Battery Charger Stopped Working

Maine Sail · Jul 11, 2014

c130king said:
Found "fried" circuit on the circuit board of the Charles Marine 20 Amp Charger. Ordered new Charles Marine 30 Amp Charger.

Plan on moving the charger from the rear port cockpit locker to the backside of the access door from the rear berth into the stern compartment.

Will have to baby my batteries for another 7-10 days. But it seems to be working.

Cheers,
Jim

There are much better chargers out there in terms of how they treat your batteries. I have replaced many of the Charles 2000 Series chargers that came stock on many Catalina's.. If it is not too late to cancel the order I would suggest reading a bit on chargers before plunking down the green...

In the 30A range the ProMariner ProNautic P and the Sterling ProCharge Ultra are about the most sophisticated units out there....

"Unfortunately, many chargers on the market claim to be gel/VRLA
“friendly” or “OK for sealed batteries”, but are not. Some
overcharge the batteries, while others may not fully charge
the batteries. Some chargers claim to be “smart”. Some “smart”
chargers do a good job, others do not. The best choice of charger
often depends on the application."

Those are not my words that is written by Deka/East Penn one of the largest US battery manufacturers. They are not kidding when they say many chargers "claim" to be smart but are nothing of the sort.

Installing A Marine Battery Charger

woodster · Jul 11, 2014

is there an average life of these good chargers if they are kept dry and installed correctly with the proper wire and fuse sizes

Maine Sail · Jul 11, 2014

woodster said:
is there an average life of these good chargers if they are kept dry and installed correctly with the proper wire and fuse sizes

Depends upon brand and use. Undersized chargers tend to fail earlier than chargers sized a tad larger. I have many switch mode chargers out there past 20 years and others that fail in weeks or months, but often this is brand specific..

The Sterling and Promariner chargers I mention have a 5 year warranty. The Charles 2000 units are 2 year as are the Xantrex ProCharge 2's..

The real question is how do they charge the batteries? Do they have a voltage profile that is adequate for your batteries?

A switch that simply says GEL, AGM or Flooded is most often NOT properly suited to YOUR bank.... One particular charger mentioned in this thread enters float in four hours from the time it is booted on. This is regardless of whether the battery bank has actually been charged or not.

It also lacks on the battery temp compensation.

This is NOT a "smart" charger.....

Take for example the boat I was on a few weeks ago with a "4 hour egg-timer charger". This boat comes back to the dock at sometimes 50% SOC and is then plugged in. It has a 450Ah bank of batteries and a 30A "egg-timer" charger.

Not including charge inefficiencies it takes 7.5 hours to replace 225Ah's at 30 amps of charge current. Sadly this charger would run for four hours, NEVER EVEN ATTAIN ABSORPTION VOLTAGE and go straight into float mode. Batteries NEED to reach and stay in absorption until the high 90% range for healthy recharging!! These batteries were being destroyed....

woodster · Jul 11, 2014

thanks i am looking at the sterling pro charge ultra in a 40 amp ...battery bank is 300-400 amp

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Jul 12, 2014

woodster said:
thanks i am looking at the sterling pro charge ultra in a 40 amp ...battery bank is 300-400 amp

Maine Sail has a good article on his website. http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/installing_a_marine_battery_charger.

He recommends the charger be sized for 0% of the bank at a minimum. I would think you might want to go up. I have a 40 amp and wish I went bigger now that my primary bank is 4 6v golf cart batteries for a total of 460 Ah.

pk104 · Jul 12, 2014

The inline fuses will need changed if you go to a bigger charger. If you have the same ones I had you will have trouble finding 30 amp fuses for it. You will likely have to make some changes at the batteries for different fuses.

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Jul 13, 2014

pk104 said:
The inline fuses will need changed if you go to a bigger charger. If you have the same ones I had you will have trouble finding 30 amp fuses for it. You will likely have to make some changes at the batteries for different fuses.

Haha. I had that exact problem. Lead to a whole electrical system project that involved going to a large primary bank with a group 24 reserve. Never been happier. We just did a 10 day cruise, didn't touch a dock once and didn't worry about the batteries once. Charge enough on the days where we motored off and on moorings or the hook. (Wife just reminded me we doomed twice for fuel and to pump out and add fresh water but were at the dock for only about 20 minutes each time.)