vtsoundman
OverAnalyzer
After spending 8 days on a remote mountain top relying on the CTEK 250s to charge batteries from solar, I can wholeheartedly say DO NOT buy their 250S product if you need decent solar performance. Charging from the alternator, it does fine/as expected.
The charge times are insanely long as it goes into MPPT search mode constantly. With 150W of matched panels, the constant sweeping resulted in 40% loss of harvest energy (was using a tracking meter). This is the second CTEK 250s I have seen constantly sweep the solar input.
It never charged my main (starter) battery as claimed it is as it never reached float on my 100ah aux battery.
Per the Victron BMV 712, I never exceeded 95% SOC with the CTEK ... And the aH counter supported that. The 712 had been in use for a while and the SOC meter and aH counter appeared accurate when verified with external metering. I also never reached float.
To make sure I wasn't Looney tunes, I swapped in a Victron 75/15 for two days and it charged my aux battery in ~5 hours while supplying the same loads and same panel wiring (all parallel) was used. On the second day, the day loads were heavier as I charged 3 handheld ham radios, but the time to float was about the same.
After my aux battery dropped to float, I jumpered my 100ah main start battery to bring it back up to snuff as it powers a few of the outside scene lights and charges my handheld GPS and phone. Topped it off in about 3-4hrs.
Night loads consisted of two ham radios, small battery recharging, small inverter, circulation fan, and dometic fridge. Day loads were ham radios and fridge.
I routinely pulled ~25-30ah overnight. Conditions were the same each day : clear and cool, at 6500ft...so great insolation levels.
I'll call ctek and see if they have any answers about this or have updated the firmware on the 250s versions...my experience with their support in the past was less than stellar
The charge times are insanely long as it goes into MPPT search mode constantly. With 150W of matched panels, the constant sweeping resulted in 40% loss of harvest energy (was using a tracking meter). This is the second CTEK 250s I have seen constantly sweep the solar input.
It never charged my main (starter) battery as claimed it is as it never reached float on my 100ah aux battery.
Per the Victron BMV 712, I never exceeded 95% SOC with the CTEK ... And the aH counter supported that. The 712 had been in use for a while and the SOC meter and aH counter appeared accurate when verified with external metering. I also never reached float.
To make sure I wasn't Looney tunes, I swapped in a Victron 75/15 for two days and it charged my aux battery in ~5 hours while supplying the same loads and same panel wiring (all parallel) was used. On the second day, the day loads were heavier as I charged 3 handheld ham radios, but the time to float was about the same.
After my aux battery dropped to float, I jumpered my 100ah main start battery to bring it back up to snuff as it powers a few of the outside scene lights and charges my handheld GPS and phone. Topped it off in about 3-4hrs.
Night loads consisted of two ham radios, small battery recharging, small inverter, circulation fan, and dometic fridge. Day loads were ham radios and fridge.
I routinely pulled ~25-30ah overnight. Conditions were the same each day : clear and cool, at 6500ft...so great insolation levels.
I'll call ctek and see if they have any answers about this or have updated the firmware on the 250s versions...my experience with their support in the past was less than stellar