ProCharge Ultra Soak Test

I've been waiting years to get one of these. Finally one came up for reasonable wedge. I'm guessing they're selling off old stock to make way for the new model which as far as I can tell has a red cable cover and a low float setting.
The low float is actually the reason I wrote off my Victron because it's charge rate = self discharge rate...which on the face of things sounds great except not when it's throwing in the towel early and calling it a day with the batteries at 90% SOC.
It's a great feature if A you want to leave the battery on float unattended for 4 months or B you have a better charger that'll actually charge the battery fully in the first place...although likely such a charger will also know how to float.

Factory units if anyone's interested keep an eye on the seller...few inefficient true sine wave inverters up for grabs too.

The unit I got is recon-ed with 1 week warranty. Totally don't need it but too cheap to refuse. Half the price of my 15A Victron, 5A more grunt, current limited, proper EQ mode for grown ups and programmable. :cool:

Here's the schlick sell sheet.



I'm not sure what that Earthing point is for, it's already tied to the AC earth inside.

So how fairs it in the real world?

I hear reliability is an issue on the canal boat forums. It'll wipe the floor with any Electrobloc you put beside it though. Funnily enough the US models have a 5 year warranty while the UK ones have only 2.

This test is going to take a while as there's a lot in it to check.
So far it's not as good as the TriStar (hahaha...:pac: like anything ever will be :rolleyes:...nope, not happening....want the best charger money can get? Current limited PSUs and solar controllers folks..rugged, cheaper, more capacity, better, more versatile, more features).

Unfortunately all my batteries are tippy top tastic, not a sulphate to been seen in my stock :P...I had to borrow swmbo's motor's starter for this test and it's perfect; 65Ah Varta with a SG divergence of 0.035 between the highest and lowest cell.
Now baring in mind a negative result here doesn't signify a whole lot, lets carry on because I don't fancy hauling my 50kg lot inside just for the craic.

At some stage down the road I will put it beside the TriStar in a head to head. My Victron lost the previous match at Victron SG 1.260 to TriStar SG 1.280 after >1 week at it each.
Adding to the list of defeated: two generations of Aldi charger, and a 9A Halfords rebranded ring job.

Anyways enough gassin'
Attached are photos of the Gubbins for the nerds.
More to follow...

There's quite a few things annoyed me about the build of this unit;
CapXon electrolytics everywhere :eek:
Soldered fuses. :mad:
Rubbish cable clamps. :mad:
Self tapping screws in plastic not metal threaded inserts.




Oh dear, oh dear.




That's a Nichicon...a reputable electolytic...what's that doing there all on it's ownsome? Did one of those rubbish CapXon's perhaps blow it's lid and need replacing? Hrmm lets see the back of the board.




Gosh, Sterling work with that soldering iron.




That looks like track repairs on the 30A negative trace to me.

Nice touch to reapply the conformal coating.

Recommended Cable Gauge for 1220 model with batteries less than 1 meter away 4mm²

4.5mm² Cable




Ring Terminal.
Nope the clamp won't reach the gland. :mad:




So the only way is bare scraggly ends in or stress the PCB levering a lug against the clamp! :mad:


How about The primary side?



Nope proper terminations won't do here at all...




:mad: Wrong.:mad:
That should pinch the outer cable sheath.

@15

Efficiency @ full load
Listed: 90.4% Tested:83%

Charge profiles
6 x chemistries.
2 presets for most
1 custom (adjustable absorption voltage + float voltage only, no time adjustment, no low voltage trip, rate of temp. comp. is not changeable:().

Temperature compensating with external sensor.
Current limited and adjustable.
PFC.
Low noise (electrical)
Some noise audible.
Noisy-ish fan (standard molex 2 wire case fan...easy swap, load dependant (thermistor controlled) and variable speed).
240 minute equalisation function. 1.5A @15.5V & fan sets to full RPM for duration (ventilation...excellent feature:)).
Built in voltmeter, ammeter and % load displays.
My inbuilt ammeter is 1.4A low of calibration but it's out of spec. listed as +/- 1% I'll be enquiring about this...it doesn't effect the charge regime.
Load compensation: accurate to 20mA > 60mA
Back current drain: 800µA
Works in Supply mode, without batteries.
Absorption = timer based.
Float current: 350mA

At the moment I'm testing it's charging performance, after I establish that I'm going to have a look at the split output regime.

moodrater

1 week warranty, talk about standing over your goods. If its actually sold by sterling and not a private individual then you are entitled to the same protection under sale of goods, distance selling regulations even if it is secondhand. 14 day cooling off period, goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose an last a reasonable amount of time.

