I had been using the Blue Sea 40 amp shore charger for my bench charger since I did the power system upgrade to the Roadatrek C180P about 8 years ago.
The 440ah of AGM batteries I used for that upgrade are now out of the van and replaced with lithium so I decided to check them out to see what condition they were in after that long hanging under the van. I was charging them individually to see how the match up after sitting when the Blue Sea died completely.
Very disappointed in Blue Sea as they offer no repair service, service centers, even spare parts or schematics. Not good for a high end charger only 8 years old, IMO.
I don't really need the all features the Blue Sea had, but amp controlled charging would be nice to have. I couldn't find any amp controlled charging for reasonable pricing to use as a bench charger.
I finally ran across one on Amazon that totally looks like a PD charger in every way, right down to the same somewhat unusual charge profile they use. They don't have a Charge Wizard type thing however.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F8MC42C...t_details&th=1
Powermax has been around for quite a while and this unit is also like the PD is that it is battery charger on top of a regulated power supply. They make the power supply available to output by flipping a switch. This makes the unit capable or charging to dead lead acid batteries that a smart charger won't allow to charge and that is a nice thing to have. It also means the van could be powered up for 12v without the batteries hooked up for testing stuff if I want to.
The biggest hook on getting it was that the power voltage output is adjustable and will run at full rated amps, which I don't think any of the PDs have. It appears that setting will also be applied to absorption charge part of the automatic profile. Fixed voltage is also good for lithium if I need to change one on the bench.
It comes with a cord plug in so all I need to do is move the big cable and jumper clamps over to the new charger.
It will be interesting to see just how the charger handles and auto charge profile as they don't show times on the profile chart like PD does.
Only $119 for the 45 amp version so I would consider it disposable when compared to the Blue Sea original cost.
There appear to be quite a few identical units with different labels around also, but didn't check if the features are the same or not. The unit is made in Taiwan, not China, which is unusual these days and probably means it has been in the market for quite a while. Fit and finish looks very good which would be expected from many Taiwan products.
Got a replacement for my bench charger
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