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[Music]  good morning everyone good morning thank  you for a Bluewater cruising Association  for hosting this event  I'm just we're going to recap before we  start looking at each of these  individual devices again and not this  time looking at why you need one or how  you should buy one but looking at how  you should troubleshoot it if you do  have one so we're going to be looking at  chargers alternators solar panel and  controllers fuel cells battery Isolators  battery combiners AC DC generators and  we're even going to be looking at a  gavel Ike Isolators as well I want to  emphasize this is so important everyone  here the magic of unswept versus  switched distribution is going to give  you a lot of grief on your boat and I  I've got bad news bad news is most of  you have a wire that should be unsweet  on the switch and a wire that should be  on the switch is untwist and that's not  going to manifest itself until you turn  a battery switch off or something that  you would expect doesn't so you need is  some sort of a failure everything's  working but then you turn something on  and they still work and you're like what  the hell and so this is an incredibly  important concept we were on a boat last  week battery combiner on a really nice  boat you know 40 foot sailboat pretty  expensive sailboat you know not it's  it's production but it's a very  expensive production boat and someone  had installed the battery combiner and  the battery combiner was installed on  the switch side and that mean that you  could turn the battery switches off and  if the battery charger was on the house  loads were actually powered from the  engine battery via the battery charger  and all this magic happens when things  aren't correct so that's what we're  going to be looking at right now is  we're gonna look at each of those and  I'm gonna share with you the lessons  that I've learned from working on all of  your boats and gonna be sharing the  common knowledge of troubleshooting I  would say troubleshooting is probably of  my weekly life I work about maybe 70 I'd  say I do about 25 hours of  troubleshooting  over the phone 25 hours of my life is it  gets to me and then people need help and  I walk them through over the phone and  so and that's not what the technicians  do they do troubleshooting on their own  and then collectively all that  information gets shared amongst all of  us because we find cool things or things  that are weird we find interesting and  then we ended up sharing with one  another and so with that I'm gonna get  started  question is how do you basically know  where my switch distribution is and the  likelihood is you untwist most likely  it's not named and it's not somewhere  most what happens on a lot of boats to  be honest it's gonna be you're gonna see  if you've got for example a Beneteau  boat they're gonna have stacked about 20  connections on the positive side of that  battery connection right there you'll  see that you'll see them you look at  them and there's literally that amount  of connections on the back side of a  battery switch because they're it's one  connection at a time the UNT's even the  switch distribution and a lot of cases  doesn't exist it's a post or it's the  battery switch itself and they're gonna  sack a bunch of connections on there  it's hard it's hard that's the problem  it's really hard  people take shortcuts now if you had a  brand new and let's say for example  North Pacific or a brand new Grand Banks  you've got a Fleming I don't know you  got a swan or you know a high-end boat  or even a trawler like a American tug a  Nordic tug yeah you're gonna be able to  find this but if it's sort of an older  boat  they didn't they're basically saying  well isn't the battery post here the  same as this and while it's above the  code I shouldn't have more than four but  does it really matter if I have six and  then you'll have six or seven or eight  connections on the top of a battery post  and they're trying to cut corners  because that buzz bar there costs over  150 bucks so they're trying to remove it  and they're trying to remove this one  because that's also $150 so if they  don't have to install it's $300 you can  save and so they start jerry-rigging and  that's a problem is this stuff needs to  exist it's certainly on my boat when I  work on a boat I can guarantee it's on  but is it on everybody's boat the short  answer is probably not you're gonna need  to sort of understand  oh that's the unsweet distribution  because I always have power on that post  it's almost like having it connected  directly in the battery but not in the  battery so the short answer is it's  really hard to tell okay question fuse  blocks should they be switch or on  switch it really depends on what is  connected to the fuse block yesterday we  talked about this concept that bilge  pumps should be unswept right carbon  monoxide detector unswept radio memory  unswept now what is a connection that  could be connected there you could have  here for example a VHF radio not a VHF  let's do another one VHF good as  actually should be on switched it could  be anything could be a downrigger you  know you have a boat with a downrigger  you don't have an on/off circuit breaker  at the panel and that connection is  gonna simply be unsweet it's gonna be a  switched connection add a fuse block  that you only turn the downrigger and  one of the condemned riggers actually  connected because the challenge is a lot  of us have way more circuits than  circuit breakers remember I was joking  earlier that the circuit breaker on my  boat on my Calley no 36 should be like a  household fridge door well I probably  have no joke probably eighty circuits on  my boat and my panel has only 24  circuits on it  so how is it that I have well then I say  well I might not turn the fan at the DC  panel the fan is gonna be turned on at  defend so I don't turn on the fan and  the panel and then turn on