Victron EnergyBlue Smart IP65 Smart Car Battery Charger 12V 15A, Float & Trickle Charger and Desulfator for Motorcycle, ATV, RV, Lithium and Deep Cycle Batteries

I recently upgraded my old Everstart charger to this Victron Smart Blue15 amp charger. Primarily because I just purchased a new 12v, 280ah LifePO4 battery for my RV. The battery arrived ~50% charged. The unit charged overnight and topped off the battery with the final 145ah of energy storage. The Victron charger put it through the paces. Bulk, absorption, float and cell voltage was nicely balanced when I got up this morning. Battery was 13.6 volts and fully charged. During the 11 hour charge period I monitored the temp of the charger using an infrared thermometer, as I had read other reviews that mentioned the heat buildup. The highest temp value I saw was ~150 deg f. That’s about where the charger temp stabilized throughout the bulk charging phase. The charging was done in a 50 deg garage which likely helped a little. Nonetheless, it never really got more then very warm and performed flawlessly.Prior to this purchase I had ordered a cheaper smart does-everything charger but I didn’t like the performance (charging amps) and it was basically just a cheap plastic shell. The Victron is quality throughout. Solid components with a feel of quality. The charger maintained a full 15a during bulk charging and adjusted charging amps nicely for the other various stages of charging. There is no SOC per se. you get voltage, charging amps and charging stage. SOC comes from the Bluetooth on the battery when properly set. You can easily translate voltage into SOC anyway. Ex: 13.6v is 100% fully charged,13.3 is ~50% charged. Check the spec sheet on your battery for reference. In addition, this charger has built in protections that largely duplicate the protections built into your BMS. So that’s double protection for your battery. I really like that insurance.I have also used this charger on automotive and lawn tractor lead acid batteries. It has performed well there as well. Just hook it up, plug it in and let it do its thing. It’s a no brainer. Perhaps a little pricier then the others but worth every penny, like anything, you get what you pay for. It is listed as lithium-ion on the charger but that also means LifePO4 as well. I checked.I am very happy with this purchase and would definitely but again. These lifepo4 batteries aren’t cheap. I have confidence that this Victron will do the job and help protect my energy storage investment.Btw, I am just a customer like you. I have no connection to Victron at all. I’m just an RV nerd that likes lots of power.

If you are trying to choose between this model and the IP67 model I have both and have only found the differences, beyond the different amperage models offered, to be what is visible in the listing photos. I ordered this model (IP65 12 Volt 15 amp) for my 12 Volt needs and the IP67 24 Volt 12 amp for my 24 Volt needs.They both arrived with a standard (U.S.) NEMA 5-15 plug that fits normal outlets, not sure why the listings show a different plug type, but I can confirm that the listing title is accurate.The 12V/15a model will occasionally feel slightly warm to the touch when charging a very low battery bank, but I have never found either device to be hot to the touch.The IP65 model (this listing) is likely best suited for most people that just want to have a versatile charger available for different tasks. It has both ring terminals and clamps that can be quickly swapped out with the quick connect plug in line. You do not absolutely need the app to use this model as you can control some of its settings using the physical "mode" button on the device case.The IP67 model would be best suited for a permanent install location in my opinion. It has fixed ring terminal ends with an inline fuse (on the higher amperage 24Volt model I ordered). The charger is ignition protected and has never been even slightly warm to the touch, it only changes from feeling like cold metal when off, to feeling like cool metal when on. There are no buttons or methods to control the settings on the unit itself, so without the app you would just be using the general settings with no recondition mode which in reality would probably fine for may battery setups.The rest of the information applies to both models.The automation and the ability to customize the charge profiles on either of these chargers is what really makes them stand out to me. So far both of them have preformed consistently providing exactly the voltage they should at any given temperature.The app screenshots are from the 24 Volt model since it was running when I was writing this review, but they are both the same.. Just divide the voltages by 50% for the 12 Volt model. In fact I had used the 12 Volt model to charge my batteries in parallel prior to setting up the 24V battery bank and the custom settings that I had set up according to the battery manufacture's spec sheet were automatically ported to the 24V charger when I first connected to it with the app, I selected the name I had given the custom profile from a list and verified that each of the settings was exactly what it should be, the app had automatically took my settings and doubled them to match the 24V bank.When you go into the settings with the app you can choose from preset options that work well for most batteries, these already have a temperature compensation value as is required by many batteries. Both chargers also have a low current mode for charging small batteries under 13Ah. When you enter into the advanced settings you will have the ability to set up the voltages and temperature compensation specific to the charge profile of your batteries. The expert mode is mostly about turning off some of the limits designed to help protect your batteries. For my battery banks I have only needed to adjust the voltages and temperature compensation to make it match the specs for the batteries that I am using.In the past I have had batteries that would stay warm to the touch when sitting on float mode making me not trust the charger enough to leave the battery connected for long periods of time. I have not noticed any significant warmth from the batteries while using either of these chargers. An additional feature for those of us that like the ability to store our batteries on the charger is the ability to set a storage voltage. The storage voltage is set below the float voltage to minimize the potential for gassing of your battery while still being able to off set self discharge over long periods of time. When in storage mode the charger will check the voltage of the battery to calculate the absorption time needed and then enter an absorption mode once every 7 days. Since I have had these chargers I have seen absorption times as little as 30 seconds when the bank has not been discharged at all. This makes me much less nervous about leaving the charger unattended to help preserve my batteries.From within the app the historic use of the charger can be viewed by cycle. clicking on any of the bars in the graph will show you the duration and total Ah delivered during each of the stages.If you are unsure if either of these chargers will do what you need them to I would recommend downloading the app (Victron Connect), on the app you can set up a demo view of any of the products that it supports that will allow you to work through the settings to see what is available for that device.Prior to this spring I had not heard of Victron Energy before. After my experience with these two products and the regular availability of firmware updates that actually add valuable features I have obviously become a satisfied customer. I am nervous about putting all my eggs in one basket with any brand but I am very likely to purchase other components that I need from this brand in the future.If I overlooked a specific aspect you are interested in just ask a question, the suppliers appear to be responsive on amazon (and via email) and I would be happy to share my experience if your question is asked under one of the listings for the products that I have (IP65 12V/15amp or IP67 24V/12amp, I would not be able to respond to a question asked under any of the other product variants listed since amazon restricts answers to only people that have purchased the item)

I went looking for chargers and actually purchased a $90 charger before reading about this one. What a huge mistake that was. This is the best charger on the market. It is easy to use, has a complete battery charge monitoring system that works perfectly and goes through each step in the charging process properly so that it cannot damage any battery that you hook it up to.This is a wonderfully perfect charger, high quality, weatherproof, and I accidentally already found out that is can work even when submerged~!!! Fabulous. We had a freak storm and I had not noticed the lid I set it on when charging a Lion battery has raised edges. I went out the next morning and the thing was completely underwater - and still working like a charm~!!!!!!!This product is built at the utmost quality level. Do not hesitate if you are on the fence about price~!!! It IS WELL WORTH THE MONEY~! GO FOR IT. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

This charger is used to charge my 50 amp hour lithium ion phosphate battery for my two Garmin chart plotters. Charges my battery in four hours if it is completely dead. This charger has great connectors and can be mounted on your boat or, used as portable. It can charge all battery types and I especially like it has a phone app to give you real time updates on your battery charge usage. You'll always know how much battery life you have. Buy this, you won't regret it.