Gang,
I recently purchased a VEC 1092A from West and it charged a 12 volt bank of
gels fine. I then set it up for my other bank. I set it at 20 amps. After
about 5 minutes, the unit stepped down to "000" amps on the screen (verified
at the battery with my multimeter). I tried setting it at 10 amps and got
the same shut down but no "fault" lamps lit.
Figuring it may be the battery, I tried another bank (2 6 volt golf carts in
series) this time it bypassed the "000" stage and just died. No lights, no
nothing. I let is sit and it is still as dead as a doornail.
I know there was a long discussion about this unit on this site so I thought
I would ask.
thanks

--
Dennis Gibbons
dkgibbons at optonline dot net

I suggest that you return it for a replacement.

"Dennis Gibbons" wrote in message
...
Gang,
I recently purchased a VEC 1092A from West and it charged a 12 volt bank
of
gels fine. I then set it up for my other bank. I set it at 20 amps.
After
about 5 minutes, the unit stepped down to "000" amps on the screen
(verified
at the battery with my multimeter). I tried setting it at 10 amps and got
the same shut down but no "fault" lamps lit.
Figuring it may be the battery, I tried another bank (2 6 volt golf carts
in
series) this time it bypassed the "000" stage and just died. No lights, no
nothing. I let is sit and it is still as dead as a doornail.
I know there was a long discussion about this unit on this site so I
thought
I would ask.
thanks

--
Dennis Gibbons
dkgibbons at optonline dot net

Dennis Gibbons wrote:
Gang,
I recently purchased a VEC 1092A from West and it charged a 12 volt bank of
gels fine. I then set it up for my other bank. I set it at 20 amps. After
about 5 minutes, the unit stepped down to "000" amps on the screen (verified
at the battery with my multimeter). I tried setting it at 10 amps and got
the same shut down but no "fault" lamps lit.
Figuring it may be the battery, I tried another bank (2 6 volt golf carts in
series) this time it bypassed the "000" stage and just died. No lights, no
nothing. I let is sit and it is still as dead as a doornail.
I know there was a long discussion about this unit on this site so I thought
I would ask.
thanks

Hey, Dennis, that's a bummer. Just today I finished installing a Heart
Freedom 15 charger/inverter, and IT has not yet malfunctioned, anyway.
Don't mean either to prance or preach here, and I don't know anything
about Vector chargers. One possibility: the Heart unit can be
programmed for the various sorts of batteries--flooded, gel, AGM--and I
suspect the Vector can, too. I can't imagine you didn't do it right, so
it sounds like a defective unit. Haul it back to West Marine.

Blue skies and fair winds otherwise to you, sir.

Dick Behan
M/V "Annie"

"Dennis Gibbons" wrote in
:

Gang,
I recently purchased a VEC 1092A from West and it charged a 12 volt
bank of gels fine. I then set it up for my other bank. I set it at
20 amps. After about 5 minutes, the unit stepped down to "000" amps
on the screen (verified at the battery with my multimeter). I tried
setting it at 10 amps and got the same shut down but no "fault" lamps
lit. Figuring it may be the battery, I tried another bank (2 6 volt
golf carts in series) this time it bypassed the "000" stage and just
died. No lights, no nothing. I let is sit and it is still as dead as
a doornail. I know there was a long discussion about this unit on this
site so I thought I would ask.
thanks


WHOA! DON'T TAKE IT BACK!

Sorry you got screwed on the price. The best deluxe model is $89 at
Walmart and it includes a 100A starting booster, 40A max charging and 24
hour battery reconditioner...all for $89 in any Wally World Auto Center.
Waste Marine wanted $129 for the cheaper model down the food chain last
time I saw it.

NOW, you DO NOT have a problem, except keeping your hands off it while it's
doing its program. The charger will run for several minutes to blow off
the surface sulphation on the initial start....THEN IT SHUTS DOWN for a
minute or more to measure what the battery voltage does in the absense of
charging current, charting the voltage decay to see how bad the battery
condition is so it can program itself for the proper charging curve for
THAT battery in THAT condition. There's nothing wrong with your unit!

READ THE MANUAL and you'd have seen that this is part of its programming.

This charger WILL fault on a completely dead battery and refuse to come
online to the short. What I do in that case is to initially charge the
completely dead battery with one of my old Schumaker SCR chargers at 10A
for a few minutes to recover at least some voltage for the Vector beast to
measure....then it will do a great charging on the dead battery it faulted
on, before.

Too bad this charger just shuts off when it's done and doesn't come back
online after the loads in a boat use up the battery power.....It would make
a fantastic charger if it did that, but, alas, it doesn't. It wasn't
intended or programmed to be a float charger.d

How smart is it? Connect it to a 2AH little gelcell and set it on its
highest amp output. The computer simply switches down to low current and
puts a great charge on even the tiniest little gelcell. Uncanny.....(c;

Sorry yours doesn't have the battery reconditioner programming. I
reconditioned a "dying" deep cycle 115AH battery with it and the battery
came back to life in the 24 hour recycling program....worked great!

