Does anyone know about ARK Portable battery boxes and where to buy them

[Brett From Ark]

Hi Brett,
Thanks for your questions.
1) The battery is an Optima Bluetop 75 Ah AGM. I set my Ark Pak on AGM and 70 Ah.
2) No it was normal charging at the time and Weaco was working. Once I take off the charger the warning goes. Let it rest for like 10 min, reconnect and no warning. This also happened when we where travelling.
3) The alarm always occurs when I was using the Ark Pak battery charger, but last time it happened I changed to the 240v home charger.

Hope this helps. I am very happy with the product and would recommend it.

Best Regards
Charles

Hi Charles

Thanks for the information can you confirm how old the blue top Optima battery is ? is it brand new or a couple of months or years old ?

also when the Ark Pak displays the alarm open circuit does it stay on for a couple of sec or mins ?

also does the alarm open circuit disappear from the screen and go back to the normal information display screen.

your answers have been very helpful.

will await your reply

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[wallrats]

Hi Charles

Thanks for the information can you confirm how old the blue top Optima battery is ? is it brand new or a couple of months or years old ?

also when the Ark Pak displays the alarm open circuit does it stay on for a couple of sec or mins ?

also does the alarm open circuit disappear from the screen and go back to the normal information display screen.

your answers have been very helpful.

will await your reply

Regards

Brett from Ark

Hi Brett,
I just got the alarm again this morning. Last evening it was on Float mod. This morning we had a 4 hour power cut and went to check the screen. It was 100% charged and discharging. Power came back, after 1 hour went to check and the alarm was flashing.
I turned everything off and after 15 min turned on again. Started charging 14.5/14.6 and went to boost mode. After 5 min the alarm stated flashing.
I bought the battery brand new in July this year.
Regards
Charles

 

[Corey]

Brett I have a question.
Mine will not be used for camping until next spring, so for now it is plugged into 110V full time standing by for power outages here.
I have the LED screen on and with the replacement one I received it is always showing 13.1V or 13.2V and in float cycle.
Is it OK to shut the unit down and just leave it plugged in, or does the LED and fan need to be running for the unit to keep charging all the time?

Thanks, Corey

 

[Brett From Ark]

Hi Brett,
I just got the alarm again this morning. Last evening it was on Float mod. This morning we had a 4 hour power cut and went to check the screen. It was 100% charged and discharging. Power came back, after 1 hour went to check and the alarm was flashing.
I turned everything off and after 15 min turned on again. Started charging 14.5/14.6 and went to boost mode. After 5 min the alarm stated flashing.
I bought the battery brand new in July this year.
Regards
Charles

Hi Charles

Thank you for that information, i can tell you there is nothing wrong with your battery or Ark Pak we have successfully replicated your exact cause in house and can tell you what is happening, please refer below for information

your 75AMP hour AGM battery is reaching saturation point (full charge) BEFORE boost cycle is complete, what is this means is due to the reduce AMP capacity of your battery and because it is a new battery as well the boost cycle is not being completed,please note that after several deep discharges say down to 30% or 40% discharge you should not get this warning.

as mentioned there is nothing wrong with your battery or the Ark Pak, it's just that your battery is a small AMP hour capacity and being brand new it reaches full charge before the boost cycle is complete, options you have are discharge your battery several times down to 30% to 40% charge or change over to a larger AMP capacity battery.

if you have anymore questions please let me know

Regards

Brett From Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Brett I have a question.
Mine will not be used for camping until next spring, so for now it is plugged into 110V full time standing by for power outages here.
I have the LED screen on and with the replacement one I received it is always showing 13.1V or 13.2V and in float cycle.
Is it OK to shut the unit down and just leave it plugged in, or does the LED and fan need to be running for the unit to keep charging all the time?

Thanks, Corey

Hi Corey

Great question you have asked, my suggestion would be to leave in plugged into mains power all the time this way the smart charging system maintains the battery and will also extend the battery life during the colder winter months you experience. the Ark Pak will test the battery condition every 500 hours once it is in in a float cycle.

the LCD screen must be turn ON for the smart charging system to be operational if you turn the LCD screen off and leave it plugged into power nothing will be charged as the smart charging system is off.

