Leisure battery charger

[Jimbo4864]

Hello All,

The BCA charger unit in my caravan would appear to be fried so would it be acceptable to change it for something like a CTEK MXS fitted externally to the main fuse box? I’ve read the BCA boards can be a bit iffy! My concern is around the switching between 12v and 240v when plugged into the mains and whether there are some gubbins inside the BCA box that sorts that out? Apparently the BCA issue is with overheating, so thought an externally fitted charger might be the way to go?

 

[otherclive]

If you read the thread "No More Amperor Chargers" you will find information on a BCA replacement that is superior and a drop in. (Apuljack) Then when you find it do a search and there is a You tube video showing how easy it is to replace your unit with the better one. CTEK are good but there is no need too go to the hassle when you can get a drop in unit.
http://www.apuljackengineering.co.uk/

 

[LizziePope]

Hi Jimbo and welcome to the forum!

 

[Jimbo4864]

Thank you

 

[Jimbo4864]

Hi,

Thanks for the advise, I’ll have a look

 

[JTQ]

The issue that you could face with simply using a CTEK or other smart charger, is that unlike the original kit the battery will be taken up to higher than the standard 13.8 volts used in caravans.
This is great news for the battery as it will better charge it, however, whilst doing so all the van's "12 volt" kit will be subjected to higher volts than they are specified to be able to accept.

The question, will that over voltage fry other kit; it is possible.

Proper caravan chargers that also take the battery to these higher volts, also feature some device that regulates what battery voltage gets into the van's system so using a proper van charger is okay. But not a stand-alone smart charger, that brings the described risks. It is electronic kit where things can go expensively wrong, boiler controls, TVs and the like. Most lights will simply run a lot brighter.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Whilst JTQ's comment does point out one of the potential issues of using a standard multistage battery charger, rather than a dedicated caravan power supply, Any designer worth their salt will know about the the range of voltages you can get on a nominal 12V supply using a battery and charger and should design their products to handle the range without problem.

The only caveat I would add to my point is the older type (pre 1990) caravan battery chargers were chargers and not power supplies, and their outputs were often hale or soetimes full wave rectified sine waves with an rms voltage of about 14 to 15 V but the peaks often reached 21 or 22V. These types of chargers must have a battery connected to modertate the output voltage, but even then they could be harmful to sensetive electronics.

Modern caravan units are actually power supplies not chargers and have a regulated true dc output without the potentially damaging peak voltages of chargers.

Consequently I believe most caravan equipment should have sufficient tolerance to manage CTEK type chargers without damage.