the fan add  the fan I could simply connect it at a  fuse block and the fan has a switch  that's on and off and so my fan is  always energized as long as this switch  is energized and that's how I do it yeah  the question and you're right the where  is my fuse block the fuse block could be  hidden behind a DC panel it could be  hidden under somewhere like you dropped  down it could be in a cubby you know it  could be a place that's not obviously  super visible but visible enough and  accessible enough no problem so we do  design that's a big part of what we do I  mean collectively our company does about  200 designs a year of oates I'll never  work on physically  the clients are in South America  Malaysia Saudi Arabia Abu Dhabi Middle  East they're everywhere around the world  every probably state in the States  Kentucky Alabama Louisiana Missouri New  Jersey like I there's designs go into  all these different places we do  electrical design it's a huge part of  your business now it's it's about 20% of  our business is just creating schematics  for owners around the world where we  just give like an architect I hear you  go built you know you can build it  yourself you can have someone else build  it but we're we're really just being  sort of like an engineer you just give  them plants and you can build to that  plan so yeah we definitely do that  we're launching on our website and I've  been wanting to do it but I don't have  the time sort of different sort of  testimonials and some of this commodity  literally on big boats like the you know  hundred footers or 150 footers you know  it's this thick it's you know 200 pages  of design after design after design and  the pages are like this big you know  it's crazy so it depends but my boat I  understand what you want I unfortunately  that I'm not ready but yes we do we do  real have samples of typical designs  going out of our website  I just haven't come to the time to do  that yet okay any other questions before  we move forward well good all right  excellent okay we're gonna start with  something that everyone should have on  their boat anybody want to take a guess  at what the next thing that everyone has  on their boat that's on this slide  anybody has an idea what's a popular  item on this side that pretty much  everyone should have on their boat  alternators a good one charger when a  star in charger if you don't have a  charger on your boat you're pretty lucky  that means that you don't have any loads  on your boat most of us a show have  hands of anybody here in the class that  doesn't have a battery charger on their  boat everybody has the battery charger  yeah that's right yeah everybody has a  charger it's pretty rare to have an  alternator only boat right where you  have no other means of charging your  boat other than an alternator that's  pretty rare pretty rare right  okay so what can go wrong here right so  you got to remember what do we say at  the beginning we said you start at the  beginning and the beginning for a  battery charger is not the batteries  it's the power that feeds the battery  charger right so the first step you got  to ask yourself is my battery charger  will never work unless I have AC on  board and AC can come from shore power  or it can come from a generator right  but if you're not connected to shore  power and or you're not running a  generator don't look further for  wondering while your battery charger  doesn't work and I know it sounds like a  silly question but I get that all the  time there people are out on an  anchorage their battery charger  literally not connected shore power and  they're wondering why their battery  charger doesn't work because it sounds  silly but it isn't a lot of people think  that battery chargers are powered by an  alternator or their engine and they  aren't battery chargers take AC in to  create DC so without AC you can't get a  battery charger to work now you could  have AC coming in to the panel and  another thing I mentioned and how often  did I mention this this concept of  turning on the circuit breaker I was on  a boat last week maybe two weeks ago on  a 60 footer sure enough again panels  pretty intimidating lots of breakers on  the panel lots and lots of breakers and  guess what the owner did not know that  there was a battery it didn't say  battery charger it said converter and  the owner like what's a converter turned  it off batteries were dead  why didn't know that converter was aka  battery charger and relatively this  happens to all of us as motors when we  get not a new boat but a new boat to us  the learning curve for getting a boat is  measured in years not months if you  think you know your boat after a few  months yeah it's I tell people you're  like 2 years I'm like oh no you're  you're you're still on the journey like  it's gonna take you about five years to  really know her and then you're gonna be  like yeah I think I got it and that's if  you're involved and you really are into  it if you're sort on the peripheral and  you don't boat you'll never get to know  your boat never so breaker and what you  want to do is  turn the breaker off turn the breaker on  see a change are the lights lighting up  on the charger there's always a some  sort of indicator light on a battery  charger right there's always some things  saying this is on either the needles  gonna go up there's gonna be a bunch of  bulbs that are gonna light up LEDs  something is gonna tell you that this  thing is energized right and if you're  turning on the breaker on and off and  you it's always looks dead then you know  that either the devices failed or the  breaker that feeds as if Isis failed and  most likely breakers don't rarely fail  if you've got power AC power of the  panel you turn on the breaker that  little LED light turns on and then you  don't have power here and this thing  doesn't light up it's dead now you know  what how many times a year do I get a  call from someone that had water damage  in the engine room