Damage to equipment during Equilization??

[John T1594]

Alright all you volt-heads out there, I need your advice. The owners manual for my Xantrex Turuecharge 20+ battery charger says to disconnect all DC electric devices and loads from the battery before running the equilization cycle. They suggest that the higher voltages during equilization may damage radios, motors, compressors, etc. In the past, I have disconnected everything at the battery, including my bilge pump for the 4 - 6 hrs. What a pain!! Is this overkill and could I just as easily throw the breakers for my radio, DC refrigeration, fresh water pump, etc, to isolate them? The bilge pump and my AM/FM radio are the only loads directly wired to the battery.

 

[kloudie1]

Yup.. Breakers off is sufficient.. The AM/FM radio probably has a "memory wire" which is separate from the main power wire. It is hot to radio memory even when the radio power switch is off. Ya need to make sure that memory wire is powered down..(some folks don't connect that memory wire and have to reset the stations every time they power the radio up) The bilge pump .. ya might want to pull the fuse on the panel .. it probably wouldn't get hurt even if it did switch on for a short while , but I'd pull the fuse anyway..

 

[Rick D]

That's what I do, plus I throw the breaker for the DC main.