How to Make a Bomb

[Island Time 1,235]

Mate, I've seen pretty much every electronic device fail. Usually due to poor install, wrong device, poor knowledge of operation, or buying the cheapest available. 

But yes, quality devices still occasionally fail.

If you are worried about the argo fet failing, and a load dump (which should  not ever happen without some other fault) then add load dump protection device, like balmars one mentioned in that article.  Also, alt diodes are not hugely expensive. Belts, braces and Armour ?

[K4309 257]

Question: If your alternator is not running (blew up a diode or something) is there any harm in running your engine to get home?

Assuming you have enough power in the start batt to start the engine, and you either run dark ship, or the house batts have enough for other non-engine related systems, or solar (chart plotter, VHF etc), will it cause any other problems?

PS, where are up to page 2 and I still don't know what equipment to use to equilise a battery if I need to. Does everyone do what I've done for the last 10 yrs and put equilising in the too hard basket?

[harrytom 643]

1 hour ago, K4309 said:

If your alternator is not running (blew up a diode or something) is there any harm in running your engine to get home?

it will be fine if mechanical/engine driven water cooling system,just no charge going out,

[Island Time 1,235]

1 hour ago, K4309 said:

Question: If your alternator is not running (blew up a diode or something) is there any harm in running your engine to get home?

Assuming you have enough power in the start batt to start the engine, and you either run dark ship, or the house batts have enough for other non-engine related systems, or solar (chart plotter, VHF etc), will it cause any other problems?

PS, where are up to page 2 and I still don't know what equipment to use to equilise a battery if I need to. Does everyone do what I've done for the last 10 yrs and put equilising in the too hard basket?

Most boats don't equalize, even if they should. Most chargers (and Alts), even smart multi stage ones don't allow you to set specific equalization  voltages, they have pre programmed ones depending on battery type selected. Also remember that some systems want to equalize at over 15v, even closer to 16! That is too much for many 12v electrics - you must make certain that everything is off ! Some smart regs can allow this programming (Balmar, Wakespeed etc)

Lets look at why a battery needs equalization - its to TRY to remove sulphation on the plates, which starts soft and hardens. Once it's hard, the battery is basically toast. BUT sulphation slowly happens by itself, even on batts that are looked after. It's also made worse (a LOT worse) by leaving the battery in a discharged state.  Keeping a lead acid battery at float voltage minimizes the rate it forms.  AGM's and gels suffer less than wet cells from this, and Lead Carbon even less. 

[CarpeDiem 430]

3 hours ago, K4309 said:

Question: If your alternator is not running (blew up a diode or something) is there any harm in running your engine to get home?

Assuming you have enough power in the start batt to start the engine, and you either run dark ship, or the house batts have enough for other non-engine related systems, or solar (chart plotter, VHF etc), will it cause any other problems?

PS, where are up to page 2 and I still don't know what equipment to use to equilise a battery if I need to. Does everyone do what I've done for the last 10 yrs and put equilising in the too hard basket?

You're looking for a charger that can do an IUI charging profile. 

I have not been able to find one at a reasonable price.

The issue with IUI is that the final phase can really send the voltage high.

I have a Optima yellow top that calls for this kind of charge profile. I once did it manually with a programable power supply. The final phase, which called for 3amps for 2hours pushed the voltage to just over 18v.

It's unsafe to do equalization unless you have a way to protect the rest of your electronics which generally means guaranteed disconnection.

I have seen electric golf buggies with these chargers in them the charging system completely disconnects the battery from the buggy and won't reconnect it until it is safe to do so. It's a fairly complicated and expensive solution and of course when you step on your boat you want to use it, not wait 2 hours for the charging to complete.

Even my start battery which is a standard off the shelf burnsco Ca/Ca lead acid needs 16.5v to top it off. It just doesn't happen no one does it for 1 battery. Maybe if I had 100 if them then the payoff would be worth it. I got 7 years out of the previous identical battery it's not worth the cost for the return. 

Realistically if you want to equalize you need to disconnect the battery and use a separate charger with an equalization mode. Most of the cheaper chargers just do 15.5v or something... That's not necessarily enough for a proper equalization charge.  If you want to do it to the manufacturer specs then a programmable power supply will do the trick. If you find a programable iui charger for less than $500 let me know. The ones I have found are $1500+ (I don't own one). 

[K4309 257]

11 hours ago, Guest said:

I have been  using my “equalisation “ setting on the pronautic 1250p dock charger for the last seven years sporadically. 15.5V for 4hrs was default, after fully charging. Seemed to get the rested  100% soc voltage higher and tail current more defined with increased capacity. Was always too lazy/busy to set up a proper capacity test, so somewhat subjective.

I was always chasing that elusive 100%, now I’m the opposite trying to reduce soc in case I don’t come back to the boat for a few weeks. New tech, new problem!

Hi Guest,

Are you using this one? At $1440 it would be cheaper to ignore the equilisation requirement and buy new batteries. (Unless I had a 1,000 Ahr battery bank, which I don't, and if I needed that much power I'd probably just go lithium.

Buy ProMariner ProNautic 1250P Battery Charger online at Marine-Deals.co.nz