Redarc vs Ctek

[shoredreamer]

I’m getting ready to do a REDARC BCDC system in my Land Cruiser 80 to replace my Blue Sea ML-ACR setup mainly due to the low voltage alternator not charging the batteries fully and limiting the life of them. I love the Blue Sea stuff and it functions great but these older alts just can’t do the job charging 2 agms, so curious to see how the dc to dc does taking over the house charging duties.

 

[dreadlocks]

@unsung The BCDC will isolate your 2 batteries. But in the scenario of you killing your start battery and needing to jumpstart your vehicle with your second house battery, the BCDC can not do this alone. You would need to add a REDARC SBI12, 100A fuse on each lead going to the SBI12 and run a momentary switch to the cab to join the batteries and start the vehicle. There are plenty other relays and switches to join your batteries to do the same job as the SBI as well but the SBI has a few features included and is pretty compact.

Or just still carry jumper cables around and use them if the need arrises, dont need to get all complicated.. I've had a set in every vehicle Ive ever owned, even a few that had dual battery setups with A/B/A+B switches.. its not like imna stop carrying a spare tire just because I have road side service.. I might run across someone else whom needs a jump and lacked my foresight.

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

I live in Adelaide South Australia where the RedArc stuff is manufactured and they offer superb technical back-up, so there is no contest for me.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[wquek]

@unsung The BCDC will isolate your 2 batteries. But in the scenario of you killing your start battery and needing to jumpstart your vehicle with your second house battery, the BCDC can not do this alone. You would need to add a REDARC SBI12, 100A fuse on each lead going to the SBI12 and run a momentary switch to the cab to join the batteries and start the vehicle. There are plenty other relays and switches to join your batteries to do the same job as the SBI as well but the SBI has a few features included and is pretty compact.

The CTEK Smartpass 120 has a Start Assistance feature that allows the starter and house batteries to be connected in parallel for 10 seconds to jump start the vehicle with a dead starter battery. The CTEK DS250 also has the ability to trickle charge the starter battery once the house bank is full assuming you are running a solar setup.


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[unsung]

I bought the BCDC1225. Now I need to make a mounting tray because it doesn’t look like much is available for the 100 LC.

 

[shoredreamer]

I just got me my BCDC1225 as well to go in my 80. Was thinking of doing a 3rd 100ah LiFePo4 battery in the cargo area and keep my existing 2 batteries in the engine. More realistic option is to mount it behind the headlight and wire it to the existing second, house battery. Keep the entire ACR setup there for redundancy, but have it switched off. The ML-ACR will play the role of the self jump start connection, instead of yanking it and buying a whole new SBI12 VSR.

 

[67cj5]

For my set up I am running 3 X 115Ah / 1000cca deep cycle batteries and I was using a 35amp workshop charger but I decided to try out Noco's G15000 15amp smart charger, My Idea was to mount the G15000 on board so I could either hook it up to shore power or run it off a generator, I did a side by side with it against my 35 amp charger and the NOCO G15000 did the same job as the 35ah but it did it in half the time and where the 35 started to wreck the battery the NOCO also managed to charge that battery also and restore and repair the capacity of the battery, even though the 35a has more than double to power Nothing can match the NOCO Chargers and they can charge Lithium batteries and boost start the vehicle unlike the CTek,

All of the NOCO Chargers are built like Tanks and having owned many charger from small 5amp bench models right up to the big Snap-On wheeled chargers nothing comes close to the NOCO chargers, I am so impressed by them that the next day I also bought the NOCO g3500 = 3.5 amp and the G26000 = 26amp models, One of the most impressive things I found was in order to match the abilities of the NOCO chargers you would need a charger with more than double the power just to break even against the NOCO chargers,

I have tested all 3 of them using 115 amp DC batteries and I hooked up Fluke multi meters to them all and their charging voltage has an accuracy of 0.001v between the 3 of them and regardless of their power you can leave them hooked up to ya battery for ever with zero over charging and the larger G26000 is a master piece being able to charge 12v 24v and 16v Lithium and 16v AGM High Performance Racing batteries, But saying that the G15000 is my all round favourite and every NOCO charger comes with the same Repair mode from the smallest to the Biggest, and having all that power on tap and being able to use it all sets these NOCO chargers apart from anything else on the market.

 

[RichieFromBoston]

Ive got two odyessey extremes 170AH totl running off a 150amp alternator in my 80 series and I just grabbed up a red arc BCDC1225d to keep the aux battery charged for real under 400 bulletproof good to go. and I dont need my national luna battery sytem anymore.

 

[Clantech]

I just got me my BCDC1225 as well to go in my 80. Was thinking of doing a 3rd 100ah LiFePo4 battery in the cargo area and keep my existing 2 batteries in the engine. More realistic option is to mount it behind the headlight and wire it to the existing second, house battery. Keep the entire ACR setup there for redundancy, but have it switched off. The ML-ACR will play the role of the self jump start connection, instead of yanking it and buying a whole new SBI12 VSR.

Hi Shoredreamer
is your setup installed and working? If yes, any pics and experience?
I own an 80 myself and are conemplating between the Redarc Manager 30 and the new Ctek 250 SE with a Smartpass. Would like to see your setup.
Cheers

CA