Our fire department replaced the original alternator on our front run engine with an Eco-Tech alternator several years ago. We had been experiencing multiple electrical issues with this particular apparatus as it spent a lot of its time idling at emergency scenes such as medicals and vehicle accidents. Our mechanics were searching for something to alleviate our problems when they discovered the Eco-Tech alternator. After they installed the new Eco-Tech alternator on the engine our issues disappeared. We now have plenty of amperage for emergency warning whether we are idling or doing pump operations at an emergency scene. This alternator has proven to be reliable in every aspect of this vehicles operation.

Well I got the system up and running this weekend. All I can say is Awesome! That alternator was pumping 295 amps into my LifPo4 batteries at 13.85 volts!! When temperatures got up to 199F it throttled back to about 240 amps. Filled my batteries very fast. Current tailed off to about 40 amps when it hit the high voltage cutoff point.

I love the soft start, worked very well. Thank you very much for the great product and the great service!

Six years ago I chose an Eco-Tech Alternator for continuous use in a hydropower application both because of its high power output at low RPM, and also because it had the best efficiency on the market. Fifty thousand hours later, (and 75,000 kWh) the Eco-Tech delivers reliable and efficient power. Today I ordered bearings and brushes for the next eight years!

Updated:
We have one of your wonderful alternators charging our LifePo4 battery bank on board our sail boat. Made a little video on the install. Your alternator is performing perfectly. I have also started to market a Marine refrigeration system that I designed and will be at the Annapolis boat show next month . You should have your alternator there as well, it really is the best thing on the market in your space. Sailors need to know that your option is available.

Tim Enright
Designer/Owner of the Team Enright Truck
December 2012

The concept behind our project was to build a custom class 8 truck that used a battery powered APU as an anti-idle power source.  For this we needed a large bank of batteries (1.25kw) and a powerful and intelligent alternator to charge them.  The minimum amperage needed to charge a bank of this size is 20% of the amp hour rating, which is 250 amps.  The Eco-Tech P-305-I was the only alternator on the market that had the output we needed at idle.  We have measured the amps at idle and high idle and the Eco-Tech meets our amperage needs by a fair margin.

The other critical factor is maintaining a steady 14.4 voltage at the battery.  The Eco-Tech has a built in regulator with a remote auto sensing connection, so that the proper customized voltage as set by Ecoair can be maintained at the battery.  This makes the P-305-I a complete factory replacement for our 2010 Freightliner Cascadia.

The alternator is the most critical part for a vehicle that does not have a diesel based APU (genset).  When we are running we don’t need to idle the truck at all when the truck is at rest.  If we are stopped for the weekend, we just idle the truck for 2-4 hours a day (less with sunshine) which is only 1.5-3.0 gallons of fuel per day.  There have been days when we didn’t idle the truck at all.

The technical staff at Ecoair Corp. is very knowledgeable and has been a pleasure to work with.  I look forward to many more years of service from our Eco-Tech alternator.  Thank you for providing a product that would allow us to burn less fuel.

A few years ago the Massapequa Fire District experienced what many fire departments experience, alternator output issues.  We run a fleet of 19 first line fire apparatuses.  Our Fire Department responds to approximately 2,700 alarms each year.

In 2000 our 1997 tower ladder put us behind the eight ball.  Over a short period of time we experienced aerial operation issues brought on by “low voltage”.  Aerial functions slowed down or became intermittent due to voltage drop.  After replacing the original equipment alternator with the same unit twice, we had to find other options.  Our research indicated that the excessive electrical demand in today’s fire apparatus meant that it was imperative to improve the output of our alternators.  After installing the Eco-Tech alternator, all of our problems vanished.  One of our concerns with the new Eco-Tech had been background noise or feedback through the “Hi Tech” communications system.  We were thrilled to find that this was no issue.

Then in 2006, our 1997 Ford ambulance had four alternator failures.  We installed an Eco-Tech and it solved the problem.  Under full load at the scene, this ambulance maintains full system voltage.  Although the ambulance is equipped with a hi-idle control system, we found that the use of the system became unnecessary.  We found the installation easy and were impressed that the mounting kit included everything that we needed to install the alternator.

Finally more recently, we experienced alternator problems with our heavy rescue vehicle.  Again we found that the Eco-Tech alternator solved our problems.  After that installation we found that the load manager was never introduced in any operating condition and that there was no radio interference.  The new installation of the Eco-Tech was simple for us since it was virtually a “direct fit”.

Because of our success with the Eco-Tech technology, we plan to continue phasing out our old alternators and updating the rest of our fleet.

Phosflow Turbines LLC, an alternative energy development company, has used Eco-Tech’s 28 volt alternator in its recently developed 5 KW hybrid low profile wind turbine prototype. The Eco-Tech 28 volt alternator was a good fit for our patent-pending turbine application due to its compact size, and lighter weight, along with the alternator’s lower idle speed which allows us to use a smaller gearbox to achieve the desired output. This results in cost savings and lower overall weight.  This alternator gives us the efficiency of a permanent magnet generator with the regulation advantages of an alternator.

Eco-Tech went the extra mile doing additional testing of their alternator to provide needed data for our wind turbine application. Thanks!

Boat & Generator Installations

Kevin Wade
United Kingdom
April 2014

I needed a solution to the problems I was having with the 230V AC diesel genset on my boat.  This genset’s primary purpose was to provide the 230V AC charger with power so it could then charge the batteries at 12V at a maximum of 120 AMPS.  This was highly inefficient in itself, but the other problems were poor sine wave and poor voltage stabilisation causing sensitive electronic equipment to blow.  I lost many appliances to this especially those with switch mode power supplies.

Having uprated the alternator system on my main engine to 325 AMPS with 2 standard alternators I found this combined with the 3000w inverter would run all my appliances, even the 230V 2.2kw oven. However running a 4L engine simply to charge batteries was not ideal either.

Knowing a 12V main engine based genset was working perfectly and I had a 500cc diesel genset the idea occurred to me to dump the 230V alternator and use the genset engine to turn a standard high output automotive alternator, but the largest I could find was 220 AMPS and this needed to be run at 6000 RPM which would mean a 2x gear up of the current engine.  This would exceed the HP rating of the engine.

An internet search helped me find the Ecoair company and their products.  Initial web information showed I could get all the amps I needed at 1800 RPM with a direct drive from the engine.  A few emails to the very helful and informative technical dept and a few phone calls resulted in the delivery of a pad mount Eco-Tech 14V, 325 AMP.  Because my batteries like being charged at 14.8V Ecoair also supplied me with a regulator at this set point.

This conversion has solved my battery charging problems.  All my AC requirements are met by the inverter which produces very clean 230V power so no blown electronics, very quick battery charging and because the engine is only running at 1800 RPM it is much quieter, more economical than when it was running at the AC speed of 3000 RPM

http://dcgenset.blogspot.co.uk/
http://boatbuildblog.blogspot.co.uk/