Battery Charger Question(s)

Sneds

Sneds

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My Sealine F36 is fitted with a 40amp 3 output Newmar three stage charger

We had flat domestic batteries despite being plugged so I thought the charger must be u/s as the batteries are less than six months old

I plugged in again today and the charger worked, the ammeter over at 40 amps, great thinks I, it works!

Then it started fluctuating from zero to 40 amps of its own accord, I turned it off and went home

Anyone any idea what may be causing this and could it be fixable?

Or, if I buy a new charger does it need to be rated at 40 amps, what would happen if a I got a 30 amp one?

The Victron blue range seems to be OK from what I have read and they do a 30amp output model

Thanks in advance for any input
 
I chucked my Newmar out years ago. Replaced it with a mastervolt. I would have thought 30a would be plenty.
 
I had a similar thing earlier in the year my sterling 50a charger died & after a lot of research I replaced it with a victron centaur 30a unit. I did look at the blue range but it seemed to have lots of gimmicky extras that I'd never use so went for what appears to be a more robust unit that seems to do exactly what we wanted, ie fit & forget it
 
Sneds said:
My Sealine F36 is fitted with a 40amp 3 output Newmar three stage charger

We had flat domestic batteries despite being plugged so I thought the charger must be u/s as the batteries are less than six months old

I plugged in again today and the charger worked, the ammeter over at 40 amps, great thinks I, it works!

Then it started fluctuating from zero to 40 amps of its own accord, I turned it off and went home

Anyone any idea what may be causing this and could it be fixable?

Or, if I buy a new charger does it need to be rated at 40 amps, what would happen if a I got a 30 amp one?

The Victron blue range seems to be OK from what I have read and they do a 30amp output model

Thanks in advance for any input
Click to expand...

Could just be a bad earth connection though the Newmar isn’t a great charger, I’ve binned loads over the years .
I do have a good used 3 output charger if you want a second hand repaired unit, I did have it in the for sale section on here .
 
I agree with above, it sounds like most people that have anything to do with them over here have the opinion that Newmars aren't the best things in the world, and yes it appears that they stop working and just get binned and replaced, I nearly did that as well. But, unless you specifically want to change charger brands or move to a more modern techy unit, It might just be worth making a phone call and speaking to customer services at Newmar.
My Newmar 95A charger stopped working, a replacement Newmar was going to be c£2k+ and other makes of similar capacity weren't actually all that far behind, the Mastervolt looked a particularly capable unit but I think was going to be about the same/more cost, Sterlings look good as well as a more reasonably priced alternative, but they didn't have a single charger at that capacity so it would have meant multiple units.
Newmar actually gave me superb customer support from the US. There were some mitigating circumstances with mine so it ended up with Newmar doing a warranty repair and I ended up with effectively a new charger with me just paying for the shipping there and back. I was talking to a hugely knowledgeable and helpful guy called Kyle Henderson in Tech Support who was a great help (I can send his email & tel if you want) and he worked with me to try it resolve it before removing it from the boat and sending it to them for repair. So yes, maybe they are not the absolute best units, and they are now a bit "old" tech, but I can't complain about their handling of my case, and the charger has worked perfectly for the 3 1/2yrs since.
 
Thanks, I have been in touch with Newmar in the USA and whilst very help fury helpful said they couldn't help as spares, mainly the powerpack, were no longer available
 
We have the same charger on out 360 statesman , take the screw in fuse out the front and either clean it or replace it bet you that’s the problem it’s happed to me once and it did exactly the same as yours , by the way I never leave my shore power connected when I’m not down as don’t want to knacker the anodes , when we first bought the boat 9 years ago we changed 2 of the battery’s the rest are age unknown and never changed one since and never had problems starting the engines even when out for 2 nights with no shore power
 
I have an old Newmar 70A 3 Outlet Charger (HDM-12-70) that is headed for the bin also. It doesn't bring the batteries up to full charge at all and it boiled one of the engine batteries recently.
Most 3 outlet chargers seem to have pretty poor voltage sensing on the individual banks so there is a risk of overcharging one of the banks.
I'm considering installing separate chargers to charge each bank. Two small Victron 8-10A chargers for the engine batteries and a 30A unit for the 440Ah domestic bank. Is this a good idea?
 
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