List Price: $292.10
Sale Price: $180.81
Today's Bonus: 38% Off
I will start out with reason why I purchased this one:
My 2006 Magnatec Parallax 500 series converter that was installed in my RV had failed to charge the batteries. I researched and find that its reliability is very poor approximately between 3 to 8 years. Further more, it is a "dumb" charger, because it will keep charging approx 13.5 volts and not shut off very well. It wont desulfate the batteries either. As such your batteries will be boiled over if you don't keep a small load on it. I could not even upgrade this converter because there is nothing out there that can easily swap out converter section. I took off the converter section and drilled out the rivets from the cover and find that there is sticker that says "made in china" on the board and various parts. It is basically very simple non microprocessor controlled charger with two large heat sinks and capacitors.
I wanted smart charger and I researched and found this one Progressive Dynamics Intellipower charger with smart charger wizard computer built in. It had good reputation and and reasonable price so I bit the bullet and bought it along with remote pendant.
Package arrived 5 days after order. When I opened the shipping carton, I found that its just wrapped in a plastic bubble wrap. No retail packaging. It is definitely for OEM installers not retail. What I mean by that is that when the factory ships components (in bulk) to RV manufacturers for installing on RV's before being delivered to customers, they do not include pendants or other hardware items or even put into a nice retail packages. Retail version of this is what you as customers see on store shelves, they include pendant as part of the retail version so keep that in mind when you shop through Amazon and your local RV parts store. In my case, thankfully I had a set of instructions included inside the shipping carton but its minimal at best. Since the new charger had 3 prongs 120V plug at end, that was complete surprise to me since I expected to hardwired charger to 120V circuit just like any other charger.
I removed the guts of the charger converter and threw in the trash and put the metal "shell" of the converter back into the power distribution panel because I need to reuse the DC fuse holder panel back on. I ran new romex wire from the back of power distributor to the front of the RV where the batteries were at. I put in 120VAC outlet for the charger plug to plug in. I observed correct wiring polarity of the new outlet (black wire to short prong hole (brass screw), white wire to wider prong hole (silver screw) and ground to ground terminal). The power is fed from circuit breaker that was used to power the old charger.
I mounted the new charger next to the battery compartment (not inside) with self tapping metal screws into steel plates. I ran 2 foot long #6 cable from battery shut off switch to the positive leg of charger. I ran 2 foot long #6 cable from other leg to the main 30 Amp 12VDC circuit breakers. In other words, I installed it in between the battery cut off switch and the main 12VDC circuit breakers. Finally, I ran a short #6 black cable from negative to the chassis ground since my batteries negative posts are grounded to chassis already. The charger positive and negative DC lugs requires allen wrench (not phillips or slot screws) to secure the cables a testament to thoughtful design of this charger. The charger housing is grounded and I didn't need to run ground cable from the ground lug to chassis because I had three metal mounting screws that mount the charger to steel plate (its part of RV chassis). If you going to mount this on wood, you need to run ground wire from the ground lug to metal chassis for safety reason.
Now, you might be wondering why I didn't just put this new charger in place of old charger, I could do that but for the best and fastest charging efficiency, you want to locate the charger close to the battery as much as possible and keep the battery cables short as possible so that generator does not have to spend more time charging up the batteries when you do camp out without hook ups. 2ndly, its much easier for me to keep the new charger cool and service it if I locate it in storage compartment if need to than if I had it locate it in old spot next to propane furnace which can keep it too warm.
The remote pendant is plugged in to the charger, it looks like a telephone jack but little narrower than standard jack. The wiring length is about 6 feet long much too short for my needs. I will have to take old telephone wire and splice in longer wire in place so that I can mount the remote pendant on the battery monitor panel. I have not done that yet so I can't comment on this one yet.
The new battery charger works well. And it is quite heavy and best of all, its an American made. Here is the instructions: %20english%20manual.pdf
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Works perfectly and will extend life of all my electronics and expensive batteries. Heres the info on making a Charge Wizard Pendant remote extension cord if you have to mount it further away than the 5ft cord on pendant allows. The connector on the pendant they use is an rj9 4p4c type modular connector. Its used for telephone HANDSETS, not the cord that goes from phone to wall. The wall type modular connector is an rj11/rj12 6p4c which is wider. You can buy the rj9 4p4c connector, cut ends off standard phone extension cord, cut to needed length, crimp new rj9 connecrors on, and buy an rj6 handset cord coupler to connect pendant cord to extension cord. Done and done correctly!!! Or you can just use something like a 25ft curly handset replacement cord and coupler. Your choice!Best Deals for Progressive Dynamics PD9260CV Inteli-Power 9200 Series 60 Amp
What a great product. I purchased the 60 amp for the same price Amazon had the 45 amp and both were about 80 bucks cheaper than the local camper supply place (name brand joint). Very easy to hook up and works great!!Honest reviews on Progressive Dynamics PD9260CV Inteli-Power 9200 Series 60 Amp
I bought my camper new in 2005 in 2008, I replaced the original WFCO 9855 with another WFCO 9855 A friend in a local RV shop tried to get me to use PD unit, but I stubbornly stuck with the WFCO the WFCO has had a tendency to 'cook' my batteries it may not be the WFCO's fault for two reasons one, I don't check them as often as I should and secondly, I have a long power line from the converter to the battery (about 15 feet) I think it's #6, but it may not be large enough for the converter to correctly interpret the battery's condition -This time when the WFCO started acting up, I decided to try the PD unit and so far I like it the install was a bit tricky as space was cramped, but the unit fit with some wire rerouting connecting the two wires and plugging it in was a breeze -
It's not in an easy access location, but I left the optional pendant connected for a while and the unit seemed to be cycling properly in spite of being 'cooked' once by the WFCO, the battery appears to be working fine I'm thinking the cycling on the PD unit has actually helped the battery back to a decent condition after a couple weeks, I removed the pendant and put the breaker panel back together -
The WFCO was a 55 amp unit and I replaced it with a 60 amp I have had two deep cycle batteries, so I thought it would be smart to increase the size slightly in case I add another battery these days, I haven't parked anywhere that I haven't had at least a 110V 15A circuit available for battery charging so I haven't bothered adding the second battery -
The real issue is how this unit performs over time so far, so good -
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Update 11/27/2012
I purchased the original unit in March 2012 In July, the original unit stopped working I contacted 2008 second time, they promptly arranged for a replacement unit which has performed flawlessly since hats off to '2008 second time' a great vendor to do business with -
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