Marlec 914i Wind Turbine replacement options

[siwhi]

We have a Marlec Rutland 914i which came with the boat we bought in January and was not working at that time. It is plugged into a Marlec HRDi along with several Siemens solar panels which work well. I changed the brushes on the 914i and it supplied power intermittently for a few weeks, but now doesn't anymore. I can't find the problem, the connections seem OK, however the unit seems to have been taken down and worked on a number of times and is far from new; there is a large box of used spares on board. Quite possibly a connection or wiring issue with an open circuit (but the cabling from the pole to the controller is sound - tested by multimeter) but probably not worth further investigation, or servicing each month.

My question is what options do we have: replace with a new 914i, or are there any alternatives which ideally will plug straight into the HRDi and even better, use the existing support pole and cabling? Is this possible? Marlec say the new 1200 fits the pole but would require a new controller.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[VicS]

The HRDi is suitable only for Rutland 503, 504, 504-e, 913, 914i and FM-910-3 Windchargers.

Any other model or brand will require a different controller.

 

[seumask]

Our 913 , forerunner of the 914 is over 10 years old and I've had it off the pole a few times . Firstly after it was left on in storm Kate last year and it was became free running.
The testing of it checking the diodes and the windings was all quite simple to do, and it turned out that one of the wires to the Charge controller had been fired and I replace the wire all the way from the unit to the controller to solve the problem.
We also had started receiving small electric shock's when holding on to the pole wet. This turned out to be a build up of graphite from the bushes, a quick clean solved that problem.
I shorted the HRDI connecting it up to the battery next, that was solved by a return to Rutland and by far the most expensive mistake I have made, but less than a new HRDI unit to repair.
Bearings were increasingly noisy and then sounded terrible last season, so I replaced them last winter, now much better.
However this season now making a whizzing noise as the blades rotate in the wind so will probably need new blades soon!
Despite the repair input I still think these are great units which really deliver power to the batteries and complemented with a Solar Panel or two make a yacht really usable off grid.
I found the support team at Rutland very helpful and usually right identifying the problem, so I suggest you give them a call.

 

[siwhi]

Thanks both for your help. I may decide to do the fault finding checks once more and then send it back for a check over from the engineers at Marlec, would work out cheaper than the alternatives I guess. Looks like putting in a decent alternative would cost a fair bit more due to the need for a new controller.