[C320-list] Battery Charger

[Crosby Roper]

Hi all,

My Charles 5000SP spontaneously combusted inexplicably last weak. When I called Charles about it, the seemed to think this was not unusual- a Chinese-made part was to blame they said. Fortunately, the fire was limited to the unit itself and aside from some smoke residue in the port settee, there is no apparent damage. Charles cannot ship to California anymore (CA EPA rules) so I am looking for a replacement charger. So far I have settled on the Promariner ProNautic 12.30P. Does anyone have any experience with this charger? I seem to remember an article in Practical sailor several years ago that touted the Xantrex chargers. Any thoughts or comment on those would be helpful.

Thanks, and happy holidays

Crosby Roper VMD
s/v Tethys (#1054)
San Diego, CA

[Richard Cincinelli]

A few months ago, it seems that my Charles overcharged my AGM batteries
requiring I replace them. The battery installer suggested the ProNautic
12-50P. He indicated that they had been using these for some time with very
good results. The Charles was a 30 Amp charger and the ProNautic 50 Amps. It
comes with a 5 year warranty. So far so good! My Charles did not catch fire,
but would have been cheaper than replacing the two 4D AGMs and the charger.

Rich Cincinelli
(310) 722-1044 Cell Phone

[Richard Walker]

Give me a call.


Dick Walker
C-320 # 687
740 Olive Ave.
Coronado, CA 92118
619.435.8986

-----Original Message-----
From: C320-list [mailto:c320-lis...@lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf
Of Crosby Roper
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2017 11:19 AM
To: c320...@lists.catalina320.com
Subject: [C320-list] Battery Charger

[DAVE Swanson]

Crosby,

I replaced my Charles Charger with a Sterling Pro Charge Ultra 40A just a couple of years ago. I believe it is made by the same company that makes the ProNautic Charger. I received the best price on it from a San Diego-based marine electronics retailer, Bay Marine Supply. https://baymarinesupply.com/ <https://baymarinesupply.com/> I paid $310 for the charger and $72 for the remote control panel (April 2015). They are located near Rosecrans and Sports Arena Blvd. I believe that they are mail order only.

I have been super happy with the new Sterling Charger. I also upgraded our house bank to 4 6V Trojan T105 GC batteries and instaled a flexible Solbian Solar Panel on our binmi. Great setup.

Compass Marine has a ral nice writeup on the Sterling Pro Charger. I basically follwed his advice.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/installing_a_marine_battery_charger <http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/installing_a_marine_battery_charger>

See my Owner Photos on the C320IA website to see more of what I did on my 2007 C320 MK II.

Good luck with your upgrade!

Dave

David Swanson
S/V Emily Ann
2007 C320 MK II, No. 1107
Mukilteo, WA and San Diego, CA

[JON...@comcast.net]

Great advice Dave.
The Sterling and ProNautic are the same under the hood. I currently have a
Charles but will be proactively replacing it this season. The Charles does
not have battery temp sensing (only on board), no option to equalize and
rarely gets up to proper bulk with larger banks....
Reading through the Compass site is very worth while when making a decision
(full disclosure I know him personally)

-----Original Message-----
From: C320-list [mailto:c320-lis...@lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf

[sail-ability sail-ability]

If Ur thinking about a Xantrex I wouldn't bother. I've had two and both
failed, company policy is that they are not repairable, ie. they are
throwaways if they fail! Apparently Xantrex were not a bad company when
they were Canadian owned out of BC?? I need to replace my shore
charger; been three years since it failed and batteries are charged
from a 180W solar panel, so I'm not in a rush.

Cheers

JohnM

1999#574

[Freedman Arthur]

John,

What is your Solar Panel set up?

Art Freedman
C310 #227

Arthur Freedman, DVM
Hawthorne Animal Health Care
978-741-2300
salt...@mindspring.com

[Mark Cole]

Cosby;

One thing to consider is charger output. I’m guessing from the model number (12.30P) you mentioned that this is a 30 amp charger. Depending on the size of your battery bank, in amphours, and the type of sailing you do (spend a couple of days at anchor with high DC demand), a 30 amp charger may take quite a while to recharge your battery bank. I currently have a Xantrex 20 amp charger and it takes up to 10 hours to top off my 230 amphour house bank, after discharging it to around 40%. This usually works fine while I’m out cruising, but I’ve run into a couple of times when I wanted to unplug early and my batteries weren’t completely recharged. Nigel Calder’s book talks about how to match the output of your charger to your battery bank. I think it is also important to be able to add a temperature sensor, if not included, plus be able to do an equalization or conditioning cycle if you have lead-acid batteries.

Mark Cole
Fiddler’s Green, #8
Tacoma, Washington

[Dave Swanson]

In my research on charger type, brand and output. I recall sizing the charger to have about 10% of your battery bank size. My new set of 4 trojan T105 GC batteries have 20-hr rate of 450Ah, so I sized my new charger to be 40A. It works well.

