Caravan PSU / Battery Charger issue

[Another Dave]

Subjective warm/hot.  I could pick it up without getting burnt, but it was hotter than i would have liked
and think it will likely reduce its lifespan quite considerably.

I did contact CTEK and they said it should be OK but would offer no guarantee that it will
work as required. But they did say it should protect itself. Too hot for my liking though.

I think the CTEK is the wrong charger for my application, ideally i want it on 24/7 with no noise and
no heat. Although the caravan chargers are silly money and it seems some have their
own reliability issues and possibly wont last as long as the original one.

After checking some reviews, I wouldnt opt for a used unit because it maybe half dead already.


Thanks

[tautech]

Subjective warm/hot.  I could pick it up without getting burnt, but it was hotter than i would have liked
and think it will likely reduce its lifespan quite considerably.

I did contact CTEK and they said it should be OK but would offer no guarantee that it will
work as required. But they did say it should protect itself. Too hot for my liking though.

I think the CTEK is the wrong charger for my application,

The 3.6A unit, quite possibly.
A bigger unit should run much cooler.

[Another Dave]

I think the problem is im pulling approx the same amperage as the charger can put out and its fighting to keep
it fully charged. I wonder is a smaller fixed amperage charger would work better? 

Need something to just put out a steady charge and stay cool.

[jitter]

Yeah a deep cycle battery, probably a car battery really with a label saying leisure. I have my
doubts as to whether the internals are any different.

Actually, they are quite different.
The car battery, designated SLI for Starting, Lighting and Ignition, is a relatively light construction in which the electrodes are thin and with a large surface area.
This large area facilitates the high current that cranking a cold engine needs. According to this tutorial they are designed to be drained as little as 5% before needing recharging to keep the internals in good condition. Deep cycling will destroy them quickly. Deep cycle/leisure batteries are of heavier construction and can take discharging down to 20% capacity repeatedly.

I think the problem is im pulling approx the same amperage as the charger can put out and its fighting to keep
it fully charged. I wonder is a smaller fixed amperage charger would work better? 

Need something to just put out a steady charge and stay cool.

By the looks of things, your CTEK charger seems to be one of the more popular and proven chargers for use in caravans. I can't help but think that it's quite up to the job, despite my former doubts. As I wrote before, if you're running anything off the battery+charger, the charger will supply everything up to 3.6 A. Anything over will come from the battery.
This means that at more than 3.6 A, you will not be charging but draining the battery, albeit at a lower rate than without charger. As soon as the load drops below 3.6 A will some of the output charge the battery. If the load is disconnected completely, the battery has the full 3.6 A charge available, which it will only take when its charge level is low enough.

IMHO, you can get away with using the CTEK as is. Even if its lifespan is limited by the heat a little, that may still mean you can expect many years of service from it in camping type of use (i.e. a couple of weeks a year).