Battery Charger

[Liquid Asset]

My dytek battery charger is over charging and boiling the water out of my batteries and I am having to put water in all the time.

I was not sure if it would be better to send it in somwhere for repair, or to replace it. I have only found 2 32v chargers. One by Charles and one by marine power. Who else makes chargers in 32v?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

I have the one made by Major Power. It's model 610, the 220v model. It seems to work fine as I only have to add water about twice per season.

http://www.majorpower.com/chargers/majorbca.html

 

[thoward]

I have Lewco? They are high$ but work good....

 

[fixin-to-cruise]

I installed a 25 Amp 32 V Newmar 3 stage charger in a friend's boat. Replaced a feroresonant (transformer type) unit that was overcharging and consuming lots of water - same problem you describe.

The NewMar eliminated the water consumption problem. ProMariner makes a smart charger too but is only about 18 amps...maybe not enough to keep up with your Dc loads.

The NewMar was about $1050 at discount.

I have a Dolphin 24V 50A 4 stage smart charger on my boat that's great. Bought that for about $850 to replace my ferroresonant 2 years ago and cut battery water consumption by 75% or more. Unfortuanately they don't make 32V chargers.

 

[Dustoff44]

La Marche and Sentry both still make a 32 volt chargers.

 

[luckydave215]

I have one of the Newmar multi bank smart chargers on my list for Santa.
They put out 25 amps into three loads, that's a bunch of power at 32V.
Plus it's about a quarter the size and a fraction of the weight of the two old Charles monsters one Newmar would replace, and silent!

 

[Liquid Asset]

Ok, I am looking at the Pro Mariner and the Newmar. Both are difficult to find, but similar in price. Is there any advantage to one or another except for amp output.

 

[fixin-to-cruise]

The ProMariner seems to have a more battery-friendly method of maintaining the float charge voltage (very battery friendly) when batteries are fully charged and DC load is in use...when you turn on lights etc. while at the dock. The NewMar switches to a higher voltage when it sees a load of more than a few amps (it goes into absorption charging mode) which could slightly overcharge the batteries, but the percentage of time this situation exists is less than 10% of the time for most people I think.

The ProMariner puts out 18A and the NewMar 27A max. I'd turn on your maximum normal DC load at night while at the dock or on generator (assuming your gen does not charge your house battery) and measure the load. If you are under 18 Amps I'd recommend the ProMariner, much above that - go with the NewMar. I think the ProMariner can be had for a little less $$. About $1050 vs. $900 as I recall.

My previous boat had an electronic charger and it babied the batteries so well that I sold the boat with the batteries I bought it with over 6 years later. If you have a ferroresonant charger (if it is heavy or hums) get rid of it and your battery life will more than double.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

This is on ebay for one more day. I got feedback from the seller--its a 110 VAC unit. ws Item number: 190093324713