Iota Converter - Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum

Atlee · 06-05-2012, 09:16 PM

I decided to get rid of the Elixir 45 converter, and replace it with an Iota DLS45. Don't know how hard it will be to fasten the Iota in place of the Elixir.

But I will be very happy to get rid of the single stage Elixir and get the 3 stage, plus desulfate stage.

Hopefully, this will help the new battery that the TT needs live longer.

I plan to take pictures of the various stages of disassembly, and reassembly.

sam · 06-05-2012, 09:21 PM

Never done this swap out. Hang onto the old converter as someone may want or need it. Looking forward to your story in words and pictures.

PopRichie77 · 06-05-2012, 09:56 PM

I changed the charger in my 95 to a Progressive Dynamics charger with Remote Pendant, with the pendant you could select anyone of the charging stages if you wanted to or just leave it on auto. I got it because the old generator that I had then had very dirty AC and the charger that came with the trailer didn't work very well running of the generator. The Progressive Dynamics charger would use just about any dirty AC power from 90 to 130 volts and still produce a clean DC output.
RV Power Converter/Chargers

Atlee · 06-06-2012, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PopRichie77

I changed the charger in my 95 to a Progressive Dynamics charger with Remote Pendant, with the pendant you could select anyone of the charging stages if you wanted to or just leave it on auto. I got it because the old generator that I had then had very dirty AC and the charger that came with the trailer didn't work very well running of the generator. The Progressive Dynamics charger would use just about any dirty AC power from 90 to 130 volts and still produce a clean DC output.
RV Power Converter/Chargers

It's too late for me to change my mind about the Iota, but where did you put the PD converter? The old Elixir 45 I have right now is located in front of the lounge sofa, and beside the thin cabinet that's beside the refrigerator, on the left side.

I was thinking about the PD some, but Randy at Best Converter said the Iota, being a little smaller would fit where the old Elixir main power board currently fits.

PopRichie77 · 06-07-2012, 02:31 AM

Everything in the 95T is under the couch which is in the front of the trailer. Water heater, water pump, converter, 12 volt fuse panel (which is separate from the converter), water tank and furnace. Was plenty of room for the PD converter, it was smaller than the old transformer charger. I also have the Elixir 45 in my 2209T, it is in the same place as yours, if yours is like mine it also contains all the 110 volt breakers and 12 volt fuses, Removing it poses a lot of problems. There is space under the couch, behind the drop down door, you might put the Iota there and switch the battery charging part only.
The Iota is similar to the PD but the charge controller is separate, it is built into the PD, You don't need the remote Pendant only if you also want manual control, which you can't get in the Iota.
I haven't thought much about the Elixir but I also don't like the single stage charging, takes longer. It does work, will battery life be shorter, don't know. I have a smart charger at home that has a 24 hr desulfate cycle, which is due to be run on the batteries in the 2209T.

PopRichie77 · 06-07-2012, 08:12 PM

Found this, Elixir to WFCO Upgrade
I forgot to mention that this is just an option for anyone else that is thinking of replacing the single stage power board in there Elixir. After reading more about this, I checked mine with a volt meter and it does not seem to ever stop charging, which is bad for the batteries if the trailer is left plugged into shore power. I had assumes that it would go to a float charge when the batteries were fully charged, but it does not do this. I will be looking into replacing the power board also. I like to leave the trailer plugged into 110 shore power all the time. Plugging it in every now and then to keep the batteries charged is something that I always forget to do.

hilltool · 06-14-2012, 08:40 PM

I don't know what I have in my 2201 tow lite but the manual implies it is a multi stage charger as it claims it will back off the charging once the batteries are near full charge. Poprichie- if you have an 09 I would have thought they would have a newer multistage charger in it. Is this not the case? I'm just curious if I should be thinking about a replacement if and when I decided to replace the batteries- which don't ever seem to get over 13 volts when "fully" charged. Or, was it just your older 99 that has the issue? (Just went and checked. It is a Fortron SRY450p101a)

Rick

JackandJanet · 06-14-2012, 10:33 PM

A fully charged, new battery that is not powering anything should read 12.7 Volts, after the surface charge (from charging) has worn off. This usually takes about three hours. Right after charging, it is common for a lead acid battery to read 13 Volts. During charging, it can read higher (13.5-14.5) - this is the extra voltage needed to push the charging current through the battery.

I think your charging system is fine if you see readings in these ranges under the conditions stated.

