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Reviews For: MeanWell PB-1000-12 Charger

Category: Batteries & Chargers for Amateur Radio

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Review Summary For : MeanWell PB-1000-12 Charger
Reviews: 1MSRP: 265
Description:
A switching power supply whose sole function is to keep flooded lead-acid batteries in top shape.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.meanwell.com/search/PB-1000/PB-1000-spec.pdf
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0014
W4HBM Rating: 2015-01-25
In The SAMLEX Tradition Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Lotsa people suggested various means to keep my backup battery string floating. Some months ago I went with a Mean Well clone, and the price was right and the unit worked real well, but didn't have enough snot to keep the whole string happy. In a forum I read about Mean Well and looked them up. A bit more expensive than the generic, but packaged well, and good testimony. So I ordered the PB-1000-12, which the mfr says can handle the Ampere-Hours and has an eight-step profile.

The Mean Well people make a Big Deal in the User Manual about the external relay and alarm contacts, just like the professional units all do. When I unbox the unit I see the external contact interface is a set of ten jumper-type pins.

I send an e-mail to the factory, and this guy LU replies in one sentence: "We don't supply a connector for CN100."

My reply to him for this is to ask, "How do you expect your customers to connect these supplies?"

No reply from MW. Not even the courtesy of a further denial of help.

I guess if I wanted to return it I could, and lose the 28 dollars I paid to ship in, and another 28 dollars to ship out, but who is next, please?

Last year I purchased a SAMLEX inverter for the boat. A kilowatt unit and I had technical questions. I needed a schematic, perhaps. Called SAMLEX and spoke with someone from California, dude. Schematics are NOT provided. However, a three year warranty IS, and No Questions Asked. SAMLEX gear is much more expensive than MW, so I will need to be continuously insulted (like in a French Restaurant, asking for Ketchup), to break through my thick skin to warrant losing 56 bucks just because I am not able to figure out how to easily connect to the interface block.

But there's always multipair telephone station wire, 26GA and color-coded, soldering guns and terminal barrier connectors, so you can imagine what my Bronx Cheer sounds like when I face the Pacific.