Sterling Power

I believe the actual agreement was

Sterling Power wrote:

THE UNIT CAN BE RETURNED WITHIN 7 DAYS OF PURCHASE, THERE IS NO OTHER WARRANTY OFFERED THAN THAT, SO PLEASE CHECK ON ARRIVAL TO ENSURE YOU ARE SATISFIED WITH THE PRODUCT

..sorry about the CAPS wasnay I.

I'm almost tempted return it an ask for a refund over the unnecessary ammeter after I've had my fun. I'm pretty disappointed at the poor choice of components given the RRP and it's only programmable by the slimmest definition.
The 30A version upwards have studs on the DC outputs so the cable clamp does work on those, they just plonked the screw terminals onto the lower board placements for them on the 10A and 20A versions.

I had a SmartGauge for a week a while back. Great unit, 200mV out of spec so effectively useless...7 emails later I got a refund. He kept telling me to factory reset and get an electrician because it worked on his boat. While I had to send him photos of calibrated meters beside it and explain what +/- 0.05% accuracy meant.
£60 + VAT + carriage two ways Merlin wanted to reflash the firmware! :rolleyes: A new unit is only £100.

The Varta seems to like the PCU +SG 0.010 per cell so far. ""Fully Charged" when I started too. :cool:

moodrater

moodrater wrote: »

and not a private individual

Now that you mention it, his Ebay account could well be private, it's under Charles' name not the company's.

moodrater

Thats bull as a business to consumer sale you are entitled to the cooling of period of 14 days from receipt of goods they can't override your consumer rights with any piece of text.


"Second–hand goods that you buy from a trader are also covered by the minimum two-year guarantee. However, goods bought from private individuals on a non-professional basis are not covered.

In some EU countries, in the case of second-hand goods, the buyer and seller can agree to a guarantee period of less than two years, but no shorter than one year. This should be made clear to you at the time of purchase."

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroad/guarantees/index_en.htm

Suppose I could send it back for a working ammeter.
tehehe just what I needed and 'twill look great lighting the back of the driver seat.

I have only seen one charger charge a battery to 100% ever (and they were new/maintained batteries too).
That is the TriStar PWM. The TriStar does not use a straightforward absorption timer based on X times the length of the bulk phase. Back in the day when I was running with Elecsols who were in rag order I observed the TS hold absorption for > 48hrs.

I'm not sure the PCU absorption is timer based either it's too accurate.
If I tell it to charge a full battery, it skips bulk, absorption 1 hour, job done..every time.


I needed to establish a control for this test. The Varta is middle aged and starting to show signs of deterioration.
I tested it after removing it from the car fully alternator charged, ran an OLA charge cycle @ 14.8V then EQ, let it rest, EQ #2, water + rest, EQ 3. Two hours into EQ cycle #3 the specific gravity stabilised so I'm happy to call this the new 100% SOC. The battery was watered to the max fill level between EQ cycle 2 & 3, recombination by light vibration and chemically by the final EQ.

I C20 discharged it 20% (-3.3A for 4 hours) and let it settle overnight. In the morning it was holding 12.6V.

So the test is; can it now return the battery to the SOC (or higher) that was established from the EQ cycles in one standard charge cycle?
I've current limited the charge rate to 25% (the lowest setting) in an attempt to prevent surface charge from skewing the results.

State of Charge versus Specific Gravity




Test Results

We can see from this that the equalisation cycles recovered 10% of the battery capacity, while the charge cycle restores the battery to 98% SOC. :cool:

Bulk charge: 1hr15
Absorption: 9hr45mins

This unit is equipped with the "stand by" low activity float function.
13.2V at 4.5mA.
Float Charge Rate = self discharge rate in other words.

Regarding the ammeter I have a suspicion whoever "fixed" the broken trace soldered the current shunt too. Perhaps an easy-ish fix/improvement with some strategic solder-wick, I'll have a closer look later if it comes to that.


I don't know about yee but I'm well impressed.

