Wife says its ether 240V, or she won’t come cruising.

BigJoe

BigJoe

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Wife says its ether 240V, or she won’t come cruising.

Help……………………………….

I am in a dilemma, I have shore power that supplies 240V when alongside, but nada when cruising and anchor hopping.
The Mrs, apparently, wont go more that 3 day without using her GHD hair straighteners.
I have looked at a diesel inboard gen set but the 15K price tag scared me off ( I am Scottish eh ).
I was thinking of in inverter, but would I need to increase my alternator size ? and battery bank ?, or would a cheep and nasty petrol generator do a job.

Thanks in advance for any help or tips.
 
I had similar problem but over a hair drier. Bought her a **** 12v one from a camping shop, by the time we had left and we found it was usless (and kept tripping the circuit breakers) it was too late.........................
 
A cheap and nasty petrol genny would help but its a chore to use and fuel. An inverter would work but you would most likely need more / bigger batteries unless you literally mean just hair straighteners. If the latter then my wife's kit is only 15 watts which means that the current draw through an inverter might be 2 amps only. But will she stop at just that?

I sail on a pals boat with a built in genny. It's brilliant - hot showers, toast for brekky. Makes cruising civilised and your boat is big enough. 15k is a silly quote anyway - a genny is less than 5k
 
To answer your question you really need to think about exactly how much 240v you are going to be using. Hairdryers can be 2kw, so you would need a big inverter and hefty battery bank. 50w or even a 100w hair straighteners could be easily accommodated with a small cheap inverter and standard domestic battery bank.
 
BigJoe said:
Wife says its ether 240V, or she won’t come cruising.

Help……………………………….

I am in a dilemma, I have shore power that supplies 240V when alongside, but nada when cruising and anchor hopping.
The Mrs, apparently, wont go more that 3 day without using her GHD hair straighteners.
I have looked at a diesel inboard gen set but the 15K price tag scared me off ( I am Scottish eh ).
I was thinking of in inverter, but would I need to increase my alternator size ? and battery bank ?, or would a cheep and nasty petrol generator do a job.

Thanks in advance for any help or tips.
Click to expand...

A Honda Suitcase petrol generator would be ideal. Very quiet and economical. Will also charge the batteries if required. Two sizes available, EU10i and EU20i, you can even get 'Dual Fuel' versions which can run off petrol or Butane/Propane gas. From about £600 to £1200 depending on version.
 
BigJoe said:
Wife says its ether 240V, or she won’t come cruising.

Help……………………………….

I am in a dilemma, I have shore power that supplies 240V when alongside, but nada when cruising and anchor hopping.
The Mrs, apparently, wont go more that 3 day without using her GHD hair straighteners.
I have looked at a diesel inboard gen set but the 15K price tag scared me off ( I am Scottish eh ).
I was thinking of in inverter, but would I need to increase my alternator size ? and battery bank ?, or would a cheep and nasty petrol generator do a job.

Thanks in advance for any help or tips.
Click to expand...


Well BigJoe, if the only thing that stands between yachting happiness and you is a need to power up a pair of hair straighteners you should be over the moon.

Beefing up the battery bank and then installing an inverter will definitely do the job. My wife ran her hair dryer and straighteners (not at the same time) on ours. However, she had to settle for a slightly lower powered hair dryer. But, to do it properly with a decent inverter and a couple of extra 140AH batteries your could be looking at £3k fitted.

We also had a generator installed which easily ran all necessary hair machines but this was at least twice the price even for a 4KW diesel genny.

I went for both because 240V is just so handy when you have it. It's great to be independent from shore power and everyone can continue to live normally even at anchor.

A friend of mine tried the petrol genny route. He said that it was so noisy that he felt too embarrased to use it most of the time in in an anchorage. It was only his opinion, but you may want to hear one running before you make the purchase. He got rid of his petrol genny after a few months and then stumped up the money to have a diesel genny installled.

As a balding 50 year old i find the hair straightener thing a bit difficult to understand but from reading cruising blogs, and listening to the wife, this stuff matters to many wives and girlfriends so it's worth sorting out.

Cheers
 
AntarcticPilot said:
You can get gas powered straighteners - I think Braun do them. And before you ask how I know, I have teenage daughters!
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SWMBO has got those and is very pleased with them (even used them at home for a while after she sat on & broke her electric one). However she is less impressed with the 12v hair drier as it is a bit feeble and because I insist on running the engine when she uses it.
 
M33 said:
A Honda Suitcase petrol generator would be ideal. Very quiet and economical. Will also charge the batteries if required. Two sizes available, EU10i and EU20i, you can even get 'Dual Fuel' versions which can run off petrol or Butane/Propane gas. From about £600 to £1200 depending on version.
Click to expand...
"A Honda Suitcase petrol generator would be ideal. Very quiet and economical" Debatable! They may be quiet (but so are the Kipor range) but they certainly are not an economical option with their inflated price tag.

Have a look at a Kipor IG2600 (more powerful than the EU20i) or even a Kipor IG2000 (equivalent to the EU20i) or even the Kipor IG1000 (equivalent to the EU10i), there is even a baby one - the Kipor IG770.

At under ½ the price of the honda "equivalents", the Kipor IG1000 and IG2000 models have got to be worth considering or you could go for the bigger output IG2600 (used to be called the 3000ti).
 
Last edited:
BigJoe, has your wife done a lot of sailing before?

If not, try and get her to go on a ladies-only sailing course. She will soon forget about hair straighteners!
 
no NO

EdWingfield said:
You don't need any of those gizmo's, you need a lawyer!
Click to expand...

He needs a girlfriend ;-) they never seem to mind any thing in the beginning

STAND UP FOR YOUR SELF MAN


Me I have no wife but a new girlfriend who cant complain !
start as you mean to go on life is far to short

Cheers
Mick
 
STAND UP FOR YOUR SELF MAN

Dead right Mick, give in to 240v and next she'll demand hotel every evening 'cos of the hot bath and shore toilet.

But my instinct is, as soon as the first bit of bad weather sailing is experienced she'll pack in.

Boat or wife?
 
BigJoe said:
The Mrs, apparently, wont go more that 3 day without using her GHD hair straighteners.
Click to expand...

Googling "cordless hair straighteners" will find you both the gas powered variety

braunsmoothlinercordlessprofessionalceramicstraightener745.jpeg


from http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/brau...-professional-ceramic-straightener_1_745.html

and the 12V electric, recharging from a cigarette lighter.

deogra-prince-cordless-straightener.jpg


from http://www.hairstraighteners.me.uk/cordless.html
 
I was going to suggest supplying her with 240v while she's in the bath, but that would be just too naughty!
 
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