[C320-list] Battery charger

[Jeff Hare]

Out of curiosity which Charles charger do you have?  How many amps?

The old flyback promariners seemed to not last too long.  Ours lasted 7 years.  Many owners replaced that with a Xantrex charger (accepting the crappy connectors on the Xantrex) and were all very happy... until those also started showing the same failures after years in service.  We replaced our ProMariner with a Charles 40 and while it's going on 6 years now I expect to have to replace it within a few years.

Others have used IOTA and Freedom, etc.  My guess is that if you had a way of really looking at the statistics, there's no good answer.  By the time you figure out which charger last the longest, you can't actually get that charger any more.  While you can decide which chargers to avoid based on early failures, I doubt you can do any better than that.

So, when I need to replace mine, I'm going to see if the current breed of Charles chargers is getting a bad rap or not.  If not, I'll get a new one (knowing that it's not at all the same internal design or build as the one I'm replacing).  If ProMariner isn't getting a bad rap, I might look at those also.  It'll come down to warranty, reputation on the actual version of the charger I'm buying.

My $.02

Cheers!
-Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf Of katchu at chartermi.net
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2013 2:55 PM
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
Subject: [C320-list] Battery charger

My Charles battery charger appears to have died again.  It was on the boat when I bought it seven years ago, and I had Charles recondition it for $85 about three years ago when it died.  I recall that many of you switched to Xantrex and were really happy.  But the reviews in the WM website are very bad with multiple early failures.  Has anyone had any recent experience, good or bad?

Thanks

Chuck Mueller

Northwind #676

Holland, MI