Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger Review

The long-awaited Victron Orion XS 12/12 50A DC-DC Charger is FINALLY coming to market and here are some things to consider when upgrading and adding this device to your van or RV electrical system:

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A – Availability

When will the new Victron Orion XS 50A DC DC Charger be available?

UPDATE: We now have full stock of the Victron Orion XS 50A DC DC Charger in our shop!

As of TODAY (1/3/24); the new Orion XS are on various modes of transportation to their various warehouses around the world; and although some dealers are happy to take your money… none of them have any in stock as of this point nor do they have any guarantees on when they will get them in… So be careful who you order from…

Most dealers who ordered from Victron on day 1, should all have them at roughly the same time; which is, in our best estimate, in March; so contact your preferred Victron dealer for updates.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Basics

What is the Victron Orion XS DC DC Charger? The Orion XS is a new DC DC Charger; which means that it’s whole purpose is to take the power produced by a vehicle alternator, and then regulate that power to a safe amperage and voltage to re-charge a house or auxiliary battery bank in a van or RV.

In Short: It will take the 12V produced by the vehicle alternator and regulate the voltage and amperage for safe and efficient multi-stage charging for a ‘house’ or ‘auxiliary’ battery bank.

At it’s core, that is it’s purpose; and this is the next generation charger upgrading from the Victron Orion 12/12 – 30A; so for the rest of this blog post, we will be comparing the new 50A Orion XS to the old 30A Orion.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Power Output

So, how much power will the new Victron Orion XS 12/12 50 put out? The new Victron Orion XS will put out a maximum charging rate of 50A as compared to the old Orion which puts out a max of 30A.

This will charge your batteries nearly twice as fast but still not put much strain on most modern vehicles where alternator sizes of 200+ amps are common.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Available Voltages

What are the available voltage options for the new Victron Orion XS? Immediately, the new Orion XS is going to be available in a 12V input and 12V output version.

There will be other models out eventually like 12 to 24V versions; but their release has yet to be announced.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Charging Parameters

What types of batteries can the new Victron Orion XS charge? The previous generation Orion charger worked perfectly in terms of programming to properly charge a wide variety of brands and chemistries of battery banks and the Orion XS will be no different.

The manual doesn’t indicate any major changes for how the new Orion XS will be set up for programming over it’s predecessor; which isn’t a downside as the charging parameters were pretty much perfect in the previous model.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Monitoring & Communication

Will the new Victron Orion be able to communicate with Victron GX devices like the Cerbo or the Ekrano?

Unlike the previous generation; the Victron Orion XS will provide full monitoring capabilities like we are used to seeing in the Victron SmartSolar line of charge controllers.

The previous gen Orion left much to be desired in monitoring. There was little to no data shown and we couldn’t even see how much power was coming from the device at any given time without adding an additional smart shunt into the equation.

We also couldn’t network the previous generation Orions to the other charge controllers in the system to synchronize their charging efforts.

The Victron Orion XS fixes all of that with complete monitoring through the VictronConnect App; synchronized charging efforts through the VE.Smart Network like we’ve already had with SmartSolar charge Controllers, and a VE.Direct port for monitoring with a Victron GX device like the Cerbo GX or the Ekrano.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Isolated vs non-isolated

Is the Orion XS Isolated or Non-Isolated? The Victron Orion XS is initially only going to come in a non-isolated version. Personally, here at EXPLORIST.life, we prefer using isolated DC DC Chargers because using the Chassis to carry power has historically proven problematic for us in a tech support standpoint; but to take the Chassis out of the equation from a power carrying standpoint; we can simply run dedicated positive and negative wires and combine the negatives at a junction stud immediately below the non-isolated Orion; nice and easy.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Alternator Size

How big of an alternator do I need to run the Orion XS 50A Charger?

As a rule of thumb; you should only add house battery charging capabilities up to half of the rated output of your alternator; so as long as you have a 100A alternator or larger; a 50A charger should be no problem.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Parallel Operation

Can we use multiple Orion XS DC DC Chargers in the same system? Yes! You can absolutely use multiple units in the same system; and they should all communicate and synchronize their charging efforts flawlessly due to the new communication features. Just make sure you aren’t overloading your alternator. 2x 50A chargers is a combined 100A of charging; so as a rule of thumb… a 200A alternator should be the minimum size here.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Heat

Is the new Orion XS going to operate as ‘hot’ as the Old Orion 30A? The current generation of Orions unfortunately ran quite hot. They had a heat sink on the back of them but even so; they typically ran hot enough that a lot of people on the internet resorted to using fans and such behind them to keep them cooler.

