Guest Charger Questionable Wiring

[Salty]

The last time I used shore power to charge my battery there was a humming sound coming from the charger. The boat is usually on a mooring so I do not use the charger that often. I checked the charger today as one of my winter projects. Apparently the PO rigged an inline fuse (blown fuse) on the DC ground wire going to the ground bus bar on the DC panel (I don’t think anyone can top this). The charger is an older Guest 30 Amp (model # 2530A) 3 output model. I tried unsuccessfully to find a manual for that type charger. Is anyone familiar with this model?

 

[Ken Cross]

Careful there!

Putting a fuse on the low side exposes the whole system to high voltage even with a blown fuse. I'd fix that immediately. I have no experience with that charger (but 37 years of electrical/ electronics as a profession.) It sounds wrong.

 

[Ken Cross]

Oops, misread your post

You said the DC ground wire. Possibly a bit safer than what I thought I read, but it Still sounds wrong.

 

[Don12364]

If the charger's output is floating, as most are, then it matters little whether the fuse is in the positive or negative feeds.

 

[kenn]

The Guest 2530 is a battery isolator.

The Guest 2632A is a 30A 3 bank charger, and probably what you want. Here's the manual.

If that's not it, double-check the model number and use the search on the Marinco website.

 

[Salty]

Kenn, My charger is an older model (#2530A). Thanks for the Info.

I actually spoke with a Marinco Tech today and he said that the fused DC ground wire was to prevent some sort of feedback problem with that type of charger and he suggested I upgrade (my plan B) becuase it’s an old model. We are in the process of upgrading our system to 2 group 29s (Sams Club Duracell) as the House/ Starter bank and a single group 24 as an emergency bank with no direct charging capability. Since I am only using one bank for house and starting, does it make sense to replace the charger with an IOTA DLS 30 (single output 30 amps) charger with a Blue Seas ACR?

Thanks everyone for your feedback.
Salty

 

[mitiempo]

The Iota charger and an ACR (or an Echo Charger) is a good choice.