I have an Elixir ELX-20 converter/charger. I'm trying to figure out the best way to maintain my battery when the camper is sitting at home. I recently bought a new battery, group 31 AGM to replace my 2 aging open lead acid 6V GC's. I prefer a bank of 2-6V, but sealed GC batterys are extremely cost prohibitive. Anyway, I believe that my charger was pretty hard on those batterys, and contributed to a shorter life than they should have had, about 3 years before one shorted a cell.

My plan, is to install a smart charger, and disable the charging feature of the Elixir converter/battery boiler. In order to do this, I assume I'll need to re-wire the 12v+ coming from my vehicles charging system, identify and disable the charging function in the converter, and somehow insure that I dont back-feed my vehicle charging system when I'm running my new smart charger. I cant seem to find a schematic of the converter on the internet, but I can only assume there are some diodes built in that prevent back-feed? The other challenge will be finding a suitable charger with enough power to charge a deeply cycled GP 31 AGM battery that will run off my Honda 650. Any ideas? Am I missing anything? The other option is to simply pull the fuse on the battery, and hook up the battery tender when I'm on shore power or gen...

I'd love to hear some input on this before I dig in.

AGM batteries like a fast charging rate but I think you need a charger designed for AGM batteries. You could call the battery manufacturer and they could tell you if your currant charger will work. You could also contact a Batteries Plus store. I have had good relations with those stores.

Rick