Cotek CX1280 charger

Iceni John

Is anyone here using one of these?

I've shortlisted this charger, along with the Mean Well PB-1000 and Samlex SEC-1280UL, as possible contenders for my cloudy-days emergency backup charger. I'll have between 800 and 900Ah of golfcart batteries when everything's up and running, and the charger will only be for when my 2kW of PV isn't enough to Bulk charge the batteries. It will run off my Champion 3500W generator, or from shore power if available. The Iota DLS-90 is out of the question because of its lousy Power Factor and large inrush surge - there's no way my generator will power it effectively. The Mean Well and Cotek chargers have pretty good active PF correction with claimed figures of 0.95-ish, and their inrush seems to be about only twice their running power needs. (The Samlex does not quote any PF, so who knows if it'll run off my generator?) The Cotek has an option of 14.7V, better than the others' 14.4V. The Samlex and Cotek will charge at a 9 to 10% rate, and the Mean Well at slightly less - I need a charger than can put as many amps into the batteries as quickly as possible to minimize generator runtime.

Are any of these chargers worth buying? Does anyone here use any of them with a 3500W generator?

Thanks, John