TWL: Battery charger doesn't get to float voltage. Ideas?
I've got new battery charger (40A Pro. Mariner) that goes through the fast
charge phase, then gets "stuck" at the absorption phase (14.4V), never
getting to the float stage (13.8V). This was true with the last charger (a
20A Pro Mariner) as well. Batteries are almost brand new and the same
behavior was exhibited on the last set of batteries. Tech support didn't
have any ideas and was very happy to have it sent back for inspection, but
because the other charger had the same symptoms, I suspect that it's not
the charger, but something in my system. Could a ghost AC voltage cause
this behavior? Any other ideas before I send it back? TIA-
Richard
49' Marine Trader Pilothouse (1978)
Twin Lehman 120's
SF Bay, CA
I have a possible explaination for this. I was in the
local Boat US a week or so ago looking at their
selection of chargers. Two guys happened to be
stnading next to me talking about chargers and said
one was a replacement for the pro mariner. The
converstain went that he worked down the street at the
sea ray dealership and they had 10-15% failure rate on
the new pro mariner chargers. These were the new out
of the box chargers.
Now who was this guy and did he know what he was
talking about? This dear reader is left up to you to
decide. But certainly something to ponder.
You could purchase another kind, see if it exhibits
the same behavior? Lots of work though...
Please keep at least me infomred at to what happens,
as I was considereing a pro mariner. I have the old
pro mariner non smart charger now that seems bullet
proof. They offer special pricing if you upgrade and
give a serial number from your old model.
--- Richard Morrison richard@richardmorrison.com
wrote:
I've got new battery charger (40A Pro. Mariner) that
goes through the fast
charge phase, then gets "stuck" at the absorption
phase (14.4V), never
getting to the float stage (13.8V). This was true
with the last charger (a
20A Pro Mariner) as well. Batteries are almost brand
new and the same
behavior was exhibited on the last set of batteries.
Tech support didn't
have any ideas and was very happy to have it sent
back for inspection, but
because the other charger had the same symptoms, I
suspect that it's not
the charger, but something in my system. Could a
ghost AC voltage cause
this behavior? Any other ideas before I send it
back? TIA-
Richard
49' Marine Trader Pilothouse (1978)
Twin Lehman 120's
SF Bay, CA
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I've got the 40A PM charger and it is super other than noise on AM Radio.
Bought it at West and after 4 years they exchanged it N/C to see if I could
get rid of the noise.
Same problem, so I'm using a better radio with better filtering and the
noise is gone.
You can set the float down to 13.8 for those that are dockside alot. Its
easier on the batteries.
.
Captain Al Pilvinis
"M/V Driftwood"--Prairie 47
2630 N.E. 41st Street
Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064
Voice 954-941-2556 Fax 954 788-2666
Email yourcaptain@earthlink.net
Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain
Must have bought it a while ago. I know west doesnt
sell PM chargers. I wonder if they were having
problems with them and dropped the line? Of course,
that is PURE talking out loud with no facts to back
up. I do wonder though.
--- Captain Al Pilvinis yourcaptain@earthlink.net
wrote:
I've got the 40A PM charger and it is super other
than noise on AM Radio.
Bought it at West and after 4 years they exchanged
it N/C to see if I could
get rid of the noise.
Same problem, so I'm using a better radio with
better filtering and the
noise is gone.
You can set the float down to 13.8 for those that
are dockside alot. Its
easier on the batteries.
.
Captain Al Pilvinis
"M/V Driftwood"--Prairie 47
2630 N.E. 41st Street
Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064
Voice 954-941-2556 Fax 954 788-2666
Email yourcaptain@earthlink.net
Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-list
=====
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
Dan the one I have from West is Stat Power 40Amp, my mistake on the name, I
believe its the same charger different name.........
---==========================
At 02:07 PM 6/10/02 -0700, you wrote:
Must have bought it a while ago. I know west doesnt
sell PM chargers. I wonder if they were having
problems with them and dropped the line? Of course,
that is PURE talking out loud with no facts to back
up. I do wonder though.
--- Captain Al Pilvinis yourcaptain@earthlink.net
wrote:
I've got the 40A PM charger and it is super other
than noise on AM Radio.
Bought it at West and after 4 years they exchanged
it N/C to see if I could
get rid of the noise.
Same problem, so I'm using a better radio with
better filtering and the
noise is gone.
You can set the float down to 13.8 for those that
are dockside alot. Its
easier on the batteries.
.
.
Captain Al Pilvinis
"M/V Driftwood"--Prairie 47
2630 N.E. 41st Street
Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064
Voice 954-941-2556 Fax 954 788-2666
Email yourcaptain@earthlink.net
Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain
Dan the one I have from West is Stat Power 40Amp, my mistake on the name,
I
believe its the same charger different name.........
Cap,
You do not have a Statpower charger, you might have a True Charge charger
now made by Xantrex formerly Statpower, which was and still is sold by WM
and many others.
It is not now and has never been 'branded' to PM. (See the recent WM
catalogue.)
While I am at it... thanks for the words on Die Hard. My start group 31 died
so I looked up the web site and picked a 650CCA Die Hard. The web site said
"good for a 150 - 300 HP gas or diesel engine". It was way undersized to
safely start my Lehman as it turned out so after a while, I called Sears and
to my amazement they said bring it back for exchange no problem. So now Mr.
Lehman is happy with a 925CCA kick.
Richard
PS Given the **** the list hands out to vendors who are less than perfect,
it seems polite to at least read the names on the boxes correctly.