Steve: I think the short answer is it's all good! Each approach has some advantages and disadvantages. For example I've got the Zivan NG-1 across the 48 volt bank I added the Dual Pro charger because I was concerned about bank staying in balance. The upside is I now have two battery charges and as a cruising sailor I like to have backups. But, I also found the Dual Pro does not charge as fast as the Zivan so it means a longer generator run time. Something I try to limit as much as possible. So I came up with a plan to use the Zivan through the bulk charge cycle and then switch to the Dual Pro (or solar and wind) to finish topping the bank off. However, I can see where using a battery balancer like the HDM EQ48 can have it's advantages. For example now when the boat is laid up for the winter I'm letting the solar and wind turbine keep things charged up. Like the Zivan they are connected across the whole bank. Though I try to get there weekly to check on things, work on projects etc... When I do I also plug in the Dual Pro just to make sure things stay balanced. During this time a battery balancer like the HDM unit would come in handy because it would balance the batteries automatically. But HDM unit only has a single pass/fail LED. With the Dual Pro I have a bar graph display of each battery in the bank and I can tell instantly when one bank is considerably down or takes longer to charge compared to the other batteries and of course the HDM can not act as a backup charger. But, it would help keep things in balance when using ANY across the bank (charger, solar, wind) devices. I do have a few questions about the HDM unit though. How do they handle the different voltage requirements for Gel, AGM and flooded batteries? When I ordered my Zivan and Dual Pro chargers I had to specify what type batteries they would be used on. My other question is how much does it cost? Capt. Mike --- On Mon, 1/3/11, Steve D <sdolan@scannersllc.com> wrote:
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