muffin said:
**stupid question warning**
is the purpose of the on board charger so that all you have to do is plug it in when you get home, in that its always attached to the batteries?
yes.. and trust me - no question is a stupid question!
I leave mine plugged up all the time. The main thing to look for with on-board chargers are the following:
1. What type of batteries does it work with? - Find one that works with Wet Cell, Gel, or AGM. And don't get one that says you can change settings. IF they are truely a "smart" charger, why should you have to tell it what kind it is. NOCO automatically figures out what battery you're working with. I don't know how, but it works.
2. Does it float charge when fully charged, or does it actually cut off (stops charging), then comes back on a a maintenance charge? I like chargers that actually cut off when it's fully charged... hence the reason I was pushed to either all AGM or Gel batteries. An overflowing Wet Cell will do wonders to aluminum if it boils over.
3. PRICE. I've tried the following and still like NOCO the most (especially for the price you can get them for when Amazon runs specials on them)...
Minn Kota (maybe one of the worst I've used in an enclosed compartment - these suckers get hot.
Dual Pro - I liked these most out of all others tried, but if you read the fine print, their chargers work for Wet Cell or AGM - BUT you have to get a different model or variation for Gel batteries... not to mention how proud they are of them $$$
Guest chargers (bought from Cabela's) - these were my first chargers and I have 3 sets of 2 banks. The extras are in the garage on batteries that I keep for backup. These chargers are good, but after a while (2 years in my case), they start charging at different voltages. One side will go to 13.2, the other 13.6. I thought it might have been my batteries only needing so much voltage, but when I took them off the batteries and checked the voltage - that's when I saw what was going on.