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Forum Index : Electronics : Quick review -
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| zeitfest Guru  Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 635 |
I wanted a 12v battery charger with some grunt, and a powerful 12 supply was going to be useful as well so I bought a 'PowerHouse' charger as at Altronics. There are two models, one charges at 4A and one at 9-10A, I bought the 10A version and it arrived quickly. It is apparently processor controlled and give different charging profiles for standard lead-acid, AGM, cold battery, LiFePhosphate, and also a mode to act as a 12v/10A power supply. Plug into the mains, the bespoke LCD display lights up and you can then cycle through the options using the press switch on the front. There is also a battery charge state report mode which is powered by the battery itself. The AGM mode is an eye-opener, I didn't realise AGM had special requirements, and the cheap chargers often don't have the option. So far I have charged a 100AH 12V lithium iron-phosphate battery, it was pretty straightforward and charged at a healthy 10 A before tapering off. It runs fairly warm. The package has the charger, some useful cables, and an instruction booklet. The instructions are a bit hit-and-miss. One part says to connect the cables to the battery before plugging into the mains (good safety for lead-acid - prevents sparks near the battery) but other parts cite a different order. But the operation is pretty intuitive - assuming common sense ! - so it is a minor point. There are safeguards against reverse polarity and so on which is good. One of the cables has a useful blade fuse holder built-in. Watch the polarity of the connectors, it is possible to connect red to black and vice versa - not a good thing to do... errm, the fuse holder works quite well  .It is going to be really useful, especially to occasionally keep a car or auxiliary battery charged, as well as using it as good 12v source. |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1110 |
Is this the one? here ChopperP |
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| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 635 |
Yes but it was quite a bit cheaper when I bought it |
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| Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1110 |
OK Does it remember it's settings if there is a power interruption, or does it play dumb when the power is restored? ChopperP |
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| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 635 |
It remembered when I set it to LiFePhos mode, ie originally it was in PbAcid mode and I set it to LiFePhos to charge the Li battery. The next day I resumed charging the battery and the charger powered up directly in LiFePhos mode which was good. It states that it can be permanently connected, so I guess it is designed to keep the settings OK. The battery charged up fine, the current was at around 10A for quite a while and then tapered to a very low level at 14.4 v AFAIR. I then used it with a kmart "anko" inverter and some LED bar lights, for lighting in my dim garage (no power) while I changed the oil on my car. No worries ! Edited 2025-12-09 18:53 by zeitfest |
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| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 635 |
That's funny, the description of this thread has been truncated . WTF ?? |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9781 |
I didn't truncate it. I doubt Gizmo did. I suspect it is a bug in the forum software. I will run a test. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1110 |
Thats good to know. Some don't which is annoying. Thanks Brian ChopperP |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9781 |
Hi - can you please state what the rest of the title was supposed to be, and I can probably edit your original post, to put it back in the thread title. I'm running a test on this on the OTHER STUFF forum, but once that test is complete.... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 635 |
Thanks Grogster, the rest of the description AFAIR was something like "PowerHouse" 12v 10A charger/supply from Altronics Not much point posting reviews I guess. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9781 |
OK. I for one, like reading reviews.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2857 |
That might be the key to it. Perhaps Gizmo has a filter to detect companies posting fake reviews as a way of getting free advertising. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9781 |
Yes, that is a possibility.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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