[C320-list] Battery Charger

[Mike Paris]

Chuck,
I replaced my Xantrex 20a with a Xantrex 40a about 2 months ago. The 20amp went bad after about 3 years. It was an easy change out. My fuses were in the cable from the charger to the batteries about 1 foot from each battery. So far the new charger has worked well.


Mike
#734



On Sep 18, 2013, at 5:52 PM, <katchu at chartermi.net> wrote:

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> Thanks Jeff:
> 
> My Charles charger is a 20 amp unit.  I don’t think that I want the 40 amp, as I am at a dock and the boat is plugged in almost all the time.  I think that a 40A might require new fusing too, but I can’t find any fusing in the existing battery circuit.  This failure was just like the last one in that there was suddenly no DC power to either bank.  I checked the internal DC fuse, and it is OK.  The internal AC fuse does not appear to be user replaceable
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> I like the control panel and the temperature compensation on the Xantrex, but the ugly reviews on the WM site raised a red flag, so thought that I might run it by the group.  This group has been very positive on Xantrex, so I was surprised by the reviews.  In any case, I’m pulling my boat this week, so I have some time to think this over.
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> 
> Chuck Mueller
> 
> Northwind #676
> 
> Holland, MI
> ------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 11:57:41 -0400
> From: "Jeff Hare" <catalina at thehares.com>
> To: <C320-List at Catalina320.com>
> Subject: Re: [C320-list] Battery charger
> Message-ID: <01a001ceb3be$a4cefdb0$ee6cf910$@thehares.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> 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.
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> 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