- Jack

PopRichie77 · 06-15-2012, 01:59 AM

hilltoll, I made a mistake the other day about a tow rating because the Trailer Life Towing Rating was wrong. Batteries are something that can start many arguments, and I won't get involved in that, I will post some battery information and any one who reads can decide for themselves. Your charger may very well cut back to a float charge, mine in the 2209T does not according to the manual, and the small amount of checking that I did, it is an Elixir 45, solid state charger and well made, here is the manual for it, it is a constant 13.5-13.6 volts. Leaving this charger Elixir 45 plugged in all the time when the trailer is in storage, several months, will over charge the battery. Which means that a battery minder should be put on in place of it, I have these but I like to just plug the trailer in when i get home and forget about it, putting the battery minder on is something I usually forget to do. Manual is at the bottom.--

Here are a couple very good articles on batteries, they are written by progressive dynamics but most major battery charger manufactures now make 4 stage chargers, also.
Battery Basics
Battery Management 101

hilltool · 06-15-2012, 12:04 PM

Poprichie,

Hey- life is short and there is no foul as far as I am concerned on any of this....it is VERY rare I am ever correct.

I appreciate your posts and information you supply. So- no need to apologize.

Thanks for the above links. I tried chasing down "Fortron" last night on the web and their newer converter/charges are listed as multi stage but I couldn't find any info on the older models. If I find out more I will post it.

Thanks

Rick

hilltool · 06-15-2012, 12:16 PM

@Jack and Janet

A friend gave me am 18 watt solar panel with charge controller. The manual on the controller says it reads the battery loads and opens up below 12.6 and then charges until 13.3---at which point the little green idiot light is supposed to go on. I have the trailer parked across the street in a neighbors'drive but I have no access to power over there so I don't put a battery minder or trickle on it-----thus I have the panel going during the day when I think about it...and I cannot get full sun all day because of shading. That said- I periodically check the battery with digital volt meter- and It has gotten up to 12.7---but I haven't beat it yet. That is where I got the 13 v range idea for charge- plus some articles. The multi stage charging as part of charger/converter interested me as my manual implies it is a multi-stage- though how many stages I don't know. The fact that PopRichie's newer Hi-Lo did not seem to come with a multi-stage I just found interesting. Also- the fact that they seemed to have changed companies. Its no big deal----but its comforting to know my batteries may be better off than I thought.

Rick

Atlee · 06-16-2012, 03:52 PM

I have run into a snag in replacing the Elixir 45 converter/charger with an Iota. Just looking at the DC side of things, what I saw coming from the old Elixir board was not what I expected.

There are four heavy wires coming from (actually molded to the board) the converter/charger board and running up to the DC power distribution panel. Two of those wires are yellow, and two are white.

The Iota has what I had expected to see. It has a lug for a black (negative) wire, a lug for a red (positive) wire, and a separate lug for the ground or "earth" wire.

Until I get some good information from here, Best Converters, or the RV.Net forum, I'm DIW. (naval term for Dead In the Water).

Atlee · 06-17-2012, 08:27 AM

When looking over my Elixir45 yesterday, I noticed this information on the inside of the door that covers the DC and AC panels.

"When 120VAC is connected to the power converter, this battery charger will automatically 'sense' the condition of the RV battery and bring it to 'full charge'. After the battery is fully charged the charging section reduces to a maintenance rate and does not resume active charging of the battery until it again falls below 'full charge'."

While this is obviously not a good 3 stage charger, it certainly reads like it will not boil a battery if left connected too long, like the old Parallex/Magnetek's could.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PopRichie77

hilltoll, I made a mistake the other day about a tow rating because the Trailer Life Towing Rating was wrong. Batteries are something that can start many arguments, and I won't get involved in that, I will post some battery information and any one who reads can decide for themselves. Your charger may very well cut back to a float charge, mine in the 2209T does not according to the manual, and the small amount of checking that I did, it is an Elixir 45, solid state charger and well made, here is the manual for it, it is a constant 13.5-13.6 volts. Leaving this charger Elixir 45 plugged in all the time when the trailer is in storage, several months, will over charge the battery. Which means that a battery minder should be put on in place of it, I have these but I like to just plug the trailer in when i get home and forget about it, putting the battery minder on is something I usually forget to do. Manual is at the bottom.--

Here are a couple very good articles on batteries, they are written by progressive dynamics but most major battery charger manufactures now make 4 stage chargers, also.
Battery Basics
Battery Management 101

