Fitting Ecoflow Alternator Charger in a GC680

[DonGraham]

Has anyone fitted the Ecoflow alternator charger to their GC600 and able to share any pictures of their installation ? Many thanks.

Hi, mine is the 680, I didn't take any pics and now there is nothing really to see as the cable is hidden away. Yours being the 600 will be better in so much as you will have more cable available to allow a virtually completely concealed install. As mentioned in my initial post, on a 680 the cable has to go over the floor between the rear seat and under the passenger seat, although close to the wall and not where it might be stood on. As it is under the carpet it is not really an issue. With a 680 an extra foot of cable would be helpful!
The dual mesh covered cable is thick and can be awkward if not kept straight and must not have any twists as you install it or it will kink. I mounted the EAC directly under the rear outdoor shower shelf, others have mounted within the rear cupboard. It depends on where you intend to site the Ecoflow. The lead from the EAC to the Delta 2 is about 1 metre long and has a 50mm diameter "cylinder" mounted to it, (as does the starter battery cable) perhaps for RF suppresion?
One thing to note if you mount under the rear shower shelf, don't drill the cable hole into the rear cupboard too close to where the EAC will sit. The cable does not bend so easy. Drill the hole closer to the heater vent so to allow a nice slow bend.
It is all fairly straightforward, just allow yourself a day to do it and take your time...

 

[DMC]

Hi, mine is the 680, I didn't take any pics and now there is nothing really to see as the cable is hidden away. Yours being the 600 will be better in so much as you will have more cable available to allow a virtually completely concealed install. As mentioned in my initial post, on a 680 the cable has to go over the floor between the rear seat and under the passenger seat, although close to the wall and not where it might be stood on. As it is under the carpet it is not really an issue. With a 680 an extra foot of cable would be helpful!
The dual mesh covered cable is thick and can be awkward if not kept straight and must not have any twists as you install it or it will kink. I mounted the EAC directly under the rear outdoor shower shelf, others have mounted within the rear cupboard. It depends on where you intend to site the Ecoflow. The lead from the EAC to the Delta 2 is about 1 metre long and has a 50mm diameter "cylinder" mounted to it, (as does the starter battery cable) perhaps for RF suppresion?
One thing to note if you mount under the rear shower shelf, don't drill the cable hole into the rear cupboard too close to where the EAC will sit. The cable does not bend so easy. Drill the hole closer to the heater vent so to allow a nice slow bend.
It is all fairly straightforward, just allow yourself a day to do it and take your time...

Hi Don, that is brilliant information. Many thanks for taking the time to reply and I appreciate your help.

 

[Corradobrit]

The EF alternator charge is a game changer. To be able to fully charge the Delta 2 in less than 90 mins eliminates the need for solar. I plan to install it on my Cali Coast. Just need to figure out the wiring to the engine battery. Or are people connecting it to their leisure battery. I'm concerned about voltage/amperage throttling taking current off the leisure batteries.

 

[myvanrodney]

The EF alternator charge is a game changer. To be able to fully charge the Delta 2 in less than 90 mins eliminates the need for solar. I plan to install it on my Cali Coast. Just need to figure out the wiring to the engine battery. Or are people connecting it to their leisure battery. I'm concerned about voltage/amperage throttling taking current off the leisure batteries.

My thoughts exactly. Despite the 'free' charge and 'all the time' from solar, it still costs £,000's so not really free until recouped.

I want to connect to leisure batteries but wont use unless alternator is providing energy (sounds like this can be achieved automatically via the EAC settings). Then I think its ok to assume the VW internal cabling is rated to at least the alternators max output (150A), so should all be ok.

 

[Kayleigh]

The EF alternator charge is a game changer. To be able to fully charge the Delta 2 in less than 90 mins eliminates the need for solar. I plan to install it on my Cali Coast. Just need to figure out the wiring to the engine battery. Or are people connecting it to their leisure battery. I'm concerned about voltage/amperage throttling taking current off the leisure batteries.

