Very interested in hearing about your experience with the PLB-40. I have resisted the urge to install a dual battery setup in the truck and currently use an ArkPak 730 with 105ah marine battery. Calling it a portable system is fine until I pop a hernia moving it in and out of the truck. ???
Well where do I start, LOL,
The PLB has revolutionized my power need, My 3 New 115Ah batteries are redundant, I went away for 4 days and I plugged the little CDF 18 into the PLB and I plugged the PLB in to the Vans Cigar socket and the PLB never dropped below 100%, On the 3rd day I unplugged the PLB from the Van and although it was pretty cool weather I plugged the PLB back in 27 hours later and the little fridge had used 14% of the PLB's power and when I plugged it back in I went to the local shops and back about 5/10 minutes away and I got home about 40mins to an hour later and the PLB was back up to 100% again,
I Love It, The Van has the Factory 80Ah AGM Battery and leaving the PLB plugged in for 3 days did not effect the AGM Starter battery, Ok in warmer weather it might chew a bit more power but not enough to worry the AGM battery,
Yes the PLB might seem expensive but the benefits are 10 fold, 1) I have not had to add a secondary battery, 2) The PLB is high tech Lithium which means it's fast Charging, 3) I can use 80% of it's power and still have 2000 cycle lives left, 4) It's ultra light and 100% portable so I can move it around the Camp site or from Vehicle to Vehicle and it can be carried by just about any member of the family,
HERE's the important bits, 5) I have not had to Tap in to the Vehicles wiring risking messing up the Vehicles Computers or Error Codes etc, 6) I have not had to pay anyone to wire in and AUX battery system, 7) I have not had to buy a DC to DC Charger Because the PLB already has one Built In, 8) I can Charge it via AC power or Generator or the Vehicles Cigar Socket Or Direct from a 100 to 150w Solar panel without the need of a Charge Controller,
I bought 2 of them just in case I ran the 1st one flat and needed to have power while I was charging one but the truth is I never had to use the 2nd PLB but it is nice to have just the same, One thing I did do when I got home was test the PLB out to see how it would cope running 2 fridges set to 2*c / 35*f for 24 hours and I was surprized to see that the PLB ran my ARB 47L/50QT and it ran the Dometic CDF-18 both at the same time for 24 hours and the PLB's level got down to 51% So I still had power to spare, Being 20% as the preferred Lower Limit,
EDIT:- Just to confirm my 2 Fridge vs the PLB-40 Test, I ran the ARB 47L/50Qt fridge for 24 hours and it used 28% of the PLB's power, then I Ran the CDF-18 for 24 hours and it used 21% of the PLB's power, when you add them both together it makes 49%, which is exactly the same result I got when I ran them both together at the same time from the PLB-40.
My overall views are the PLB-40 is a Power problem Solver and it does it Very well and it is always pumping out 12.8v, so The fridge is always running at it's optimal Voltage,
hope that helps.
J.