Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

Running a 200Ah lithium bank (two Fogstar Drift 100Ah in parallel) in my Hymer motorhome, charged from a 110Ah AGM starter battery via the alternator. Currently eyeing up DC-DC chargers and the price gap between these two is making me question myself.

The Sterling B2B 60A is sitting around £180–200 and puts out a proper 60A charge current, which on paper should fill the leisure bank reasonably quickly on a long motorway run. The Victron Orion-Tr Smart 30A is pushing £350+ but obviously integrates with the rest of my Victron kit (Cerbo GX, SmartShunt, MPPT) via VE.Direct and the app. Half the current for nearly double the money feels hard to justify on paper.

What I can't figure out is whether the Bluetooth monitoring and VE.Bus integration actually matters in day-to-day use, or whether it's just nice-to-have. The Sterling is a known quantity and plenty of people swear by them — but I've had the Victron ecosystem working flawlessly for two years and I'm wary of introducing a non-integrated device.

Has anyone run both, or switched from one to the other? Particularly interested in whether the Sterling plays nicely alongside a Victron MPPT on the same bank, or whether there are any charge priority/conflict issues to think about.

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A

Right, I'll be that person — the Victron Orion-Tr Smart 30A isn't actually 30A. It's 30A output, which at 12V gives you roughly 360W. The Sterling B2B 60

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

@Chalky90 One thing worth considering beyond the headline amperage figures — the Victron Orion-Tr Smart integrates beautifully with the rest of the Victron ecosystem if you're planning to add a SmartShunt or MPPT solar controller down the line. The Bluetooth monitoring via VictronConnect is genuinely excellent for keeping an eye on things remotely. That said, with 200Ah of lithium you'd arguably want that 60A input from the Sterling to fill the bank more quickly on shorter drives. What's your typical daily driving duration? If you're mostly doing long motorway runs, either will do the job, but shorter hops where every amp counts might tip it towards the Sterling. Also worth checking your alternator's age and health before throwing 60A at it consistently!

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

Had the Orion-Tr Smart 30A running into my shepherd's hut bank for about 18 months now — the Bluetooth monitoring alone has saved me a fair bit of head-scratching. Being able to see exactly what's happening charge-cycle-wise without crawling under the van is genuinely useful.

That said, 30A into 200Ah lithium is a bit pedestrian if you're doing short drives. The Sterling at 60A will stuff charge in considerably faster.

Main question I'd ask — how long are your typical drives? If you're touring and covering decent mileage daily, the Sterling's extra grunt probably wins. Weekend warrior doing 45-minute hops? Victron's smarter algorithm arguably matters more than raw amps.

Both are solid bits of kit tbh, you won't regret either.

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

Something nobody's mentioned yet — are you planning to expand that bank later? I've got a similar Fogstar setup in my tiny house build and the Victron Connect integration genuinely changes how you manage the whole system. Being able to see charge curves and tweak absorption voltage remotely is worth something when you're diagnosing issues miles from anywhere.

That said, 30A into 200Ah is only 0.15C — perfectly fine for Fogstar Drifts but you're looking at slow top-ups on longer drives. Has anyone here actually run the Sterling 60A long-term alongside a smart alternator? That's the bit I'd want confirmed before committing either way.

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

With a 110Ah AGM starter battery you want to be very careful about how hard you pull from it. The Sterling 60A sounds appealing on paper but dragging 60A continuously off a 110Ah AGM while the alternator's working hard is asking for trouble — starter battery won't thank you.

The Victron Orion Smart 30A has proper alternator protection built in and integrates with VRM if you're already running any Victron kit. On a Fogstar Drift setup I'd honestly trust the BMS comms side more with Victron gear.

That said, if your alternator's decent and you've got engine-running detection sorted, the Sterling isn't rubbish — just less refined. Depends whether you want to tinker or set-and-forget.

What alternator are you running? That changes the maths a fair bit.

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

One thing worth flagging @Chalky90 — the Orion Smart 30A is non-isolated, whereas the B2B 60A is fully isolated. With a Hymer you'll likely have a shared chassis earth, so non-isolated should be fine, but if you ever experience any earthing gremlins it can cause headaches. The isolated Victron jumps up in price again considerably. Sterling's isolation is genuinely useful there. Also don't underestimate the 60A vs 30A difference on longer drives — you'll recover that lithium bank noticeably faster. That said, Victron Connect integration is lovely if you're already in the Victron ecosystem. What other kit are you running?

Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?

Worth flagging that the Orion Smart (not the non-Smart version) integrates with VRM and lets you set custom charge profiles via Bluetooth — genuinely useful when your Fogstar Drift BMS is being picky about absorption voltage. Had the Sterling on a previous narrowboat and it did the job fine, but debugging it when something went wrong was painful. The Victron ecosystem pays dividends if you're already running a Cerbo or BMV. If it's a standalone setup with no other Victron kit, honestly the Sterling 60A gives you better current for the money.