Who has an arkpak?

[Davent]

Anyone have one of these?
Used it a bit at home, useful during blackouts.
Took it out bush, and I have to say, I'm dissapointed.
Hooked up to a 160w solar panel. Was at 40% when we left camp, and when we got back, late afternoon, had charged to 80%.
In full sunlight for about 9 hours.
Next morning was down to 20 odd % .
That afternoon, only charged to 44%.
Thought maybe it was the battery?
Maybe faulty panel.
Changed panel with mates 160w panel, same result, the panel is fine.
Got home, hooked to house power, charged perfectly, however I think the battery is now on its last legs due to running it so low.
I have read a few reviews on this thing, and seems lots of people have had different problems, seems unreliable when it counts. I am reluctant to use it again, and might just go back to a regular battery box...

Anyone have one and had issues?

 

[Mackka]

You seem to be having a bad run mate. Cheers

 

[grubstake]

I've got two and they've both had issues similar to yours, Dave. The overhead blade fuses are a major design defect - vibration while travelling means they lose contact while still remaining in place, so visually they look OK but electrically they're non-functional. When this happens, the saved battery profile is lost, charging ceases and the battery fully discharges, which wrecks it, as you've found.

These devices (the Engel-branded Arkpak is identical), sound great on paper, with all of their built in connections, portability, battery analysis software, etc, but they're hopelessly unreliable in practical bush usage. Junk with a capital "J" as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Davent]

I've got two and they've both had issues similar to yours, Dave. The overhead fuses are a major design defect - vibration while travelling means they lose contact while still remaining in place, so visually they look OK but electrically they're non-functional. When this happens, the saved battery profile is lost, charging ceases and the battery fully discharges, which wrecks it, as you've found.

These devices (the Engel-branded Arkpak is identical), sound great on paper, with all of their built in connections, portability, battery analysis software, etc, but they're hopelessly unreliable in practical bush usage. Junk with a capital "J" as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks for that mate thought I might have been doing something wrong!

 

[Moneybox]

Typical lithium batteries. They aren't what they advertise. I wrote to Esperance Communications regarding the early expiry of the GPX6000 battery and he said their usual life expectancy is three to four years. What happened to this 10,000 cycles or whatever we're meant to get?

 

[grubstake]

Typical lithium batteries. They aren't what they advertise. I wrote to Esperance Communications regarding the early expiry of the GPX6000 battery and he said their usual life expectancy is three to four years. What happened to this 10,000 cycles or whatever we're meant to get?

I thought it was 1,000 - 2,000, not ~10,000?

 

[Hippyty79]

Even at 1000 cycles that’s full discharge and recharge everyday for nearly 3 years.
I installed a bms in my 100ah in October last year, it runs a waeco full time with solar, it’s only showing 8 cycles, from memory it’s rated for 2000cycles.

 

[Coiltothesoil]

Anyone have one of these?
Used it a bit at home, useful during blackouts.
Took it out bush, and I have to say, I'm dissapointed.
Hooked up to a 160w solar panel. Was at 40% when we left camp, and when we got back, late afternoon, had charged to 80%.
In full sunlight for about 9 hours.
Next morning was down to 20 odd % .
That afternoon, only charged to 44%.
Thought maybe it was the battery?
Maybe faulty panel.
Changed panel with mates 160w panel, same result, the panel is fine.
Got home, hooked to house power, charged perfectly, however I think the battery is now on its last legs due to running it so low.
I have read a few reviews on this thing, and seems lots of people have had different problems, seems unreliable when it counts. I am reluctant to use it again, and might just go back to a regular battery box...

Anyone have one and had issues?

I’ve run an Engel box (same as the Ark Pak and Thunderbox) as a back up for about 5-6 years now with an Itechworld 120x (rated to 105AH)
It’s definitely not without its faults.
It will only charge at a max of 7amps through the box so the 150 watt solar will have wasted output and they might be why you weren’t getting full charge out of it.
I think the shunt on them isn’t very accurate as I’ve had it say 0% but running the waeco at 12.9 bolts still (that would be about 20-30%) but have also had it say 100% then suddenly drop to 80%.
I’ve found disconnecting the battery from the box and leaving it for a few minutes the reconnecting it can help however even if you look at units like the red arc manager 30 it will never give you a percentage reading until it’s had itself a full charge.
Batteries can give off different voltages at different temperatures so the fact the Engel box thinks it can give a percentage once a battery is connected doesn’t really work.
I’ve also had the little inverter crap itself, just burning out fuses with nothing connected so I’ve given up on that component.
Best bet IMO is to set up a proper second battery system in the car even with just a small 25A dcdc charger (for that extra punch while the engine is running) then solar as back up. The box it definitely handy for portability etc but not a full back up/reliable system.