336 Hunter hunt for battery charger

[Canoe]

I've owned my 336 Hunter for 3 years, but never had to question the battery charger. This spring the batteries checked bad. The previous owner used four 6 volt 8d's. I'd upgraded to an AGM configuration. An odd thing, the 2 battery banks were both connected to one side of the battery selector. The only reason to do that would be because the charger couldn't manage two battery banks. In any case I need to find the charger to check it out, but I can't find the dumb thing. The only place I haven't checked is behind the selector switch in the battery locker.
Canoe

 

[vt_sailor]

On the hunter 33 it's under the starboard setee. You have to unscrew the entire top to get to it. You can just barely see it if you look through some of the slot vents with a very strong flashlight...

 

[Andy1237]

Should be in the aft starboard locker with the batteries. (340 is the same hull and thats where it is on the 340. Standard would have been two 12 volt batteries. Sounds like PO modified to four 6v's and he may have moved the charger then. ('cuse me, that was sexist-he or she may have moved the charger. Let us know what you find.

 

[syoun10]

This reminds me of a supplementary question I've often wondered about. I know where the battery charger is on my H33 (see vt_sailor's post above), but because it is not very accessible, I've never looked at it. Also, there is no info about it in the H33 specs or literature I got with the boat.

I've noticed that I seem to get through batteries rather quickly. A good charger will vary the current pushed through the batteries, depending to the charge state of the batteries (i.e. lower it as the batteries get full). If this H33 stock unit is a cheap & poor charger, it may just be pumping a high current all the time when the boat is plugged in (i.e. always in my case, when in the slip). This would destroy batteries over a few months, I think.

Anybody know the specs of the stock H33 charger?

 

[Jake N Eggs]

This reminds me of a supplementary question I've often wondered about. I know where the battery charger is on my H33 (see vt_sailor's post above), but because it is not very accessible, I've never looked at it. Also, there is no info about it in the H33 specs or literature I got with the boat.

I've noticed that I seem to get through batteries rather quickly. A good charger will vary the current pushed through the batteries, depending to the charge state of the batteries (i.e. lower it as the batteries get full). If this H33 stock unit is a cheap & poor charger, it may just be pumping a high current all the time when the boat is plugged in (i.e. always in my case, when in the slip). This would destroy batteries over a few months, I think.

Anybody know the specs of the stock H33 charger?

I was dealing with mine this week end. 2006 H33 battery charger is a ProMarine, Protech 4. Model Protech 1230, part # 61230. Output 30A.

 

[syoun10]

thanks, Jake N Eggs - that's just what I needed. Having now read the user's manual I can see that a potential problem may be that the switch settings were set wrong on installation, and that the charger thinks I have gel cells, whereas I actually have flooded lead-acid. I'll open up the compartment to have a look.

 

[Canoe]

Well the great charger hunt is completed. The PO put in a charger/inverter. I kept looking at it and only seeing it as an inverter. My mechanic pointed it out, duh. He also pointed out that the PO put the charger/inverter in the line between the shore power and the AC main, instead of supplying it from the panel breaker. That would be more of a problem if the charger/inverter didn't have integrated breakers. I need to be aware that the HEART panel reads wrong. If the PO hadn't used a model with integrated breakers, both AC and DC this would have been a safety concern. My configuration bypasses any boat breakers. The next point to trip would be the shore power breaker.

What I don't know at this point is how the PO handled the grounding. I can see several ground bonding wires. What I need to determine is if my boat has both the AC and DC "floating grounds" or if all grounds lead back to the shore power ground. The next great hunt.
Canoe