|
Never really understood how my Guest Pro 2632 charger really worked. But, while in its 5th season and after cooking my Interstate Batteries after only 3 seasons, I noticed that while anchoring overnight my Lifeline House battery (size 31 for all 3 - rotated every year) had dropped below 12v after only about 4-5 hours. Cockpit refrig, which stops if voltage drops below 11.5v or so - so that it preserves the rest of the battery A-H for lights, head, windlass - stopped working.
Since the engine alternator charged the batteries up, I had no inkling the charger was about to die completely until we returned to the boat the following weekend when the frig. had shut off itself (breaker switch still "ON") and DC voltage showed 11.2V.
Cycling the battery charger breaker showed no change in the voltmeter. Putting battery switches on "Emergency Parallel" did increase voltage as the engine batteries tried to charge up the house battery - did this to check the electrical system and returned to "off".
Determined the battery charger was dead and confirmed by Guest the following Monday. Guest said that if there are no lights, the charger is dead. So I researched and found the C-Charger by Charles Industries. Bought it on sale at Consumers Electronics in NJ for $273 - cheaper than the replacement Guest. Local marina had it for $150 more! Several online dealers described the Charles as the "Lexus" of chargers. It is a 3 stage automatic charger with a ammeter on the front - better than idiot lights to better to see how the charger and/or the battery is doing.
On my 298, the 3 wires to the battery switches from the charger were different gauges. Turns out the Guest 2632 provides up to 20A to the house battery, and only up to 5A to each engine battery. So the wire gauge was sized accordingly, same for the black ground wires. I used 10ga for all 3 red wires (FW used 14ga and 12ga) and Charles only needs one ground wire. Guest required one ground wire for each battery section.
The Charles Industries charger (30AMP Model) delivers up to 30AMPS to any battery, if needed. Then it independently changes the current of each battery (not to exceed 30AMP total) according to the battery charging stage.
The Charles has a switch in the back to select the battery type. Mine are AGM. It seems each type has a different voltage for each stage of charging. According to Guest, they set the voltage to the lowest of the 3 types (gel cell) and claim "automatic" voltage setting. Guest does not have any battery setting.
The installation and wiring were pretty straight forward - if you know how to strip wires and crimp new connectors. The main problem was access. I am average height and build, but it was a tight fit. A bigger person would have to remove the battery switch panel from the cockpit to route the wires. But drilling new holes for mounting was not easy to get accurate due to the cramp space.
But, after 5 years of taking the charger for granted and having it fail quickly and realizing that you cannot anchor, flush the head, watch TV (I have a Glomex powered antenna which requires 12VDC to switch between the antenna and cable inputs), or use your lights, it was great seeing 25AMPs on the new charger and 13.4V on the boat's electrical panel.
If you notice that your boats DC voltmeter is not showing 13-14 volts when you close the AC battery charger breaker switch or if the battery voltage is less than you notice (but, do you notice these things?), or if it is a Guest charger and none of the green or red lights are lit - your charger is failing or failed.
Joe
|
Login
FAQ
Search
