Guest rotary battery switches

[Maynard Rupp]

Like most of our boats, we have several of those large round "Guest" rotary switches for controlling battery power. The switches are great but the large plastic knobs have fallen apart. This leaves me with a brass hex knob that I have to put a wrench on. I tried "Guest" and several online suppliers. They are all willing to sell new switch assemblies, but do not offer replacement knobs. Any ideas?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Like most of our boats, we have several of those large round "Guest" rotary switches for controlling battery power. The switches are great but the large plastic knobs have fallen apart. This leaves me with a brass hex knob that I have to put a wrench on. I tried "Guest" and several online suppliers. They are all willing to sell new switch assemblies, but do not offer replacement knobs. Any ideas?

I just replaced the whole switch, all four of them. Not cheap, but I figured that after 25 years, it was probably time for new ones.

 

[Liquid Asset]

You ar likely going to have to replace the entire switch. If you watch, you can find them on ebay for less than $100 on a regular basis.

At least yours were not like my switches, which the entire front has blown out of most of them. It normally happens as soon as you are getting ready to go out in the boat and you need to just turn off the batteries for a few minutes. They are stupid expensive, but I have learned to keep a spare on board just because of this reason.

 

[fissioneng]

This leaves me with a brass hex knob that I have to put a wrench on.

I replaced mine with the heavy duty Guest 2304A switches. Everyone sells them. The bolt hole pattern is identical with the old ones. Thank Guest for that! It is a bit of a pain to wrestle all those big battery cables when changing them. Plus, I don't have 110v lights in my engine room so I had to rig up some in order to see to do the replacement. Not a fun job.

Be careful with that brass hex knob, when mine broke off, it was HOT! It is worth checking.

 

[spartonboat1]

Triple ABYC certified tech was aboard and recommended upgrading my already heavy duty Guest switch to a large gray switch. He said anytime you place your hand over such a switch, it should always be ambient temperature and never warm.