I wouldn’t call it a game changer, but it is very useful. Mine is wired to the Beach leisure battery under the passenger seat. I currently have the charger under the drivers seat with the cable going under the carpet. I did consider wiring to the starter battery, but my thinking was that it’s good to use the Delta 2 to support the existing leisure battery. In a Beach it almost triples the battery capacity. In this setup I use the existing 12v power outlets, but if I want to run anything 240v I plug directly in to the Delta2. The disadvantage is that I need to switch the app from charge mode when on the move to battery maintenance mode when parked up.

If connected to the starter battery, your Delta2 remains separate from the leisure batteries and one advantage is that you don’t need to keep switching the charge mode in the app… Just leave it on the Charge setting.

Ultimately, I would say the battery you connect to depends on how you want to use the Delta2. I do think calling it an alternator charger is a bit misleading though. It is really a battery to battery charger.
If you set the cutoff voltage to 12v in the app, the leisure/starter battery will happily charge the Delta2 at 800W without the engine running. It’s best to set the cutoff to 13v so the charger only kicks in when the engine is running.

The app has 3 charge modes:
Charge, Reverse Charge and Battery Maintenance. The first two modes charge up to 800W and the maintenance mode up to 100W. I use the battery maintenance mode to keep the leisure battery topped up while it’s running my fridge and it works fine.

I should add that I’m not an electrician or any kind of expert. The above are my thoughts from my own usage and testing.

 

[Corradobrit]

I wouldn’t call it a game changer, but it is very useful. Mine is wired to the Beach leisure battery under the passenger seat. I currently have the charger under the drivers seat with the cable going under the carpet. I did consider wiring to the starter battery, but my thinking was that it’s good to use the Delta 2 to support the existing leisure battery. In a Beach it almost triples the battery capacity. In this setup I use the existing 12v power outlets, but if I want to run anything 240v I plug directly in to the Delta2. The disadvantage is that I need to switch the app from charge mode when on the move to battery maintenance mode when parked up.

If connected to the starter battery, your Delta2 remains separate from the leisure batteries and one advantage is that you don’t need to keep switching the charge mode in the app… Just leave it on the Charge setting.

Ultimately, I would say the battery you connect to depends on how you want to use the Delta2. I do think calling it an alternator charger is a bit misleading though. It is really a battery to battery charger.
If you set the cutoff voltage to 12v in the app, the leisure/starter battery will happily charge the Delta2 at 800W without the engine running. It’s best to set the cutoff to 13v so the charger only kicks in when the engine is running.

The app has 3 charge modes:
Charge, Reverse Charge and Battery Maintenance. The first two modes charge up to 800W and the maintenance mode up to 100W. I use the battery maintenance mode to keep the leisure battery topped up while it’s running my fridge and it works fine.

I should add that I’m not an electrician or any kind of expert. The above are my thoughts from my own usage and testing.

I'm pretty convinced that connecting to the leisure battery is less than ideal. The Cali's electronics do not allow the full potential of the alternator to be tapped. The max I see on the controller display is around 35A and it quickly drops to 10A. This is not consistent though so the true potential of the alternator charging is not being realised. Max charge power is only 425W. I would expect this to almost double to 800W by connecting the EF charger to the engine battery and having a more direct connection to the alternators output. Just need to figure out the best route through the engine bulkhead.

 

[Kayleigh]

I'm pretty convinced that connecting to the leisure battery is less than ideal. The Cali's electronics do not allow the full potential of the alternator to be tapped. The max I see on the controller display is around 35A and it quickly drops to 10A. This is not consistent though so the true potential of the alternator charging is not being realised. Max charge power is only 425W. I would expect this to almost double to 800W by connecting the EF charger to the engine battery and having a more direct connection to the alternators output. Just need to figure out the best route through the engine bulkhead.

I agree. In theory one would expect the engine battery with its direct connection to the alternator output to charge faster. There may also be differences between the charging in a T6 and T6.1.

However, what I can say is that in practice the Delta 2 will fully charge during a 90 minute road trip in my configuration with the leisure battery remaining pretty much fully charged as well.

I look forward to seeing your results with the charger connected to the starter battery.