We’re often asked about what mains charger we recommend people use.
When deciding which to suggest, we had a look at prices, charge current, connectivity, build quality, availability and support. Like so many things, Victron tick a lot of these boxes. I also looked at other brands but none of them provided the overall value for money that Victron does.
There are different voltage and current versions to suit different setups, and there are some IP67 rated models if you think it could be in a wet area. But this model is reasonably priced, includes a suite of settings to suit just about every setup, and the Bluetooth connectivity makes it super simple to change settings (especially if you’re like me and experiment all the time).
While it’s only 30A charge current, that’ll fully charge a flat Scout battery in 10 hours, and for most people it’ll top it up in just a few hours. Anyone stopping at a friends driveway or a caravan park, can be pretty certain that this will get them up to 100% overnight.
A couple of other things I like about this, is that it has a power supply mode and it will also wake a sleeping LiFePO4 BMS. Unlike many chargers, the Storage Mode can be used so it doesn’t try to overcharge your battery, and for most people that will prolong battery life.
Suggested charge settings…
While you can set it to the generic Li-ion setting, we prefer to make some slight changes.
The two images below are suggested starting points for use with PowerPaul batteries. They are what we would use in most systems. You can tweak some things to suit your usage, but do so at your own risk and be sure you understand what you adjust before you do it. Read the manual.
Go to settings and select “Custom”
Then press the “Advanced Settings” switch.
Then press the “Advanced Settings” button.
Once you’re in Advanced Settings, set the below parameters. The remaining items can be left as default for now.
Remember to check back on this post periodically. If we find certain settings work better, we will update this post with the info.
Last update 30/05/2024