Sorry you got screwed on the price. The best deluxe model is $89 at
Walmart and it includes a 100A starting booster, 40A max charging and 24
hour battery reconditioner...all for $89 in any Wally World Auto Center.


No need to patronize union-busting, downtown-killing Walmart. That
charger is available from Amazon for $99 bucks with free shipping and
no sales tax.

Best,

Steve

The best deluxe model is $89 at
Walmart and it includes a 100A starting booster, 40A max charging and
24 hour battery reconditioner...all for $89 in any Wally World Auto
Center.

I keep reading this, but it is not true. I have been to 4 WalMart auto
centers and NONE of them carry this. Even just searched their website.
Nope.

On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 20:26:58 -0600, wrote:

The best deluxe model is $89 at
Walmart and it includes a 100A starting booster, 40A max charging and
24 hour battery reconditioner...all for $89 in any Wally World Auto
Center.

I keep reading this, but it is not true. I have been to 4 WalMart auto
centers and NONE of them carry this. Even just searched their website.
Nope.

===================

I got mine in the automotive department of a so called super center.

They have them all the time, as well as a decent 700 watt inverter for
about the same price.

Larry,
I know abut the pause to analyze. The unit did that at first. Then it just
shut off. I mean no lights on the LED, not "0.00" on the LED.
I got the unit clearance at WM for $80. It has the reconditioner circuit
(not that I would use it with gels). If it worked, the 35 amp setting if
fast enough for me.

--
Dennis Gibbons
dkgibbons at optonline dot net
"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"Dennis Gibbons" wrote in
:

Gang,
I recently purchased a VEC 1092A from West and it charged a 12 volt
bank of gels fine. I then set it up for my other bank. I set it at
20 amps. After about 5 minutes, the unit stepped down to "000" amps
on the screen (verified at the battery with my multimeter). I tried
setting it at 10 amps and got the same shut down but no "fault" lamps
lit. Figuring it may be the battery, I tried another bank (2 6 volt
golf carts in series) this time it bypassed the "000" stage and just
died. No lights, no nothing. I let is sit and it is still as dead as
a doornail. I know there was a long discussion about this unit on this
site so I thought I would ask.
thanks


WHOA! DON'T TAKE IT BACK!

Sorry you got screwed on the price. The best deluxe model is $89 at
Walmart and it includes a 100A starting booster, 40A max charging and 24
hour battery reconditioner...all for $89 in any Wally World Auto Center.
Waste Marine wanted $129 for the cheaper model down the food chain last
time I saw it.

NOW, you DO NOT have a problem, except keeping your hands off it while
it's
doing its program. The charger will run for several minutes to blow off
the surface sulphation on the initial start....THEN IT SHUTS DOWN for a
minute or more to measure what the battery voltage does in the absense of
charging current, charting the voltage decay to see how bad the battery
condition is so it can program itself for the proper charging curve for
THAT battery in THAT condition. There's nothing wrong with your unit!

READ THE MANUAL and you'd have seen that this is part of its programming.

This charger WILL fault on a completely dead battery and refuse to come
online to the short. What I do in that case is to initially charge the
completely dead battery with one of my old Schumaker SCR chargers at 10A
for a few minutes to recover at least some voltage for the Vector beast to
measure....then it will do a great charging on the dead battery it faulted
on, before.

Too bad this charger just shuts off when it's done and doesn't come back
online after the loads in a boat use up the battery power.....It would
make
a fantastic charger if it did that, but, alas, it doesn't. It wasn't
intended or programmed to be a float charger.d

How smart is it? Connect it to a 2AH little gelcell and set it on its
highest amp output. The computer simply switches down to low current and
puts a great charge on even the tiniest little gelcell. Uncanny.....(c;

Sorry yours doesn't have the battery reconditioner programming. I
reconditioned a "dying" deep cycle 115AH battery with it and the battery
came back to life in the 24 hour recycling program....worked great!

On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 08:24:12 -0500, "Dennis Gibbons"
wrote:

I know abut the pause to analyze. The unit did that at first. Then it just
shut off. I mean no lights on the LED, not "0.00" on the LED.
I got the unit clearance at WM for $80. It has the reconditioner circuit
(not that I would use it with gels). If it worked, the 35 amp setting if
fast enough for me.
===================

Sounds like a defective unit to me. My guess is that it had been
returned by someone else and WM put it on "clearance" since it seemed
to work in the store. They should take it back.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

Sounds like a defective unit to me. My guess is that it had been
returned by someone else and WM put it on "clearance" since it seemed
to work in the store. They should take it back.




I agree. Any WalMart will simply refund.....then you can go buy a NEW
UNIT!

Quit taking out the retailer's trash.....geez....