to follow up again on the noco charger, i've crossed 100 hours of operation, using both the day tank and aux fuel (pulling from a drum). at one point, we had lost grid power for about three days (after the derecho June 2012 North American derecho - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and other than my foolishness at not understanding the cold weather intake baffle, the 003 ran perfectly while being charged from the noco. i'm quite happy with it and would recommend it to anyone who's DC VR dies. it is fully epoxy potted and is advertised and appears to be weatherproof (mine has sat outside on the trailer since i got it). i believe it is intended for marine use, so it is pretty durable.just wanted to follow up on this. i've got almost 20 hours on this unit (the 'noco gen2 genius marine charger') and am extremely pleased with it. despite a goofy name, this appears to be a very well made, heavy duty and weatherproof fully potted relatively high amp dual bank charger. twice now, after sitting for a couple of weeks, i hit the glow plugs for 60 seconds and fire up the gen. switch the house to it for a full day each time, and when i go to shut it down, the charger is indicating 'green' - it is providing enough current to feed the pumps (and whatever other DC draw there is) and charge the battery to get it into 'maintenance' mode.
certainly 20 hours is not 100% definitive, but i am gaining confidence this is a good alternative to NOS regulators. yes, its $115. if my sieve-like mind can remember, i'll try and post follow ups at the 6 month and 1 year mark on how its holding up.
ahm
i leave it plugged into the convenience outlet, but manually turn off the breaker before shutting down the gen, and don't reset it until the gen is up generating stable power. i assume the voltage trailing off as it shuts down and ramping up would probably not be good for it, but just a precaution.
ahm