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In previous motorhomes charging batteries has been an automatic and silent affair. You'd hook up to the mains and batteries were automatically charged.
In my new Arapaho, there is a charging button on the ECB attached to a noisy fan. When I want to charge the batteries I turn this noisy fan on which is right above the dinette.
My questions are: have I got this right; do I need put up with the noise to charge my batteries?
When I am hooked up and use 12v eqipment am I draining my battery, with the battery not being replenished at all until I turn this fan/charger on?
thanks in advance
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It sounds like your charger/power unit has a cooling fan and these can make an annoying noise. Other uses have discovered this, there have been other threads about it, it seems there were problems with some very noisy ones ......you need to read :
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Your charger/power unit may be a Sargent EC200 , if so here is a link to the instructions:-
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And as to how you must use it.....You have got it right. You do need to have the charger switched on when you are on a hook up and are using any 12v appliance...such as the lights or water pump etc. If you do not have it switched on you will be draining the batteries all the time you are using any 12v equipment in the van ( I think that all the lighting in your van may be 12v powered).
Others have found that the noise from the fan is just too much at night so they switch the charger off while sleeping....since you will be using little 12v power at night the charger will get the batteries back up to a full charge quite quickly in the morning....as long as you remember to switch it back on....tie a knot in your socks that will remind you
My feeling on this is that these noisy chargers, when fitted inside the living area of the van are not acceptable...vans are for sleeping in and one of the pleasures of camping is the silence at night.
I emailed Sergent yesterday, got an email back straight away asking me to mail them my phone number which I did. Got a call a couple of hours later from a very knowledgable chap.
He was aware that some people find the fan intrusive, he told me of someone who had a hearing aid and the fan was just on the right frequency to drive him nuts. The had to fix him up with a less powerful but silent charger.
He said that the only solution was to turn it off if it disturbed you. He went on to say that they are working on a system whereby once the batteries are well on their way to being charged the fan will cut out, thius system may well be fitted in to 2007 Autotrails.
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your charger/power unit has a cooling fan and these can make an annoying noise. Other uses have discovered this, there have been other threads about it, it seems there were problems with some very noisy ones ......you need to read :
that will remind you 
