Battery Converter / Charger

C

cinrussell

New Member
Aug 4, 2023
4
Boat Info
2006 Sundancer 320
Engines
Twin Mercruiser 350s
2006 Sundancer 320
We need to replace our 30amp converter/charger, but are having trouble finding one below 40amp. I've had many 320 owners tell me they've installed a 40amp with no issues, but I wonder about wiring issues with going from 30amp to 40amp? Anybody have any experience with this?
 
cinrussell said:
2006 Sundancer 320
We need to replace our 30amp converter/charger, but are having trouble finding one below 40amp. I've had many 320 owners tell me they've installed a 40amp with no issues, but I wonder about wiring issues with going from 30amp to 40amp? Anybody have any experience with this?
Click to expand...
Welcome to CSR. https://www.promariner.com/en/p/63130/ProNautic-1230P
ProNautic1230P 63130 30 Amps 3 Banks 12V
Hope this helps.
 
That's the one I originally looked at, but I was told it was just a charger, not a converter/charger?
 
The switch says AC Converter, the picture is what I'm replacing.
Thanks.
 

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Yep. That's what I'm having trouble finding. Can't seem to find a 30amp converter/charger, so I'm wondering about wiring issues if we go to a 40amp, like the Intelli-Power PD2140
 
The ProNautic P series with operate as a "converter" and battery charger and is equivalent to what you have now.

In order to move up to the 40A version you need to look in your owners manual supplement and check the AC breaker and wiring sizes Sea Ray ran to the current device. You'll need to do the same for the DC side as well. A quick look in the owners manual show 12 ga wire for the AC Converter, didn't see what size breaker, but that is easily upgraded. The Charger battery leads are 8 ga which should be good for a 40 Charger as well.

Here's the manual showing what's recommended.

upload_2023-8-4_18-10-20.png


Confirm what you have in the boat and you could be OK for 40 version. DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK!!
 
cinrussell said:
2006 Sundancer 320
We need to replace our 30amp converter/charger, but are having trouble finding one below 40amp. I've had many 320 owners tell me they've installed a 40amp with no issues, but I wonder about wiring issues with going from 30amp to 40amp? Anybody have any experience with this?
Click to expand...
Good advice above from others. I replaced a Promarine 30 amp 3 bank with a pronautic 1240P on my boat. I did have to upgrade the in line fuses on the feed wires to the batteries to 40 amp. The 1240 burned one of the 30 amp fuses that were originally there after I came back from a long weekend on the hook and the charger pumped all the amps to that main house battery bank. So upgrading the fuses is a “must-do” IMO if you go to the 1240.
 
cinrussell said:
2006 Sundancer 320
We need to replace our 30amp converter/charger, but are having trouble finding one below 40amp. I've had many 320 owners tell me they've installed a 40amp with no issues, but I wonder about wiring issues with going from 30amp to 40amp? Anybody have any experience with this?
Click to expand...
Terminology misunderstanding. "Converter" simple means "changing 120V to 12V" - any machine that does this is a converter. What you're actually looking for is a charger (or call it converter if you want) that can handle charging while a load is still being pulled on the battery. The ProMariner linked to above can do that.

On the other hand, if you never use your batteries while on charge, you don't need that exgra feature.
 
I recently purchased a 01 3572 cruisers formerly SR owner and it has a promariner 360
I am running into an issue with the charger after 1 night on the hook it won bring my house battery back up to full charge with generator. I am running genny and cahrger couiple times thru out the day. perplexing situation. ive had to manually bring home batt charger to bring it back to full charge.
have tried to locate dc draw with no luck , any thoughts??
voltage going to house battery when on charge is 12. 2 voltage to starting battery's is 14 or so.
when i get back to dock it will re charge overnight. on ac
 
wakeup 19 said:
I recently purchased a 01 3572 cruisers formerly SR owner and it has a promariner 360
I am running into an issue with the charger after 1 night on the hook it won bring my house battery back up to full charge with generator. I am running genny and cahrger couiple times thru out the day. perplexing situation. ive had to manually bring home batt charger to bring it back to full charge.
have tried to locate dc draw with no luck , any thoughts??
voltage going to house battery when on charge is 12. 2 voltage to starting battery's is 14 or so.
when i get back to dock it will re charge overnight. on ac
Click to expand...
Confused...

Using the generator won't bring the battery back to full?

You brought the charger home?

Voltage doesn't "go to" a battery, it "leave's" a battery.

12.2 is basically dead. How old is the battery?

14 is too high for a resting battery that is not currently being charged.

Please fix post/re-explain.

