Phase three charger trippng

Sneds

Sneds

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Hi. My Phase Three battery charger, plugged into shore supply, keeps tripping. There are three push-in type trips on the side and the bottom two don't seem to want to reset. Sometimes it will work for a few minutes and then trip out but then takes a few goes to get it operational again. It has been off for a week prior to this and probably off for quite a while prior to this, we have only owned the boat a week. Any ideas?
 
probalby talking bull as I don't know this charger, but I had a similar problem when my batteries were empty as the charger took a great hit trying to charge all of them and was tripping. Eventually after 5-10 goes that each lasted a bit longer than the previous, it would settle and charge them.
You mention the boat is new to you, are the batteries ok and charged now?

cheers

V.
 
Assuming this is a transformer charger then the coils do take quite an in rush as they excite. If the trips have been occurring for a while could be that the ratings have reduced - this is a natural occurrence with bimetallic trips, each time they trip the mechanism weakens so after a few trips they start tripping at too low a setting. I would affix a peak hold clamp on ammeter and see what happens at switch on on each phase. The trip should sustain the brief start up overload without tripping.

Otherwise perhaps one of the phases (the one that isn't tripping) isn't getting through. This could be a dodgy trip or loose connection somewhere. The clamp on would also show this up as a drastically lower in rush peak amps.

Might help if you turn off the DC load from the charger when switching on the AC supply, then gradually introduce the load a circuit at a time.
 
could it be that your battery is discharged too deep ?
charger can't cope withe the high current that the battery takes,
solutions:
- connact another battery in parallel with jumper cables, than try to start the charger
- replace the battery with a new

if the battery voltage is below 12V DC after a few day's of no use and no load, she's broken, and needs replacing
unplug the battery for a few day's to do this test
 
Some good advice. Thanks. I tried just RE setting one of the trips and she seemed to be OK charging current was lower. Will check again in the morning on the other bank.
 
Sneds said:
Some good advice. Thanks. I tried just RE setting one of the trips and she seemed to be OK charging current was lower. Will check again in the morning on the other bank.
Click to expand...

You dont say which model of charger you have or what size the battery banks are. I went looking for a manual but found a long list to choose from!
 
The three domestic batteries are new, one engine started first time but the other needed linking
Reckon it must be that one battery and it is so dead that it is overloading the charger?
I'll try a new battery and then get it looked at
Thanks for all the suggestions I'll try a few things this morning.
 
Sneds said:
The three domestic batteries are new, one engine started first time but the other needed linking
Reckon it must be that one battery and it is so dead that it is overloading the charger?
I'll try a new battery and then get it looked at
Thanks for all the suggestions I'll try a few things this morning.
Click to expand...
Battery Megastore at Ashchurch Iain.
 
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