{"id":1341,"date":"2018-02-02T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.4wdsupacentre.com.au\/news\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2018-02-02T09:09:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T23:09:41","slug":"whats-best-for-you-an-adventure-kings-dual-battery-system-or-a-ctek-d250sa-dc-dc-charger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/whats-best-for-you-an-adventure-kings-dual-battery-system-or-a-ctek-d250sa-dc-dc-charger\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s best for you \u2013 an Adventure Kings Dual Battery System or a CTEK D250SA DC-DC Charger?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re trying to set up a working 12v system in your car, van or 4×4 but you\u2019re getting a little overwhelmed with all the technical jargon, don\u2019t stress! We\u2019re exactly the same \u2013 facts, figures and phrases fly over our heads sometimes, so we\u2019ve created this simple-to-understand guide to selecting the right gear to charge your auxiliary deep cycle or AGM battery<\/a>. Follow this guide and you\u2019ll make sure you choose the right gear the first time, and avoid wasting your money on the wrong dual battery charger<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n

Firstly, why would you want a dual battery system<\/a><\/strong>? If you\u2019re going camping and want to run 12v accessories<\/a><\/strong> like a portable car fridge<\/strong><\/a>, LED lighting<\/a> <\/strong>or an inverter<\/a><\/strong> to charge the phones, tablets and laptop, you\u2019re going to drain a lot of power from your battery<\/strong><\/a>. If you only have one battery<\/strong><\/a>, you\u2019ll probably find that in the morning it won\u2019t have enough power to start the engine! Definitely not ideal, especially if you\u2019re out at a remote bush or beach campsite somewhere. A dual battery system<\/strong><\/a> lets you charge a second battery<\/strong> <\/a>while you\u2019re driving, and power all your electrical accessories off the second battery<\/a><\/strong> at camp, leaving the first battery safely alone so there\u2019s always power to start your 4WD or car.<\/p>\n

Now you know why you want a dual battery system<\/strong><\/a>, let\u2019s talk about how to make it happen. You need a way for your car to charge the second battery when you\u2019re driving, but isolate it from the first battery when you\u2019re parked up at camp. The first option is to us an Adventure Kings Dual Battery System<\/a>.<\/strong> This is what\u2019s known as a \u2018smart isolator<\/a>\u2019<\/strong>, because it uses a tried-and-true Voltage Sensing Relay<\/strong><\/a> to connect or disconnect the second battery from the first one. When it senses an input voltage above 13.5v (when the car is running), it connects the two batteries<\/strong><\/a> together and both charge up at the same time. When you turn the car off and it sees the voltage drop below 13.2v, it splits (or \u2018isolates\u2019) the second battery<\/strong><\/a>. Clever hey?<\/p>\n

You may have heard of a different type of charger, known as a \u2018DC-DC\u2019 charger like the CTEK D250SA<\/a><\/strong>. The best way to understand this type of charger is to think of it like the battery charger you have at home in your garage. The only difference is, instead of plugging into the wall socket for its power, it uses 12v power from your alternator to run. The CTEK D250SA<\/strong> <\/a>has some very clever functions, like the ability to vary the rate of charge depending on how full or empty your second battery is, as well as varying the rate of charge depending on what type of battery is being charged. It\u2019s a true battery \u2018charger\u2019<\/strong><\/a>, whereas the Adventure Kings Dual Battery System<\/strong><\/a> is a \u2018smart isolator\u2019<\/strong> <\/a>\u2013 it doesn\u2019t develop any power to charge batteries<\/strong><\/a> itself, rather it directs charge from the alternator.<\/p>\n

So which one is best for you? For any vehicle prior to about 2010 running a single second battery<\/strong><\/a> as well as the starting battery, the Adventure Kings Dual Battery System<\/strong><\/a> is perfect. That\u2019s because you\u2019ll have an old-school alternator that just pumps full charge out at all times (assuming the alternator is healthy). However, if you drive a modern vehicle from about 2010 onwards, you\u2019ll likely have what is known as a \u2018smart alternator\u2019<\/strong><\/a>. In an effort to reduce emissions, vehicle manufacturers realised they could electronically control the alternator to reduce its output depending on how full the battery was. If the alternator didn\u2019t need to charge as much, load on the engine could be reduced and hence emissions would be lower. The problem is these alternators sometimes only put out as little as 13.0v-13.2v when you\u2019re driving \u2013 nowhere near enough to charge a second battery.<\/p>\n

The CTEK D250SA<\/a> <\/strong>comes to the rescue here by being able to accept varying input voltages and still output a nice healthy 14.0V+ to the auxiliary battery<\/strong><\/a>. It essentially \u2018smooths out\u2019 the changing voltage rates from the smart isolator<\/strong><\/a> and allows your deep cycle AGM battery<\/strong><\/a> to be properly charged as you drive.<\/p>\n

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\nThe other benefit to the D250SA<\/strong><\/a> is its ability to handle large banks of auxiliary batteries. These days it\u2019s completely normal to run two, three or more auxiliary deep-cycle batteries<\/strong> <\/a>in a 4WD so you can stay at camp for extended periods of time. The CTEK D250SA<\/strong><\/a> can charge up to 400Ah of batteries<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 enough to power your campsite for days at a time!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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And remember, 4WD Supacentre has a price-match guarantee on the entire range of the incredible CTEK battery chargers<\/a>.<\/strong> That means if you can find a better genuine price anywhere in Australia, we\u2019ll match it! Terms and conditions apply, see https:\/\/www.4wdsupacentre.com.au\/terms#ctek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re trying to set up a working 12v system in your car, van or 4×4 but you\u2019re getting a little overwhelmed with all the technical jargon, don\u2019t stress! We\u2019re exactly the same \u2013 facts, figures and phrases fly over our heads sometimes, so we\u2019ve created this simple-to-understand guide to selecting the right gear to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123456,"featured_media":1344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1345,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/1345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}