calira charger

because they do so much in that they charge all batteries and condition them etc they can blow if you are lucky a small interior fuse or if not so lucky the interior charging unit. The units have a model number on them such as 30/20 and the 20 refers to the number of amp hours they can charge. So if you have two 110ah batteries it's just over it, but you also have to take into account the starter battery but as it trickle charges it allow for half the ah so you are potentially trying to charge 270ah of batteries with a charger rated at 200ah.

Now I'm no electrical engineer, I read this on the site of a company which repairs and reconditions them.

There appears to be 2 companies which sort them out, one who advertises on eBay (search calira chargers) who charges a flat fee and when you read the small print States that he has around a 50% success rate and another company which charges more but sends out a reconditioned unit They are a & n caravan services.
http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/calira.php

My camper has just one leisure battery 100ah and starter battery the charger is the 30/20.the interior fuse is ok.This charger is not suitable for 2 leisure batteries then i was thinking of upgrading to two 100ah batteries.

http://www.my-caravanning.com/…1225/64554

This charger is Designed to charge 2 x battery's.
With a 25amp output and trickle charging facility for the starter.

it Should be more than enough for 200a/h of on board power

I do see your point but sure re-wiring is fun .....

Back to the original post, if you dont normally use EHU then why not just put a charger like one of the Ctek ones in and hook up to that as most of the van bits run by 12v

As the OP has already found out, the Calira fitted to Knaus SunTi's, has known quality problems.

I was already aware of this, when ours stopped charging on mains hook up, at approx 6 years old.
I went down the route of having it repaired, and upgraded, but this only lasted for about 1 year. After two more repairs, and two more failures, I decided that the Calira was too troublesome, and looked around for a replacement.
Because it isn't just a charger, but controls the split charging of strarter and leisure batteries, the interface for the fuse's and other circuits etc, plus the Bord Control panel, several people have simply fitted another charging system, "piggy back" style, as a solution.

I too went down this route, and fitted an Amperor 25 amp charger. This worked fine, but I wasn't satisfied with the Calira taking up unecessary space, inside the locker, so after a year of working this way, I stripped out the circuit from the Calira, that provides the interface, and mounted this in an out of the way place, as a permanent solution.

This is easier than it might seem, because it can be unplugged, and the vacant connectors simply bridged, to make the Bord Control panel continue working.

The Amperor 25amp charger, is very robust, provides a 3 stage charging regime (as withe the Calira), and can be switched to float voltage only, to power all the circuits, and give the batteries an easier life, when hooked up on site, for several days or weeks.

My Calira Charger is exactly the same model as yours. You mentioned that you had looked at the Knaus Owners Club website, so you probably know that some of their members are on their second, or even third, replacements. Unfortunately, this is an example of very poor quality. especially considering the high costs involved.

I can't recommend anyone in particular, to fit another charger "piggy back" style, but I am sure that any competent electrician would be able to do this, if you aren't happy to DIY.

Just to illustrate how easy this could be, when I first discovered that ours was't charging on mains hook up, about a week before a trip to France, I tried my standard 20 year old 4amp 12v charger, connected to the Knaus starter battery.
This worked fine, because the Calira detected a charging source, and immediately directed a controlled charge to both the starter and leisure batteries.
Although there wasn't a high enough charge to keep the leisure battery full, when using the TV etc, overnight it was enough to bring it up to an acceptable level. We went on our trip, using this temporary arrangement, if connected to mains hook up, and No problems were experienced.

If you are interested in my choice of a replacement charger, just google Amperor 25 amp 12v charger, and you will get links to their website.

To connect one, "piggy back" style, the mains supply for the Calira can be used, because the Calira won't require this, with just the interface circuits being used.
The 12v connection then only needs to be made to either of the batteries, NOT BOTH.

In conclusion, make sure that the Calira really isn't working on mains, before doing anything else.

I doubt wether a main dealer would carry out this work. They would probably want to replace like for like, at dealer prices, but it isn't necessary.

Happy Camping, Mick H.

Sun Ti Im sure youve got sorted but I have a Knaus with a Calira but older than yours so prob an earlier charger model too, BUT when I bought van in Oct I thought the charger was dead and actually posted on here. I thought it would only charge on alternator and not EHU. However when I had checked all within my skill and was about to give up I left the EHU in. I came back in morning and the charging lights in panel were on and the charger was working. Its worked ever since. If I disconnect and go for a run, then reconnect the EHU it can take a few hours before the charging lightson panel illuminate, but they always do eventually. Not sure if this is normal or indicates a fault, but maybe worth a try?

On our Sun Ti when the two green lights on the panel by the door were illuminated I always took it that was a sign to show both vehicle and leisure batteries were fully charged.
On solar charging only in France they hardly went out.

Maybe I was wrong !

Simon is a good guy and knows what he's about.