Mastervolt charger repair.

[Portofino]

Ah Ctek since you have mentioned them ....... just a word of caution .

Car forums like Pistonheads and 6 speed online are littered with Ctek bat cooking incidents.
Although MarkC has not stated which brand ,most high end U.K. OEM are rebadged Cteks .
Those in the know use another brand .

 

[Zing]

Ah Ctek since you have mentioned them ....... just a word of caution .

Car forums like Pistonheads and 6 speed online are littered with Ctek bat cooking incidents.
Although MarkC has not stated which brand ,most high end U.K. OEM are rebadged Cteks .
Those in the know use another brand .

I have not read about that, but it could also be a battery failure at the root of it. If a battery is to fail and to short out, then the charger will pump in it's max output, so I suggested for safety pick a low powered one. I'd be surprised if the Ctek was any worse than any other brand and they do claim to have some safety features to detect battery failure. Has the brand's failing been proven on this?

 

[markc]

Ah Ctek since you have mentioned them ....... just a word of caution .

Car forums like Pistonheads and 6 speed online are littered with Ctek bat cooking incidents.
Although MarkC has not stated which brand ,most high end U.K. OEM are rebadged Cteks .
Those in the know use another brand .

Quite correct, it was Ctek, OEM branded.

 

[Hurricane]

Sorry to the OP for the slight Fred Drift.

Apart from the confusion introduced by petem's summary not quite agreeing with his cct diag (and also saying the mains charger charges the port engine, lol), I'm with Mapism; I never understood why the Fairline EEs designed it that way.

If I've missed the point someone please explain.

On my Prinny, there were two battery banks, one domestic and one start (started both engines), both engines charged both battery banks via 2 blocks of 2 diodes each. The 240v charger charged both battery banks plus the genny bat, all 3-state-controlled individually at different rates according to the temp sensor on each bat. No exploding or cooked bats and the engines started every time. There was a switch to parallel the domestic and start bats for an emergency start, but it was never used.

Coming to this thread a bit late but, our P67 (obviously) is the same as yours but Princess didn't fit any means of charging the generator battery (other than running the generator).
So I fitted a cheap motorbike battery trickle charger which gets left on whilst we are away from the boat.

The other BIG difference is that we have an array of solar panels charging the house bank all the time during daylight hours.
This solar charging system has worked really well.
Now at the end of our second season, the solar charging is really a great benefit.
If you keep your boat mainly in marinas, you wouldn't notice anything.
But if you are away from shore power for more than 2 or 3 days, you start to realise how much damage can be done to the house batteries unless you run the generator for long periods.
At anchor we usually run the generator for breakfast and just before bed.
With the solar panels, we often find the battery bank back to 100% in the early afternoon.
We got back yesterday from three weeks away - apart from one night the first two and a half weeks were away from shore power.
The house battery bank never fell below 70%.
Last year we did a similar cruise but didn't go into port at all.
Solar charging really does work.

 

[BartW]

Coming to this thread a bit late but, our P67 (obviously) is the same as yours but Princess didn't fit any means of charging the generator battery (other than running the generator).
So I fitted a cheap motorbike battery trickle charger which gets left on whilst we are away from the boat.

The other BIG difference is that we have an array of solar panels charging the house bank all the time during daylight hours.
This solar charging system has worked really well.
Now at the end of our second season, the solar charging is really a great benefit.
If you keep your boat mainly in marinas, you wouldn't notice anything.
But if you are away from shore power for more than 2 or 3 days, you start to realise how much damage can be done to the house batteries unless you run the generator for long periods.
At anchor we usually run the generator for breakfast and just before bed.
With the solar panels, we often find the battery bank back to 100% in the early afternoon.
We got back yesterday from three weeks away - apart from one night the first two and a half weeks were away from shore power.
The house battery bank never fell below 70%.
Last year we did a similar cruise but didn't go into port at all.
Solar charging really does work.

Mike, remember that I’ve also been looking at installing solar panels, (nearly ordered some)
last winter we upgraded our invertors / battery chargers to a bigger model to 2 x 8KW (for bigger invertor capacity)
now coincidently they also have bigger charging capacity.
atm they are set at 75%, so 2 x 150A ( they can deliver max 200A each)
this charge current is perfect for my 2 x 620Ah battery banks
this summer we realized that now we have a perfect balance with the time we need to run the genny anyway
(mostly 3or4 times a day; morning / lunchtime / evening /before bed time)
For dishwasher or oven or washing machine, (no electric hob)
the battery monitor never gave alarm, (set at 60%) even while we run the electric fin stabs all day !
and very often back at 97..100% charge.

so my conclusion:
install decent battery chargers.
Victron advices charge current (amps) is < 25% of battery capacity in Ah, (avoiding damage to the batts.)
and I skipped the whole idea of the SP’s

 

[Portofino]

I have not read about that, but it could also be a battery failure at the root of it. If a battery is to fail and to short out, then the charger will pump in it's max output, so I suggested for safety pick a low powered one. I'd be surprised if the Ctek was any worse than any other brand and they do claim to have some safety features to detect battery failure. Has the brand's failing been proven on this?

You are looking down the wrong end of a telescope .
It’s the Cteks unit that fail .
They either catch fire or leak AC not all the 240 v but enough to cook / evaporate off anything that can .
Two scenarios
1- left alone in the garage it eventually blows up as more and more AC leaks into the what was a good bat .
2- when the key is turned ( or button pressed ) the big current draw to the starter pushes it over and it blows .

This is what causes bat explosions on boats from faulty chargers .
Leaking AC same effects as 1 or 2 above .
Test for piece of mind ,it’s sugested on American boat sites to place your handy voltmeter set in AC across the bat banks .
Should not be any AC .
Sure set it on D.C. then read the V

Your so called smart charger should have some sort of LED ,s to signal which mode it’s in .
Maybe check it’s really floating ie sending out a low Ah trickle if it is then they will not blow up / boil off or what ever .

Having said all this I had a charger fail the other way ( touch wood ) it just decayed to max output arround 3/4 amps for the 2x 360 ah bat banks .One house t,other starters .
Was supposed to be a 40 ah , got suspicious when on odd times I needed to use the x over / link switch to fire up and noticed fridges turning off at anchor .
Obviously on a long run the pair of alternators topped up .So mixing long runs and long anchorages with days in port shore power @ 3/4 amps output , it took a while for the penny to drop somethings not right .
A boat sparky while retrofitting some Aircon spotted it .
We now have a 24/80 dolphin smart with 3 independent outlets and external LED ,s so if I,am in the ER I can glance and see what’s it’s up to .
We also have “ discharge “ meters and more importantly “ recharge “ meters so in the saloon I can see exactly how many of the 80 available are going in ,and exactly where the Amps are going ,which bank ,after AC shore power hook up .
Importantly see the drop to float / trickle .

So based on the guages I can I think accurately access when it’s time to give the geny a run @ anchor to run the charger and as Bart says try and keep them ( mainly house ) from getting too low .
The engines have a 55 Ah alternators. I,am not sure how they are wired .Assume usual split diode for the starter bank first , but don,t know if the house them gets 1x 55ah or both port and stb ?