Dave

[Dick Walker]

I also have the 20 a.m. then check charger I wished I had purchased a 40 amp charger. The reason is if you want to use a Honda Jenset on the boat it puts out at least 40 A but if you only have a 20 amp charger you could only use those 20 apps so at the small additional cost I would get the 40 amp charger

Cheers



Dick Walker

740 Olive Ave.
Coronado ,CA 92118
619.435.8986

[Crosby Roper]

Thanks for the input. Pronautica in order. Happy holidays to all.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 17, 2017, at 4:15 AM, "JON...@COMCAST.NET<mailto:JON...@COMCAST.NET>" <JON...@COMCAST.NET<mailto:JON...@COMCAST.NET>> wrote:

Great advice Dave.
The Sterling and ProNautic are the same under the hood. I currently have a
Charles but will be proactively replacing it this season. The Charles does
not have battery temp sensing (only on board), no option to equalize and
rarely gets up to proper bulk with larger banks....
Reading through the Compass site is very worth while when making a decision
(full disclosure I know him personally)


-----Original Message-----
From: C320-list [mailto:c320-lis...@lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf
Of DAVE Swanson
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2017 8:19 PM
To: C320IA List Server <C320...@Catalina320.com<mailto:C320...@Catalina320.com>>
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Battery Charger

Crosby,

I replaced my Charles Charger with a Sterling Pro Charge Ultra 40A just a
couple of years ago. I believe it is made by the same company that makes
the ProNautic Charger. I received the best price on it from a San
Diego-based marine electronics retailer, Bay Marine Supply.

https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbaymarinesupply.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C1b9a5765befc404bbd1708d54547dc45%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636491097293629246&sdata=xIhZsIXrW9cqvvPchzRhO1DtjoesyhatKtAaKeq3JeE%3D&reserved=0 <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbaymarinesupply.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C1b9a5765befc404bbd1708d54547dc45%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636491097293629246&sdata=xIhZsIXrW9cqvvPchzRhO1DtjoesyhatKtAaKeq3JeE%3D&reserved=0> I paid $310 for

the charger and $72 for the remote control panel (April 2015). They are
located near Rosecrans and Sports Arena Blvd. I believe that they are mail
order only.

I have been super happy with the new Sterling Charger. I also upgraded our
house bank to 4 6V Trojan T105 GC batteries and instaled a flexible Solbian
Solar Panel on our binmi. Great setup.

Compass Marine has a ral nice writeup on the Sterling Pro Charger. I
basically follwed his advice.

https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbase.com%2Fmainecruising%2Finstalling_a_marine_battery_charger&data=02%7C01%7C%7C1b9a5765befc404bbd1708d54547dc45%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636491097293629246&sdata=R9rdx9l05UEmwez5TXVcFvgKoUiYyAQCvUmVWEMhtto%3D&reserved=0
<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbase.com%2Fmainecruising%2Finstalling_a_marine_battery_charger&data=02%7C01%7C%7C1b9a5765befc404bbd1708d54547dc45%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636491097293629246&sdata=R9rdx9l05UEmwez5TXVcFvgKoUiYyAQCvUmVWEMhtto%3D&reserved=0>

See my Owner Photos on the C320IA website to see more of what I did on my
2007 C320 MK II.

Good luck with your upgrade!

Dave

David Swanson
S/V Emily Ann
2007 C320 MK II, No. 1107
Mukilteo, WA and San Diego, CA

[Warren Updike]

It has been a while since I shopped for a charger. One point not mentioned, and may be moot with the models offered today, is the way the charge current is managed for multiple banks. Take a 40A charger charging two banks: how is that 40A distributed? Does each bank get 40A, 20A, or some other method. I remember one that gave 40A to one bank until that dropped to some level, then shared the 40A with the second bank. Our #62 has two banks; but, the starting bank is on a relay that charges it from the house bank. Our charger only charges the house bank, and the alternator also only charges the house bank. The starting battery lasted 7 years. As most stock 320s have two 4D banks, I assume a 40A charger would be connected to both banks. A 20A or 30A, maybe not.

Warren and Pattie Updike
1994 C320 "Warr de Mar" #62
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

[Warren Updike]

My two parallel 4Ds are now down to 400Ah, fully charged. A charger of 10%, or 40A, of course will not deliver 40A to a bank discharged only, say 30%, or 120A. Such a bank will not accept the full 40Ah for very long, if at all. And, as the charge in the batteries increases, the acceptance rate decreases further. Point is, there are several factors to consider. A lot depends on how you use the boat and how long it's been since the last full charge. Seems to me the 10% is a bare minimum if you want to get underway with a full charge after a full day of sailing.

Nigel Calder has a good explanation for sizing a multistage charger: "Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. A good resource. Also, try Google.

Warren and Pattie Updike
1994 C320 "Warr de Mar" #62
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

-----Original Message-----

[Warren Updike]

More on sources of information.
As I've reported before, the guy known as "Maine Sail" or "RC Collins" on "Compass Marine," has moved his Panbo blog to: https://marinehowto.com/ Where you will find an encyclopedia of marine electrical/mechanical information.

For more than you (certainly me,) wanted to know about battery chargers, check this out: https://marinehowto.com/installing-a-marine-battery-charger/ Good stuff.

Warren and Pattie Updike
1994 C320 "Warr de Mar" #62
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Swanson [mailto:kswan...@comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 5:52 PM