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write your own review of the PWRgate PG40S.
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W6CAW
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 15, 2011 08:15
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4 years, no problem
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had one of these charging a 400 Ah bank of Gell cells for over 4 years at our fire department EOC. I run the radios directly off the batteries so only use the PG40S as a charger. These batteries were 2 years old when I got them and are still running strong thanks to the controlled charge of the PG40S.
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KK4DDM
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 15, 2011 07:16
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Flawless
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I'm very impressed with this device after 3 weeks on it. I have two 33 Ah AGM batteries in parallel (~66 Ah) and this charges it in no time. I often forget to turn on my power supply and spend the whole day on batteries; when I switch to the power supply it is 100% seamless. Awesome product.
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K7RFW
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 11, 2011 21:17
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Good company, good product
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought one of these about 4 or 5 years ago from Powerwerx. Recently it was flaking out so I tried to get some help from Powerwerx but all I could get was "need 14.6 volts" (or something like that), so I ordered a new one, from Powerwerx. Well, in the process of testing it I must have reversed the battery leads and let the smoke out. All Powerwerx said was "Go see West Mountain Radio". When I told West Mountain what happened and that I might have goofed, how much to fix, they said "sounds like reversed power, RMA it", so I did. They sent me back a brand new one, no cost. THAT is customer care!
I use one on my HF radio with a 15 amp supply feeding a 52 AH battery and I have one on my VHF/UHF radio with a 4 amp supply and 7 AH battery. Both battery charging currents are kept in tolerance, even when I have a power outage and the batteries draw down. Plus, I do not have to worry about power outages. One day the XYL wondered what I did to the power, I did not realize the power was out and I was QSO'ing away on battery. And the discerning reader will realize that a 100 watt radio and a 50 watt radio will not work on those respective power supplies in transmit, but the PG40S/battery/power supply system will.
A nice inexpensive way to hook up a battery system that is charged from a power supply, yet isolated from power outages. Only wish there was a way to set the max voltage, but that would cost more. (Oh, my 53 AH battery was not holding a charge, that was what was wrong originally, so I have two PG40S's now.)
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N0FPE
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 19, 2009 14:51
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Just what I needed
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Just what the Doc ordered for my shack. works perfect. I now have 2 more in service with the club repeater system. Can't be beat.
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N2EHG
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 19, 2009 14:47
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great product
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had 2 of these for quite some time. They work great. I currently use one to power my HF primary setup and another one for a second uhf/vhf/packet/gps only position. Used with Astron powersupplies and large Gell cell batteries
Think I will prob end up buying another so I can add more battery time to the pile of rigs at position 1. Folks at the company helped me with great patients setting up some unusual configurations. Product is really well built. I am very happy with the unit, perhaps i'll get a few more will at Dayton!
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N0FPE
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 16, 2009 13:14
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Perfect
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have 3 PowerGates in service and have NEVER had anyone at WMR give we the smallest problem. always great to talk to, have worked out a couple items with no questions. The fellow saying to go elsewhere should tell everyone were we can buy the same item as a PowerGate for the same price. The folks at WMR are pretty good at customer service. Dont be scared away because one person seems to have had a bad experiance.
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WD4MTW
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 15, 2009 17:24
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Great Product
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My previous station's backup was modeled on the designs used in some of the GMDSS consoles that I was maintaining. Fast recovery,dedicated charger across a battery(ies)that was swiched into the distribution buss by a drop-out relay across the AC power supply's primary. Charging status was monitored by a Heart/Xantrex link 10. The system worked very well with only a glitch at switch over. When we moved into our present location, there was simply no room for a shack. Whatever could fit into a small computer armoire would have to do. Everything sat on hold for a while untill I seen the first powergate advertised. Only systems with diodes forming an OR gate that I've worked with had been trickle back-up supplies using resistors or bulbs to set the charge current. The lower loss of the schottky diodes looked interesting. Still no way to fit a high current charger and linear supply into such a small space. The PG40s changed that limitation along with a switching power supply. The combination with a Rigrunner 4008 mounted on the back wall allowed me to replicate the previous system along with the Xantrex battery monitor in a very low profile and compact manner with one optima bluetop AGM battery and have plenty of room to spare. Setup by jumper took minutes and the rest was wire distribution and crimping to finish the job. As the other's have noted, the only con is the powerpoles themselves. In my installation, they are hidden out of the way and not likely to get bumped. The system is running flawlessly along with a PC UPS for the computer. Power switch over to the entire station is seamless during an outage. Without the dual function of the PG40s's step charger, it would have been difficult to achieve the same capacity as before in a much smaller space.
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N1KSN
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 2, 2006 07:20
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Works well
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I now have two of these units, one for a portable emergency VHF station (see http://www.wi-aresraces.org/emopportvhf.htm) and the other for a power module I plan on using for an emergency HF station. Since I use AGM batteries I adjusted the power supply output voltage upward and shorted the jumper inside each Powergate unit as per the instructions.
For the emergency VHF station I use an 18 AHr battery inside the station housing, with an external 33 AHr battery as a backup. An Astron SS-18 is the power supply. For the other setup I use a Group 24 80 AHr battery (brand name Werker from Batteries Plus) and an SEC 1223 power supply.
The battery voltage is monitored with either an analog Simpson meter or a slick tricolor LED circuit from Steve Weber KD1JV (slightly modified, see http://www.qsl.net/kd1jv/batmon.HTM).
I did a measurement and found that if the battery is connected to the PWRgate PG40S with no load there is still a small 0.5 mA drain from the battery. Since both of my setups are backups and I do not maintain a constant float charge, I now disconnect the battery when they are not in use and recharge the batteries every two weeks.
Pricy, but well-made and provides seamless transfer from power supply to battery. I agree with the previous reviewer's concerns about Powerpoles and heavy cables, but in my setups this has yet to become an issue.
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W9AC
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 27, 2006 06:07
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Excellent Product
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Overall, an excellent product. This version of the Powergate includes a stair-step charging platform and the ability to charge a wide variety of batteries, including AGM and gell types.
In my application, I use a 80 AH Optima Blue-Top AGM marine battery in conjunction with the Super Powergate, and an Astron RS-35 power supply to distribute 12VDC to a West Mountain 4012 RigRunner. The switching between the Optima battery and the Astron supply is absolutely "glitchless."
The only negative comment relates to the use of the Anderson PowerPole connectors. Although there are work-around approaches to cable management, the connector's design is defective from the beginning: the connector body really requires a quarter-turn or similar type of threaded barrel to lock to its mating surface.
The problems I am seeing have nothing associated with the manner in which the connector is soldered or crimped. The problem is that the connector easily unseats when it is stressed. And, when using heavy gage wire in these power supply applications, it takes little cable movement to unseat the connectors which creates a hazardous condition in high-current applications.
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K6MTT
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 26, 2006 18:02
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Excellent choice for UPS
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Can't really add anything here except to give it a great rating. Does what it says. I use it with a 75AH AGM battery, so I increased the Astron's voltage to 14.5v and changed the internal jumper (which was easy to get to - very nice mechanical design!). The switch from house power to battery power is flawless. All-in-all, a really nice alternative to a dedicated charger setup. A little pricey perhaps, but it's turnkey.
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