Regards

Brett From Ark

 

[wallrats]

Hi Charles

Thank you for that information, i can tell you there is nothing wrong with your battery or Ark Pak we have successfully replicated your exact cause in house and can tell you what is happening, please refer below for information

your 75AMP hour AGM battery is reaching saturation point (full charge) BEFORE boost cycle is complete, what is this means is due to the reduce AMP capacity of your battery and because it is a new battery as well the boost cycle is not being completed,please note that after several deep discharges say down to 30% or 40% discharge you should not get this warning.

as mentioned there is nothing wrong with your battery or the Ark Pak, it's just that your battery is a small AMP hour capacity and being brand new it reaches full charge before the boost cycle is complete, options you have are discharge your battery several times down to 30% to 40% charge or change over to a larger AMP capacity battery.

if you have anymore questions please let me know

Regards

Brett From Ark

Hi Brett,

I just did what you said on Saturday. Took it to 80%, turned off the isolator and connected the 240 charger. No problems at all. It did the Boost charge and now on Float mode.

Thanks for all your help.

Regards
Charles

 

[Corey]

Thanks Brett, I will be leaving the LCD screen powered up then.
The fan is relatively quiet, I can hardly hear it unless I go into the room where it is.

 

[wallrats]

I have the Goal Zero 350 plus the Boulder 30 panels now that I do not use. So I was thinking, why not use the 350 to keep the Ark charged instead of using the 240 volts?

What I done is I connect the Ark 12 volt battery charger to the 350 to keep the Ark charged (Float mode) and use the Boulder panels to keep the 350 fully charged.

 

[Corey]

Sounds like that may work.
Not with my 350 though, as soon as I take it off the charger, the battery rapidly discharges.
I guess they quit making them too, and replaced it with the Yeti 400.

I am looking into that folding case 100 watt solar panel setup towards the end of that one post in the 12V section.
This will allow me to leave my Powefilm foldable panel hooked to my rig full time when camping.

 

[nickmimi]

Hi Corey,

Take a look at this setup and see if it will work for you:

http://www.solarblvd.com/Solar-Pane...oldable-12-Volt-Solar-Panel/product_info.html

It's cheaper than ebay or amazon. I just ordered one. This is my first experience with solar, other than goal zero. I have not received yet. Will be testing it when we go camping near the end of the month.

 

[Corey]

That is the same one in post 21 here.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/114484-100W-Portable-kit-on-ebay

Looks to me like a good unit with its built in charge controller, and I would not have to use the Goal Zero charge controller that I bought awhile back in case I used my Powerfilm (no built in controller on it) to charge back up my ArkPak.

I may end up ordering it this week.
I can strap it to the side of my ARB fridge along with the Ezi-Awn table I just bought from Paul at Equipt Expedition.

 

[Corey]

Ordered this one earlier today, hopefully it shows up by Friday so I can test it out, sunny weekend at home.
100 Watt Folding Solar Panel

Another question for you Brett, as I do not have my manual in front of me.
If charging the ArkPak in the field on a trip via solar panel/charge controller, and hooked to the two side studs on the Ark, does the LCD screen need to be on also to operate the charger just like when you are using 110V/12V chargers?

Thanks...

 

[codename607]

Just came acros another promotional video of the Ark and I'm really thinking about pulling the trigger. I noticed in the video that the guys had a power strip plugged into the system and was running all kinds of handy devices off of it.

I attempted building my own system but after running 2x house hold lights for a few hours my system needed to be recharged and that's not going to work for me because I would like to run it for a few days with out a recharge.

Anyone have any experiences running house hold items such as bedroom lights on the Ark?

 

[Corey]

Is the video on their site?

 

[Colonal Angus]

Okay guys, I've read the 20 page thread to try and wrap my head around this ArkPak. I've been considering a dual battery system but when I saw this and it's portability, it made me really consider it instead.

I need some clarification though. I really don't understand 12v systems (I've read so many threads and articles to try and understand it better but...). So, here it goes....towards the end of this thread there began to be a lot of questions regarding proper charging. Such as, when to plug it in, where to plug in to, LCD on/off, etc. With a true tied in dual battery system, don't you just set it and forget it? Connect all of your accessories wired to the secondary battery source and just start your truck every couple days to recharge the draining second battery. Isn't that how it works? Can we just plug the Ark Pak into the 12v socket in the rear of the truck and just leave it there, as if it were tied in?

My goal is to run an ArkPak and a fridge in my 4runner 24/7. I'd like the fridge to run only off the ArkPak and not ever interfere (or draw) from my main battery...I guess, an isolated system. BUT I want the ArkPak to charge off the trucks alternator/main battery everytime the truck engine is running. Is this possible?

Sorry in advance if this has already been covered or if this is the exact way ArkPak works right out of the box.

Thanks guys! I got plenty more dumb questions