With the new Orion XS; this problem has been fixed with a new aluminum circuit board cooling technology which claims a max of 98.5% efficiency over the old Orion which only has an efficiency rating of 87%; and electrical inefficiencies equal heat; so we SHOULD see noticeable improvements there; but I do plan on head-to-head testing this once I get ahold of one so all of you can see; so consider subscribing.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Size

The new Victron Orion XS will be slightly narrower and significantly thinner than the previous model due to the more efficient internal circuitry and, therefore the lack of heat sink. The Orion XS will also weigh about 1/3 as much.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Price

How much will the Orion XS cost? As of TODAY (1/2/24) – The Victron Orion XS is going to have an MSRP of $386 USD; but through online retailers, these will pretty much always live at 15% off of that; which means you’ll be able to get your hands on one for $328.10 plus tax.

Regarding price… here’s a tip that may save you some time: Victron regulates the price at which their dealers can advertise for; so our store (shop.explorist.life), Battle Born, Inverters r us, Amazon dealers, and all other approved Victron dealers will all be at the same price. So price shopping for this unit will be a bit of a waste of time.

So, as of now; that’s what we know about the new Orion XS. If you want me to let you know when we have these in our store; just comment below and I’ll circle back around and let you know when we have those available. And yes; we will have wiring kits available for these as well.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC-DC Charger – Wire Size

We need to talk about the new Victron Orion XS 50A DC DC charger and the wire sizes it needs. If you don’t already know what this new charger is and what it does; we have a separate video about that and I’ll link to that in the video description, so we can get right to why you clicked on this video – Wire sizes.

The screw terminals on the Victron Orion XS can accept a max of 4ga wire; which will be large enough for 95% of use cases; so let’s make sure you are in that 95%.

For DC DC Chargers; We recommend keeping the voltage drop on the incoming wire limited to a max of 10% voltage drop. This isn’t a code or standard; but is a safe threshold based on our historical experience of the 1,000’s of systems we’ve helped with here on this channel.

With 4ga wire with 105 degree insulation; 10% voltage drop results in a max combined wire length from vehicle starting battery to 50A Orion XS Charger of 90ft; or 45ft of positive and 45ft of negative

Any longer than that; and we’d have to recommend up-sizing the wires and to do that; you could use our wire size calculator to help based on the wire lengths you need.

But 45ft of positive and 45ft of negative will cover most applications except maybe the LONGEST 5th wheel RV’s where the electrical system is near the middle to back of the camper. A long tape measure will be your friend here.

If you are wanting to upgrade a pre-existing Orion 12/12-30 with the new Orion XS 12/12-50; you can absolutely use your pre-existing 6ga wire as long as you keep voltage drop in mind.

With the same wire specs as earlier; now just with the smaller 6ga wire with 105 degree insulation; you can swap the 30A charger for the 50A charger given your total wire length (Pos + Neg) from starting battery to charger does not exceed 60ft (which is 30ft of positive plus 30ft negative). This will keep you within our 10% voltage drop threshold.

Any longer than that; and we’d have to recommend up-sizing the wires; but 30ft of positive + negative is our most common length of orion wiring kit we sell; so most of you wanting to upgrade will be good to go.

Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC DC Charger – Fuse Size

What Size of fuse does the Orion XS need? Regardless of if you are using 6ga or 4ga wire for your Orion installation; the fuse size can be the same as the 30A orion at 60A.

A 60A fuse is what is recommended in the installation manual and will allow the 50A charger to not trip the fuse under normal operation; but is low enough that it will keep the wire protected in the event of a short since 4ga and 6ga wire with 105-degree insulation are rated for 120 and 160 amps, respectively, when installed outside of and engine space and not bunded in conduit.

Even in a worst case scenario of 10% voltage drop; this would mean that there would be 10% more watts drawn from the starter battery or alternator to overcome the voltage drop of the wire feeding power to this charger. This means that for the charger to be able to supply it’s full 700W, with 10% loss through the wire; that would mean we would potentially be pulling 700W * 10% loss; for a total of 770W from the starter battery or alternator. But 770W divided by the 14.4V that an alternator will supply is only 53.5 amps; which does not put us in danger of nuisance trips.

So, there you go; this is the math behind why we have sized our wiring kits for the new Orion XS the way we have and the guidelines you can use to make sure they will work in your scenario. If you are looking to upgrade your van or RV alternator charging; we have both the Orion XS and it’s associated wiring kits available in our store; and I’ll leave links to that in the video description and pinned comment below. Thanks for watching and we will see you next time!