aandncaravan Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Sargent have stopped supporting the EC325. They won't repair them or supply replacements. The only option they now offer in the event of a failure is the EC328 which has superseded the EC325. However, the EC328 won't work with the old EC325 Control/Display, so this has to be upgraded as well. Cost to the customer for this is £304 for an EC328 and £102 for the new EC328 display = £406 + fitting. We have built up a stock of remanufactured EC325's and their displays so are able to offer a rebuilt EC325 with 12 months warranty at just £220. These are available with free fitting (first hour free only, but fitting usually only takes 40 mins). We now also have a Dealer selling us the old broken EC325's they remove when fitting the EC328 so we should be able to keep these stocks of remanufactured EC325's high. Therefore if a Dealer says the only option to a broken EC325 is a Factory EC328 and new Display, it isn't. We obviously still offer a repair service for all the ECxxx units. For info on connecting Solar to the ECxxx units utilising the inbuilt Solar Regulator, see : http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/sargent.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Thanks Allan for posting this information for the benefit of forum members with older vans. I don't have a Sargent system but it's good to know they can be repaired, providing there is a steady supply of defunct units. In my view, your recycling philosophy is to be admired and encouraged. I don't have much sympathy with the "throw away society" when these things can be fixed at a reasonable cost. However, I'm surprised that Sargent have invoked this policy if the units are repairable. Perhaps their accountants/solicitors have pulled the plug ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 Thank you. I don't know why support has been stopped as the units are really well made, sophisticated units. One of the few we know of that has an inbuilt Solar Regulator where you just plug in the Solar Panel output, to give both Habitation and Starter battery charging. All the Solar information then appears on the Sargent display. While there are failures with the charger, as per most chargers we see, that is usually down to battery issues not any inherent weakness. Only real problem is a tendancy for the display to sometimes 'freeze' requiring a reset. But this is something shared by much of the EC range, including it's replacement the EC328. Almost all the other issues relate to direct connection of electrical items to the battery when Sargent say this should NEVER be done, because of the 18volt 'super charge' it can throw at the battery to fast charge them. Very efficient it is too. However, poor advice to fit AGM and Gel batteries, when 18v will decimate this type, often results in charger failure. This 'super charge' 18volt feature has been carried over to the EC328, so not something you will get away from by 'upgrading'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 On one of the other threads covering an incident of premature Starter Battery failure (I think in under three years?) it was pointed out that the Sargent EC xxx Smart charging doesn't charge the Starter battery until it has discharged quite deeply, down to 12.3v. While this isn't too bad a discharge voltage for a Habitation battery, provided it is recharged quite quickly, a conventional Starter shouldn't discharge that low or premature failure may result. I stated in that thread that we would test the EC325's that we had in the workshop to see if this was how this unit operated. So this is the update. EC xxx units - Starter Battery Potential Damage. The ECxxx chargers will charge either Habitation and Starter batteries if you manually use the 'Battery' button on the LCD display controller to select the relevant battery. If you use the Smart charging feature, the Charger will only charge up the Starter battery AFTER it has dropped to 12.3v, which for a modern Starter battery is almost 40% discharged and well after the point at which damaging Battery Sulphation happens. The Sargent website states : "Smart Charge”, when the motorhome is on 230V hook-up, the Starter battery is monitored but not charged while its voltage is 12.4V or higher. If the starter-battery’s voltage drops below 12.4V, the motorhome’s battery-charger should switch its output from the leisure-battery (the default for charging) to the starter-battery and charge this for 4 hours at 13.6V/14.4V. The battery-charger should then revert to charging the leisure-battery for 4 hours while monitoring the starter-battery’s voltage". When we actually tested some units we found a worse situation. During the testing of 3 Sargent EC 325 units we had in for repair or remanufacture, one of the units under test did not begin recharging of the Starter battery until it dropped right down to 12.1v which is equivalent to a 50% discharged Starter battery and almost certainly shortened life. The other two began charging the Starter battery when the voltage dropped to 12.2v. Conventional Starter batteries are not designed to discharge so low, ideally no more than 20%. More on the webpage here : http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/sargent.php We have noticed an increase in Starter battery premature failure during the last 12 months, not just on Sargent equipped vehicles. Have any forum members experienced shorter Starter battery life than they would normally anticipate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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