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astroman avatar image
astroman asked

Difference between centaur and Phoenix charger?

Stuck in Panama without a charger, I installed a 12/50 Phoenix charger. My 1050 ah AGM bank can take so much more than 50a. I also want to run my watermaker off my Phoenix 3000w inverter which draws ~90ah. If I’m running the genset while making water I’m putting in 50 ah by way of the charger but drawing 90ah and therefore still pulling a significant amount from the battery( base case scenario 40ah but usually more). If I installed the centaur 12/100 I would be putting in 100ah into battery with genset on. Then I’d meet my power needs of 90 ah to run my watermaker plus a little extra to put in the battery bank (all hypothetical based on efficiency and other items drawing but you get the idea). Question. Does my logic make sense? What is the difference between the Centaur 12/100 and the Phoenix 12/50 besides charging amps?

battery charging
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Paul B avatar image
Paul B answered ·

basically charging amps, and one has multi stage charging, this wont affect things, you could connect as many diferant chargers as you wanted to the bank, they would all charge and each one would turn off when there set voltages are reached. Just connect both of them

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Trina avatar image Trina commented ·

Yeah ditto on that and since you are stuck there and fuel and resources are a bit thin with the shut downs (I have friends down there on a boat) then make sure you only use your genset for bulk charging in the morning and let you solar take over absorb and float once a day -you can always add a 2nd bulk charge at dinner time if you need it but don't run the other stages off generator power unless absolutely necessary.

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