Thermal Breaker Gets Very Warm

Question:

I have a house battery bank consisting of (3)100Ah lithium batteries and a  Mastervolt 12/50x3 charger. The charging lead to house batteries first goes to a Peerless 50 amp thermal breaker. With the Lithiums (new) the charger charges at 50 amp continuous and I noticed the thermal breaker posts are getting really warm and can only be touched for 1-2 seconds. Leads in and out of breaker have no heat-just the posts. Is that normal? Breaker is rated to open at 67 amps. - David

Answer:

Good observation. First, I’d recommend redoing the connections of the two wires connected to the 50 amp thermal breaker. After trying that, if you still have a problem I’d consider swapping our the breaker for a new one. Lastly, is the 50 amp rated breaker and the associated wiring the correct amperage and wire size. Make sure both are the correct size, check the manual and see what they recommend. - Jeff