For a great education on the limitations of power converters to fully charge true deep cycle batteries I again invite you to visit https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com. Bob rants a bit on his blogs but take the time to read them carefully and you will learn a lot. I have read his blogs repeatedly and they have helped me greatly in putting my system together. So even though I knew the Intelli-power converter was not as good as the Magnum converter/inverter he recommends I just did not want to spend the money on the Magnum. Onwards.
Installed the converter and seemed to work ok. It was a little noisy, you could hear the transformer hum some. Ran ok for a few days and then on the first warmish day (80F) it started making more noise. Took a look at it and it seemed the fan was trying to engage but would only twitch and hum.
Clearly not working properly.
First mistake: Ordered through Amazon in early January but did not get to install it until late April so the 30 day return policy had expired. So I called the manufacturer, Progressive Dynamics and they told me they only repaired it directly if the unit was more than a year old, so to call the seller and have them deal with the repair.
The Amazon seller was Vintage Technologies out of Union City, MI. I sent them the unit in the original packaging. Long story short, after almost 3 weeks of calls and talking to clueless people at Vintage Technologies, the owner, Frank who was a total jerk on the phone sent me back a "new" (according to him) unit that arrived in this box:
Inside was a clearly not "new" (had some scratches) unit wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap. Far as I know, "new" units do not come from any factory in USPS priority mail boxes...
Second mistake: Buying a sub par product from a dishonest seller.
At this point I had spent over $40 on back and forth shipping costs on a $150 item so was not about to throw any more money at this issue. I installed the "new" converter and like the previous one it hums but at least does not make as much noise as the previous unit.
Lesson: Spend the money on a better unit. Maybe Santa will bring me a Magnum converter/inverter for X'mas.