However... taking a stab at guessing what you're getting at...
--- What is the resting voltage of the battery with nothing on?
--- What is the voltage when the charger is on?
--- What is the voltage at the other batteries when the charger is on?
--- Have you load tested the battery?
--- How did you check for parasitic draw?
 
wakeup 19 said:
I recently purchased a 01 3572 cruisers formerly SR owner and it has a promariner 360
I am running into an issue with the charger after 1 night on the hook it won bring my house battery back up to full charge with generator. I am running genny and cahrger couiple times thru out the day. perplexing situation. ive had to manually bring home batt charger to bring it back to full charge.
have tried to locate dc draw with no luck , any thoughts??
voltage going to house battery when on charge is 12. 2 voltage to starting battery's is 14 or so.
when i get back to dock it will re charge overnight. on ac
Click to expand...

So your running hte generator, that means the boat has 120v. Your running the battery charger in the boat and not an external one. And your saying that the battery charger in the boat does not charge the battery(s)? How long did you give it to get to full charge?

Then you say "ive had to manually bring home batt charger to bring it back to full charge" What does that mean, you brought a battery charger from home to charge the boat battery(s)?
 
brand new battery,
I brought my home charge to run it off genny 115 volt is what i was trying to say on the hook
promariner is supposed to be only a couple of years old.
resting voltage when fully charged is 12.3 for all 3 batteries
voltage when charger is on is 14 or so varies for starting batteries/ never had issue w them not sure of age
voltage when charging house battery is still only 12.2 i tried jumping wire from starting batt. doesnt seem to jump voltage. i took wire off starting battery and jumped it over to house wasnt different, still 12.2
ne battery this season actually 2nd on a i moved first on to bow thruster. (wonder if that has anything to do with low voltage)
I did parasitic draw of NEGATIVE (sorry) cable didnt see any amp reading but that was the first time i tried to do it hopefully correct.
hope that helps you.
 
SKybolt said:
So your running hte generator, that means the boat has 120v. Your running the battery charger in the boat and not an external one. And your saying that the battery charger in the boat does not charge the battery(s)? How long did you give it to get to full charge?

Then you say "ive had to manually bring home batt charger to bring it back to full charge" What does that mean, you brought a battery charger from home to charge the boat battery(s)?
Click to expand...
see reply im kind of chasing all summer, thx
i brought my home charge to boat to charge it on hook. wierd it last all day and i run eng and gen during day
only fridge is on at night
 
A 12 volt battery fully charged should have a resting voltage of 12.7 volts.
12.3 is around 50% discharged (25 amp hours used on a 100 amp hour flooded lead acid battery).
Bulk charge should be 14.2 to 14.7 volts (this is high current bulk stage)
Float should be around 13.2 volts (this is maintenance current)

Don't underestimate the length of time to charge a battery bank - two 100Ah batteries in parallel at 50% depth of discharge will take up to six hours to fully charge (dependent upon the size of the battery charger).

To check battery voltages charging or at rest all things that draw from the batteries must be turned off or disconnected.

Your boat should have dual purpose batteries and not specifically "starting" or "Deep Cycle" batteries.

A converter/charger is a dual purpose charger that can act both as a power supply and battery charger. Except for batteries specifically for things like starting or a bow thruster the charger must be a dual purpose. The Promariner ProNautic (for example) is a dual function (charger/power supply) product. The Victron chargers are also dual function. Your run of the mill home charger will not function as a power supply; in fact the modern chargers will not even produce current unless they sense a minimum battery voltage level which is around 10.5 volts.
 
ttmott said:
A 12 volt battery fully charged should have a resting voltage of 12.7 volts.
12.3 is around 50% discharged (25 amp hours used on a 100 amp hour flooded lead acid battery).
Bulk charge should be 14.2 to 14.7 volts (this is high current bulk stage)
Float should be around 13.2 volts (this is maintenance current)

Don't underestimate the length of time to charge a battery bank - two 100Ah batteries in parallel at 50% depth of discharge will take up to six hours to fully charge (dependent upon the size of the battery charger).

To check battery voltages charging or at rest all things that draw from the batteries must be turned off or disconnected.

Your boat should have dual purpose batteries and not specifically "starting" or "Deep Cycle" batteries.

A converter/charger is a dual purpose charger that can act both as a power supply and battery charger. Except for batteries specifically for things like starting or a bow thruster the charger must be a dual purpose. The Promariner ProNautic (for example) is a dual function (charger/power supply) product. The Victron chargers are also dual function. Your run of the mill home charger will not function as a power supply; in fact the modern chargers will not even produce current unless they sense a minimum battery voltage level which is around 10.5 volts.
Click to expand...
the batteries are 2 starting batt gr 27 and 1 deep cycle 31 , inteeresting you reccomend Dual purpose, any specific reason other won't work? not challenging just want to learn more about this. seems like all the voltage is going to starting batteries
 
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