Brett From Ark
Supporting Sponsor - ARK
Hi John
sorry for the late reply on your question - if you email me brett@arkcorporation.com and advise me you are aftera instruction and the model you have i email you a copy asap
Regards
Brett from Ark
Ark Pak - Questions and Queries
- Thread starter Brett From Ark
- Start date
Hi John
sorry for the late reply on your question - if you email me brett@arkcorporation.com and advise me you are aftera instruction and the model you have i email you a copy asap
Regards
Brett from Ark
Brett From Ark
Supporting Sponsor - ARK
VanDominator13
Observer
How much heat should my 120v charger be making? It’s still working fine to keep the battery maintained at home but when it’s performing a charge cycle it’s getting very hot. Almost too hot to hold in bare hands.
CampStewart
Observer
I just picked up 2 Arc Pak 150 Watt AC output units. They came with 120v chargers with a weird plug to go into the units. Batteries are deeply discharged and trying to revive them out of and independent of the units. While that experiment is going on Id like to hear your guys thoughts on the reliability and function of them? I would not be using them with solar but charging from home or generator and vehicles alternator
VanDominator13
Observer
I’ve found the 120v adapter to be insufficient to charge a depleted battery or to even keep the battery fully charged with a load on it.
We just finished a 6 day trip with the arkpak in the bed of my truck plugged into the 120v courtesy plug and the only thing on the battery was a Dometic CFX 65 fridge plugged into the 12v outlet. After a 6 hour drive the battery was already drained down to 71%.
The next morning at camp I put it on a charge with my Renogy 100w panels in full sun and a charge controller into the anderson plug, bypassing the arkpak electronics. I was able to get the battery back up to 80% while still having the fridge running off of the 12v plug on the arkpak. The next day the panels were able to get the battery up to almost 85% during the day, overnight it would dip down to about 65-70% and the next day would charge to 85% by sunset. This was consistent for the remainder of the time we were at camp.
The first day we were driving home the battery dropped below 12v after 6 hours of driving with the Arkpak plugged into 120v in the back of the truck and the fridge into 12v again.
With one more day of driving I decided to plug the fridge into the 120v plug along with the arkpak and keep the fridge in the 12v plug on the arkpak for when we make stops to keep the fridge on. After one more day of driving the batter was back up to 70% when we got home. I then plugged the battery into the wall at home and left it overnight. It did not fully charge.
So I pulled the battery out and did a repair and charge cycle on my noco battery charger. This got the battery back up to 13v overnight. I then put it back into the arkpak and plugged it into the wall. It’s been maintaining the battery at 13.4v for 2 days now.
In my old truck I had the arkpak charging with a dc to dc charger from the alternator and this provided ample power for the battery to stay topped off and run the fridge indefinitely.
Long story short, the 120v plug is great for maintaining a charged battery at home but terrible for charging a low battery or maintaining a charge with a load.
Hope that helps
CampStewart
Observer
So I posted before I got a really good look at the units. Seems one is a 730 and the other is a 715 but that unit does not list a model number anywhere on it. They both came with deeply discharged batteries. One was DOA, the other a flooded lead takes a charge somewhat but is probably not going to be usable. The two units take different plugs for their external power supplies. The 730 plug is what they currently sell but they don't seem to sell a power supply with a plug that fits my 715 which came without a car to unit power supply. I have sent an email to Arkpak a week ago with no reply and left numerous messages at their Aurora Illinois phone number listed as the US contact on the website. I have done a ton of web searching on these including threads here and found lots of conflicting information. E trailer has a lot of info on them also but some of that is inconsistant. 730's do not seem to be available anywhere but 715's are listed as in stock at E trailer and a couple of other places. Right now the primary use will be in a Honda crv with a female cig plug using the factory 12v adapter going straight to the cars battery with a disconnect when the car is off. I am going to augment that with the 12v power supply as needed and see how that goes. Only load is Engel mt14, a tiny fridge. This will be a daily driver and in use 9 months of the year.
Does the 120v power supply just step down to power the DC/DC Charger?
What does the red disconnect lever do? It doesn't seem to shut anything off on the one unit I tested it on with a meter.
I see the ArkPak guy has been gone for a long time are they no longer supporting these units? Very little discussion on them in the last couple of years have the old ones died, or been replaced by something sexier?
Does the 120v power supply just step down to power the DC/DC Charger?
What does the red disconnect lever do? It doesn't seem to shut anything off on the one unit I tested it on with a meter.
I see the ArkPak guy has been gone for a long time are they no longer supporting these units? Very little discussion on them in the last couple of years have the old ones died, or been replaced by something sexier?
VanDominator13
Observer
I have a 730, I thought that was their latest model.
The 120v adapter just powers the dc/dc charger in the arkpak I believe.
The isolator plug disconnects the 12v plugs and the inverter from the battery. If you plug something into the 12v plug and turn the knob the power will shut off to your device.
My advise would be to run power either from your car battery or alternator to a dc/dc charge controller with a voltage cutoff (ctek or redarc) and then directly into the Arkpak using the anderson plug or power poles to bypass the arkpak charging circuitry.
CampStewart
Observer
I got a text message from ArcPak several days ago telling me that someone was going to follow up and contact me regarding my questions but that has not happened.
Both of the batteries in my 2 units are old and suspect. Right now in the car I am running the 730 powering an Engel Mt14. When the car is sitting for more than a day I am powering the arcpak via 120v, When driving I am running the arc pak from my 12v car outlet. It does top off the arcpak while powering the engel in a reasonably short amount of time after discharging overnight.
The 715 will charge itself showing 100 percent if there is no load on it but as soon as you put a small load Engel MT 35 on , it drops to 91 percent charge and will not get better. Right now I am sure it is the old battery. I hope to switch batteries between the units and check the results.
Long term I am working on getting parts to power them in the cab via the anderson plug
Both of the batteries in my 2 units are old and suspect. Right now in the car I am running the 730 powering an Engel Mt14. When the car is sitting for more than a day I am powering the arcpak via 120v, When driving I am running the arc pak from my 12v car outlet. It does top off the arcpak while powering the engel in a reasonably short amount of time after discharging overnight.
The 715 will charge itself showing 100 percent if there is no load on it but as soon as you put a small load Engel MT 35 on , it drops to 91 percent charge and will not get better. Right now I am sure it is the old battery. I hope to switch batteries between the units and check the results.
Long term I am working on getting parts to power them in the cab via the anderson plug