Sterling Power ProCharge Ultra Marine

16 February 2018 | Mike

Sterling Power are a leading manufacturer of innovative marine power solutions and the ProCharge Ultra battery charger is a firm favourite of ours here at MDS.

For most users this will be a fit and forget solution. You fix it securely to the wall or bulkhead, wire up both mains electricity input and output cables for up to three batteries or banks of batteries, and the job is done.

The charger can be configured to charge different types of batteries such as wet, AGM, GEL and others including your own custom mode. Other features of the ProCharge Ultra PCU1240 that we like include:

LED voltage and current displays
Clear and easy to understand manual
Automatic variable speed fan keeps noise to a minimum
All cables have cable clamps for additional strength
90-270v 40-70hz input means it can cope easily with low mains voltages or 110v inputs
Remote control panel option

The first thing that you notice with these chargers is how solid and well made they are, they feel like a really nice quality item that you would be proud to fit to your boat.

The front is made from a very strong and hard plastic, and this is mounted on to a rustproof metal backplate.The cables as you can see from the pictures are extremely well restrained and the battery cables will need to be terminated with M6 crimps.

Once fired up the thing lights up like the proverbial Christmas tree, the fan then whirrs into life, as the unit performs a self test. Once done the fan noise disappears and the unit starts to charge/monitor the batteries.

You can watch the two green LED displays showing the voltage and current changing, or just leave it to get on with the job in hand.

There is an optional remote panel that also relays this information to a dashboard if you wish, and includes information from the supplied battery temperature monitor, which the charger can use to further improve the charging regime.

Additional notes:

All ProCharge Ultra chargers have three outputs except the PCU1210 12v 10Ah version which only has two outputs
Meets CE standards including EN61000-3-2 EN61000-3-3 EN655014-1 EN55014-2 EN60335-2-29
Unit has PFC (Power Correction Factor) and is therefore extremely efficient

Replacing a Newmar PT-40CE Charger

We also noted how the PCU1230 and PCU1240 in particular can be used to replace the Newmar PT-40CE charger when it fails, as it has a similar footprint.

We have seen quite a few of these in older Sealine models like the S34, F33 and S38 in particular.

For advice on replacing an old Newmar charger please contact our expert sales team.