OK, so these are getting very common and cheaper by the week, but unfortunately, that means the quality has also been getting worse and worse. We have heard many stories recently of cheap chargers overheating, failing or damaging leisure batteries. You can get a real 'feel' for the quality of the charger by its weight - more weight suggests a decent fan and substantial 'fins' are included for heat dissipation.
Our 21 Amp charger is manufactured by Nordeletronica - the long established Italian specialist in motorhome electrics, and is the latest in their range of chargers. This model is pretty much ideal for small campervans. It is a very compact size, and provides fast charging while maintaining your battery life.
In Kiravans-speak: "it just works". And as always, we'll make sure you get great support and service if there is anything you need us to help with.
So where does this fit in with the rest of our electrical products? Basically, this is the thing that charges your leisure battery when you are plugged into the mains. So you will need a mains hook up system (typically an inlet socket and 240v Distribution box) to provide 240volts to this charger. The charger includes a kettle lead so you will probably cut the wire to length and attach it to your 240v Distribution box. The output from the charger simply connects to your leisure battery terminals, and that's it.
Included
- Mains connection lead: 3 metres long, with a UK 3 pin socket on the end. Simply cut to length and remove the plug socket if you are going to be wiring this into your Consumer Unit. We deliberately include a long lead so you can fit it wherever suits without having to scratch about looking for some cables.
- Charger to Battery Lead: this one is only 40cm long but we reckon most of the time chargers are fitted adjacent to the battery. Cable includes Eyelets for attaching to the charger end, you will need to sort out how you attach the battery end, depending on your battery terminal set-up.
- Temperature sensor: a simple cable with a sensor on the end to attach to your battery, so that the charging process is adjusted according to temperature
- The charger unit includes a DIN switch for you to set your battery type - lead acid / sealed / AGM etc. has an indicator light system to display the operating status
- Instructions: in several languages (including English) and highlighting the common causes of error.
Note: A couple of wires are provided that cause confusion... here's the summary:
The Grey line is optional - it would connect to pin 4 & is intended simply as a 12volt output for use as a mains-on indicator. It can be connected up to our 12v control panel to indicate when the mains is active. But it's not essential at all.
EBC line is only to use if you wish to perform a complete discharge / recharge cycle to reduce sulfation of the battery. Before doing so you would need to remove all load from the battery. So not for normal use (see table on page 5 of instructions linked below). There is a wiring diagram at the back of the manual that illustrates how this might be used in some circumstances - but generally not relevant to small campervan builders: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1554802/Nordelettronica-Ne287-21a.html?page=5#manual