PopRichie77 · 06-17-2012, 09:39 AM

Atlee, You are right, I just pulled the cover off of mine and there it is, I wonder why they made this information so hard to find. I based what I said on what I read and what I read on another web site, they also said it did not cut back on voltage, also the small amount of checking that I did, I will have to further check mine. Glad you found that information as I won't be doing any change very soon. I do like the multi stage chargers, I got over 6 years on a battery in my 95 using the PD multi stage charger and that battery was abused many times by being ran completely dead, forgot and left fridge on DC. I started out good in the previous post and then I went and made a statement that I didn't intend to do and I was wrong again. As someone else said, Yikes.

Atlee · 06-17-2012, 10:11 PM

Thing is, I had not seen that before either. Just noticed it today. If I had seen/read that earlier, I probably wouldn't have ordered the Iota, at least right now. But since I do have it now, I'm going to go ahead and install it now.

After comparing what I saw yesterday after opening up the Elixir, and comparing that to the Iota I have, and studying the pictures and install narratives at Best Converters, and several emails to Randy at Best Converters, I've decided on a plan of action.

The Iota will be mounted in the compartment under the front convertible sofa, just behind the water heater, next to the pull down door.

And instead of cutting the power cord on the Iota and hard wiring it to the AC Breaker panel, I'm going to install a 120VAC receptical and just plug in the Iota.

I've also determined the WFCO's, PD's, and Iota's use just one red (positive) DC wire and one white (negative) DC wire, in place of the two yellow (positive) and two white (negative) DC wires used by Elixir.

The only thing I'm needing an answer for, from Randy, is the appropriate gauge wire to use since the converter/charger will be between two and three feet away from where it was, and the same distance from the DC electrical panel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PopRichie77

Atlee, You are right, I just pulled the cover off of mine and there it is, I wonder why they made this information so hard to find. I based what I said on what I read and what I read on another web site, they also said it did not cut back on voltage, also the small amount of checking that I did, I will have to further check mine. Glad you found that information as I won't be doing any change very soon. I do like the multi stage chargers, I got over 6 years on a battery in my 95 using the PD multi stage charger and that battery was abused many times by being ran completely dead, forgot and left fridge on DC. I started out good in the previous post and then I went and made a statement that I didn't intend to do and I was wrong again. As someone else said, Yikes.

PopRichie77 · 06-18-2012, 03:14 AM

Atlee, You didn't say if you will be disconnecting the Elixir? I don't think the Lota will be able to operate correctly if you don't. What did Randy say about this?

Atlee · 06-18-2012, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PopRichie77

Atlee, You didn't say if you will be disconnecting the Elixir? I don't think the Lota will be able to operate correctly if you don't. What did Randy say about this?

I'll continue to use the Elixir AC and DC electrical panel. What I'll be doing is take out the Elixir converter/charger, the part that's at the bottom of the Elixir 45, and use the Iota as the converter/charger. The Iota will be hooked to the Elixir's AC Breaker panel, and the DC panel.

All the wiring for the trailer will still go to the Elixir's electrical panel.

PopRichie77 · 06-18-2012, 02:34 PM

Ok, fully understand, actually I meant to say Elixir Converter, another senior moment. I didn't tell you, but the PD 80 amp converter went up in smoke 6 months before we got the new trailer. I wound up putting the old transformer single diode converter back in. The trailer was plugged into 110 AC and I started to put water in the fresh water tank and there was a water leak which spray on the PD converter, huge fire works and smoke.

RichR · 06-18-2012, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PopRichie77

Ok, fully understand, actually I meant to say Elixir Converter, another senior moment. I didn't tell you, but the PD 80 amp converter went up in smoke 6 months before we got the new trailer. I wound up putting the old transformer single diode converter back in. The trailer was plugged into 110 AC and I started to put water in the fresh water tank and there was a water leak which spray on the PD converter, huge fire works and smoke.

That had to be an exciting moment.

PopRichie77 · 06-18-2012, 08:35 PM

VERY, exciting. First there was a loud bang then smoke started coming out the door, it was open. I had just walked into the garage to get something, while the water went in, I ran to shut the water off, then into the trailer, forgot to unplug it, opened the door under the couch and then the fire works and smoke became very intense. I vacated. The recommended 20 amp circuit breaker for the converter never tripped. The converter was completely destroyed and it took weeks for the electrical smell to leave.