Load balancing 3 outputs for two banks.

Please note above is a bench test setup: for an installation the batteries are already common negative so there ought to be one conductor only at the negative terminal.


The multi-outputs are backed by shottky diodes so they're basically a split charge diode setup except with clever diode drop compensation. Slightly more efficient than a relay then because you're not having to power a coil.
They rely on the batteries themselves to self-regulate; the deeper discharged one taking the greater charge current. Each output is rated to full load but the jumpers are recommended to relieve component stress.

If one battery is charged before the other, it is ever so slightly overcharged, same as a split charge relay/diode does. It'd be nice to see one battery go to float while the other holds absorption but this is quite complex and expensive. Instead what you get is one battery taking all the charge while the other holds absorption volts and float current.

The charger then differential sums the batteries somehow to find SOC.

Battery #2 I've been using for this test is a no-name Varta clone, 40Ah that's held 12.8v for the last year almost, with no charging. I didn't bother taking an initial SG reading off it.

Round 1 Split charge test: Battery #1 was 90% SOC and Batt 2 was 100% SOC. Max. charge rate:20A.

Round 2: Battery #2 was 80% SOC (discharged at C5) and Battery #1 was 97% SOC. Max. charge rate:20A.



I'm a little disappointed with the results. I tend to use one mains charger per bank anyways and I've a manual over-ride on my split charge relay for solar to ensure the main bank gets the correct treatment when I see fit (window of photon opportunity factor).

[Edit:] Actually the last result; End of charge SOC 88% probably should be dismissed, now that I realised I charged to at C2 :eek: (40Ah battery charged with 20A...oops..:o) ...pretty good so considering :pac:

On installation one could integrate voltage drop to the engine battery and perhaps this could be a feature reduce overcharge to gassing voltage ~14.2V, although 14.4v might be preferred if the capacities are closely matched.

Personally I rather overcharge than under, it's less incorrect. Overcharge meaning holding at recommended absorption voltage in excess of charge requirements not to be confused with over-voltage.



My reason for such shallow discharges in these tests are time and these are starter batteries.

Results may vary on a larger more thoroughly discharged bank that's been micro-cycling for a week with denser plate construction.
This is the real world test that I'll post when I have true real world results.

One last run now to discharge the clone (with perfect cells) to 20% DOD and recharge at 25% power on it's own to verify the 98% result.

End of Charge SOC on the 40Ah = 93.75%
11.5 hours on charge.
This was at C8.
Standard fitment is a C10 charger.

The lowest charge rate on the PCU 20A is 5A so that's still on the hot side for a 40Ah battery. I usually charge my deep cycles at C80 > C20 depending on time available.

I gave it a bash of the Victron recon. cycle, just to make sure I could fully charge it and didn't damage it with my C2 antics and to put it back in storage.
98.7% SOC

Four more hours and as many resets on the PCU and back to 100%.

In fairness to the PCU, the TriStar takes a week or more to hit 100% charge, and it doesn't have a low float function so it does overcharge a smidgeon (13.5V @ 300mA sun hours), it also lets the batteries have a rest every time the sun sets and trickle discharges them overnight (~ 10mA) with it's own idle load as well as it's MCB's, my battery monitor idle, and my split charger brain.

Overcharge = heat = water loss.
Undercharge = sulphates = capacity loss.

Another thing I forgot to mention is it's plug and go. It starts automatically when it's powered up. So plug in the van and it should run the last set algorithm.
Or for the complete hands-free kit just plug it into a genset with a full fuel tank and a rocker switch start/stop triggered from the inverter low voltage alarm, triggering a time delay relay set to open at end of bulk phase/genset fuel tank....:pac:

Two weeks with no hook-up and the TriStar was highly unimpressed with the new challenger for the title: No. 1 mains battery charger.

State of Charge after 14 days without mains.

The PCU had a go at my deep cycles and hit absorption after 15mins and stayed there for hours.
End of charge SOC 1.260 per cell = 90% charged.

There's a possibility it can do better from a deeper discharge and set a longer absorption rate from an extended bulk phase. I'll give it two more chances, it's not making the cut as it is.

After it went to float I switched back to the TS which also went direct to float with a snicker and said it would finish the job properlike by the end of next week.

PS. my batteries are over-watered so it is very difficult fully charge them...although the TS seems to manage.