# What is the difference ? Battery charge managers



## dipsticks (Aug 2, 2007)

Can anyone tell me difference between a *Cak Tanks BCM 12 Battery Charge Manager* at about £24 and a *Van Bitz Battery Master* at about £70.

Apart from the price that is !

Thanks for any advice.

Pete D


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## Roger7webster (Oct 10, 2006)

The suppliers response could be interesting!!


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## eddievanbitz (May 1, 2005)

The other one is cheaper! I have never looked at the CAK one I guess like most things they do it will be good.

Battery Master is waterproof so can be mounted anywhere, has internal automatcially re-setting fuses so my customers can wire it back to front up side down and it will not cause a problem or break, and will automatically re-set when the condition is rectified.

I the same way if our customers try to over load the thing, it will simply switch off rather than blow a fuse and leave you thinking that you have one fitted and you don't. Again Battery Master simply starts to work again once everything is OK

Battery Master is also "potted" which means that in addition to being 100% waterproof is is 100% vibration proof. This makes for easy fitting anywhere.

The cheapest way of doing with out either is a fused wire between the two batteries and a switch, with a little card on the dash to remind you that the batteries are linked.

Just a thought

Eddie


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## RichardnGill (Aug 31, 2006)

Eddie

With all the good points about a Battery master is sounds like it should last for just about ever?

Just wondering how long you have been selling them and what the return rate is? Or do they last for ever?


For what its worth our van has a battery master fitted and it does perfect job of keeping the vehicle battery topped up on our Fiat X250 just been to the van today and its stood for nearly 3 weeks the vehicle battery was at 12.8 Volts.


Richard...


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## eddievanbitz (May 1, 2005)

HI Richard LOL yes they are pretty much bullet proof, the return rate is so low that if do ever get one back, and it is faulty we throw it away as it would take years to get enough to make up quantity to send back to the manufacture as we cant take them apart to see what has happened!

It has been about 12 years from memory, before that we hand made them and sold them as Battery Guard through John Diggins

Eddie


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## dipsticks (Aug 2, 2007)

Thanks everyone for those replies.

The reason I am looking at these is because I have just fitted a solar panel and the sales literature for the Cak BCM12 makes the point that as soon as the Leisure battery is fully charged any further power available from the solar panel is diverted to the starter battery to save it being wasted.

When installing my Morningstar Solar Regulator the instructions made the point that the battery must be connected first, which I assumed enabled the regulator to evaluate the leisure battery / bateries. If I buy one of these charge managers do I need to re connect the solar regulator with a different battery configuration in order to reset the regulator for the new setup including the Charge Manager ?

PS I hear the cheaper manager is fully potted too.

Thanks for all help and advice.

Peter D


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