Converter /battery charging

[Palletbob]

I have a WFCO-8735-p 35 Amp converter. I have read that it will not fully charge my batteries at the factory setting. Is there a way of increasing charging voltage manually in the converter to fully charge the batteries or should I use battery disconnect and charge the batteries separately with a regular 110 battery charger off of shore power while working off the converter on everything else?

[pgandw]

There's only one way to know for sure whether or not you are fully charging your battery with the converter. Charge the battery for a day by plugging in the camper. Then disconnect the battery completely. Measure the voltage at the battery 24 hours later. If in good shape and fully charged, battery voltage will be 12.5 to 12.7 volts.

I know of no adjustments in the WFCO converters.

Unless you have a multi-stage charger (not cheap) laying around, chances are it's not going to do any better than the WFCO. The complaint I have heard about the WFCO converters is that they tend not to go into bulk mode which is a high charge rate when the battery is below 80% charge. That does not stop a battery from fully charging but rather takes longer to achieve full charge.

I would never connect 2 charging devices to a battery at the same time. I just don't feel very good about the programming in either charge controller being able to properly adjust to another charge source being in the circuit. The other issue is that cheap camper converters tend not to do well supplying 12V DC to the camper without a decent condition and partially charged (not dead) battery as a buffer.
Your camper's converter has to be plugged into 120V AC to provide charge to the battery and 120V AC to the camper. Without the 120V AC, the converter is just a 12V DC distribution and fuse panel. So plug in the independent charger or the camper into shore power, but not both.

just my thoughts and experiences
Fred W
2014 Rockwood A122
2008 Hyundai Entourage (minivan)

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by pgandw

There's only one way to know for sure whether or not you are fully charging your battery with the converter. Charge the battery for a day by plugging in the camper. Then disconnect the battery completely. Measure the voltage at the battery 24 hours later. If in good shape and fully charged, battery voltage will be 12.5 to 12.7 volts.

I know of no adjustments in the WFCO converters.

Unless you have a multi-stage charger (not cheap) laying around, chances are it's not going to do any better than the WFCO. The complaint I have heard about the WFCO converters is that they tend not to go into bulk mode which is a high charge rate when the battery is below 80% charge. That does not stop a battery from fully charging but rather takes longer to achieve full charge.

I would never connect 2 charging devices to a battery at the same time. I just don't feel very good about the programming in either charge controller being able to properly adjust to another charge source being in the circuit. The other issue is that cheap camper converters tend not to do well supplying 12V DC to the camper without a decent condition and partially charged (not dead) battery as a buffer.
Your camper's converter has to be plugged into 120V AC to provide charge to the battery and 120V AC to the camper. Without the 120V AC, the converter is just a 12V DC distribution and fuse panel. So plug in the independent charger or the camper into shore power, but not both.

just my thoughts and experiences
Fred W
2014 Rockwood A122
2008 Hyundai Entourage (minivan)

Very well put X's 2...