Lots of good ideas. Also heard many good things about the Yandina, but was opting for the Echo-Charger because I was getting it for a song. But will look at that again.

Re: the ARS-5... the MC614 apparently has a dedicated voltage sensing wire that the ARS-5 does not (the duties are shared) and it can handle twice the field current as the ARS-5 (so in effect doesn't work nearly as hard) and should last longer. That's what I was told though admittedly can't argue yay or nay because looking at the manuals it's hard for me to pick out differences. The price difference is about $30 here, I think, so that's not a killer.