[Caevlist] Manzanita Micro PFC40WC for sale

[Paul Wallace]

What is a PFC40WC?  It is a water cooled version of the PFC40 charger from Manzanita Micro.  It has been in my truck for many years and still works fine, but I needed a CAN bus controlled charger for my next upgrade, so this nice charger is up for grabs.

It is a very nice charger for mounting in protected areas, under the hood and similar, but not in an area where there will be heavy spray or dust as it isn’t IP rated.  It has a digital current meter on the front panel.  It is old school PFC in that it still has the current knob, voltage trim pot and dip switches for control.  It does have the second RJ connector which gives you the ability to control charging end voltage and current from a remote position.  I connected the alternate current line to a switch on the dash so that I could turn the current down for 7.2 watt public charging stations without opening the hood to dial the current knob.  It will draw 40 amps on 240 VAC, or make 40 amps into your pack, depending on input and output voltages.  Best case it charges at 9.6kw. It is 2009 vintage.  Both the AC input and the DC output cables exit from the front panel.  It does not have the black round back panel connector for the remote control.  The 2 3/8” straight barbs for the coolant exit from the front panel.

Now for the down side.  It will make high power for a while, an hour or so depending on ambient conditions, but even with a good flow of coolant, it will eventually thermally throttle down to about 4.5kw, or half of its nameplate rating.  This happens because the internal inductor for the regulator is not water cooled.  There are still fans inside which attempt to stir the air around the inductor and move the heat to the cold plate.   I set my radiator fan switch temperature to about 100F which helps a lot.

WARNING, this charger is not isolated and the GREEN AC source safety ground must be connected to chassis ground.  This connects your traction pack negative side to the vehicle chassis.  This was never a problem for me.  All of the J1772 charging stations I used, public and private, didn’t care as long as there was not much differential current between the 2 legs of the 240vac.  The only charging station which would fault is my Tesla portable with the Jesla adapter.  It must be checking safety ground current as well.  I never got so much as a tingle from the chassis.

I’m asking $400 for it, but I’m open to offers as well.

Regards,
Paul Wallace