4 bank on-board chargers

[cameraguy]

I seem to be having problems with my on-board charger. I would like to get your experiences with these type of chargers, good or bad. I am hoping that they have gotten better in the last ten or so years.

[dartag]

My original charger on my Ranger.  Duo Pro I think had 1 bank quit charging.  I bought a BPS charger about 5 years ago.  It is a 5/5/5 amp.  Never had a problem with it charging all 3 batteries overnight.   If you think you have a problem with the charger.    Check to make sure each bank is charging.   Here is what I did.

1  Hook volt meter to 1 battery.  Record what voltage is.
2. Plug in the charger and wait until the charge light is on.  The voltage should increase.  Mine went from 12.1 - 13.2

3.  Repeat process with each battery.  Un plug charger each time. 

If you get a battery that the voltage does not increase you may have a bad bank on the charger. 

[21XDC]

If a battery is too low, The charger wont put any juice out... Many chargers are fused and cause this as well.

I still think "Dual Pro" "CSI" is the best, But they are expensive and heavy. If you fish slow like dartag, 5/5/5 charger will be ok to recover batteries over night. But if you fish like KVD or ME, you need a min of 10 amps per bank. I use 15/15/15.... It's actually better on the big batteries that we use today.

[dartag]

The 5/5/5 was cheaper.   remember us Old retired guys that fish a lot and don't work have to watch our money. 

[cameraguy]

Bought 3 new batteries. After charging, all are around 14 volts. 10 year old Dual Pro flashes 2 red lights on each bank which, I think, indicates that charging cycle timed out (whatever that means). When I unplug and re plug, red lights go almost full like charging from empty and lights stay there for hours. Charger gone bad?

[djkimmel]

Doesn't sound right but not a pattern I recall seeing exactly before. I'll look for my 2 voltage checkers to bring.

Every battery expert I've talked to in the past has told me for our deep cycle battery charging we should be using chargers that can put out 15 amps per battery. Haven't asked in a while but I don't see why that would have changed either.