[encantotom]

That's what I have that has failed. They are no longer in business

Tom

[CaptainGizmo]

Folks, after having my entire set of 8 batteries get toasted; thanks to merging and expecting the 60A Xantrex to hold them up, I’ve since split my charging routine.

Yes, as you all have found, there is quite a bit of parasitic draw and newer coaches (as per Newell) don’t like to be turned off. There’s arguments on this when it comes to chassis. But let’s not go there.

My chasssis has the 60a Xantrex. But there are better solutions now.

I have my house being maintained with a Victron BlueSmart 30a charger. Yes, expensive…but guess what? So are 6 Lifelines! Victron makes the best chargers available…period. So, I have a custom pigtail made from BatteryCablesUSA; a Y-cable (top and bottom bank) with mini-Anderson quick connects. Makes hooking up.. a snap, literally!

Victron has an Amazon store:
https://amzn.to/3L4K78R

With their charging profiles and monitoring features, it’s money $200 well spent, IMHO, especially for our house batteries.

You COULD get one with less capacity and capabilities to save some change.

[khgeisler]

I have used a Trik-L-Start for years with good results.  It is similar to the Echo-Charge.  It a few amps from the house batteries to charge the engine batteries.  It will maintain your engine batteries at about 0.2 volts below your house batteries and shut down if the house batteries are not charging.  Since I keep my coach plugged in all the time, the engine batteries stay charged also without ever having to use the battery merge switch.

The link does not work for some reason. What is it? I have AGM house batteries and lead acid chassis batteries and would like to trickle charge the chassis batteries.  I turn the engine battery switch off, why leave it on, but will not leave the merge switch on for weeks on end, solenoids tend to go poof.  memories from my boating days.  Plus the solenoid just lets the charge flow all the time.  You could boil the led acid batteries.

[Jack Houpe]

What an excellent thread. I have installed 5250 watts of solar which feeds a 48v growatt inverter charger, I charge my 48v system from the sun or shore power through the growatt, I also charge my two 8d house batteries using a victron MPPT solar charger, I am using the 48vdc rather than solar panels as the source for MPPT charger and it works perfect and I can see what my house batteries are doing via bluetooth. I purchased a second victron MPPT solar charger to charge the coach batteries also but I have an echo charger in the coach now and would like to utilize the existing wires to do so but I have no connection from the coach batteries to the echo charger. The echo charger is working but it doesn't have a connection to the coach batteries so I am asking where is this resettable breaker located?

On another note I do not charge lifepo4 batteries to 100% generally 95% max and 25% minimum, using this charge and discharge reference has been said to double your life cycles, which means the rest of my life.  I also limit my C charge rate to keep the heat and swelling down.