a water pump failed  water was literally spraying everywhere  in the engine room and what did they do  they simply wipe things with a rag two  months later a month later their charger  dies I'm like did you have water down in  your engine room nope  any flooding nope well we did have a  water pump that failed there's a lot of  salt water that went everywhere I'm like  is the charger nearby yeah it got wet  but it wasn't immersed I'm like yeah but  it's a piece of electronic equipment and  this thing is not waterproof in any  world and these buttons can't have any  water go to them and you probably have  corrosion and more often than not the  battery charger will die it's generally  sometimes it's gonna be because of water  damage not literally being immersed but  simply because of a water pump failing  in energy room and spraying salt water  everywhere you've got to be able to see  some sort of light turn on into this  device if it's dead dead don't keep  going  now the next thing you need to worry  about is these fuses right here and  right here now on most cases you won't  have a fuse because people don't read  the manual right but if your insulation  is done right you're gonna have a fuse  on the circuit and sometimes remember  this fuses are not just on-off there's  some that are resettable there are  thermal circuit breakers I  another boat just recently another  call-out and someone did understand what  a thermal circuit breaker was and they  push a button nothing happened they  assumed everything was working and they  had turned off the circuit breaker right  and it was basically now disabling the  battery charger to the engine battery so  just by press bringing the lever back on  re-enabling the thermal circuit breaker  now allowed the engine battery to be  energized okay  so you got to make sure that that fuse  is intact now if you're curious to see  and you don't know one of the ways to  measure that would be disconnect your  shore power breaker or your inverter  charger not the or generator and measure  voltage add the battery charger there's  going to be a positive and negative post  and if you take something like this a  multimeter and I brought a bunch because  last year I didn't for anybody who wants  to buy one I bought it brought a bunch  this year if you've got a multimeter on  your boat you're going to take a digital  multimeter and then what you're going to  do is you're going to put the positive  and negative connections at the bottom  of the charger which on this charger or  right here and then you're going to  measure for a voltage and you're going  to want to measure the same voltage you  measure at the battery and if you  measure 12.6 here and your batteries  12.6 and you're not connected to AC the  only way that your charger sees 12.6 is  if it's connected to a battery right it  demonstrates that you have circuit  integrity between the battery and the  charger and that's one way to do it on a  big boat sometimes you're like well I  don't know where the fuse would be I  have no idea is there a fuse I don't  know  I didn't install the charger and so you  do that by measuring voltage right at  the battery charger okay another thing  that happens is people say to me they  say Jeff my battery charger is  overcharging my batteries I'm like okay  how do you know they're like well Jeff  it's charging it's fourteen point eight  volts my batteries  it's bulked its absorption charging at  fourteen eight it should only be at  fourteen four I'm like okay how do you  know it's 14 four well AGM should be 14  four I'm like great do you have a  temperature sensor and they're like yeah  I've got a temperature sensor is it  connected yeah  how cold is it in your engine room  they're like well you know it's maybe 55  degrees 60 degrees Fahrenheit  sure enough the temperature sensors  connected to the battery and if the  battery is cold we talked about that  yesterday that device is gonna charge  higher than normal right because all the  numbers that we have in our head of what  is a normal battery voltage are always  at 77 degrees Fahrenheit so if it's  warmer than 77 degrees Fahrenheit the  voltages are gonna go lower if it's  colder than 77 degrees Fahrenheit the  voltages are gonna go higher so you I've  see sometimes battery chargers  outputting 15 115 - it's not that  they're damaged it's that their  temperature compensating for a very cold  battery and in the summer when our  batteries are in a boat surrounded by  water that's really warm again the  battery charger will never get to 14 4  it might only get to 14 1 or 14 because  the batteries are so hot their  temperature compensating down again  that's a common one Jeff my batteries  are not charging adequately I'm under  charging my batteries it never got to 14  4 I'm like yes but we're in the middle  of summer where is your boat are you on  the outside of Vancouver Island let's  say where the waters only 50 degrees  Fahrenheit or are you in a place where  the water is 75 degrees Fahrenheit in  the summer and it's 100 degrees outside  or 90 degrees outside well yes of course  your batteries are warmer than 77  degrees Fahrenheit and if your batteries  are in an engine room or an engine  compartment that gets hot underway and  you're running a generator let's say  well they're gonna be actually charging  at a less of a voltage okay  now can't emphasize this enough if  you're a battery charger and this is a  great test every one of us should do  this on their boat you should disconnect  all your battery switches on your boat  you should have your boat disconnected  from shore shore power with a volte  meter at they panel or with a multimeter  actually at the at the battery is  probably better you want to measure what  your battery voltage is and then you  connect your boat to shore power turn on  the battery charger and see if your  battery voltage goes up if your battery  voltage goes up with your engine and  battery switch turned off you know that  your charger is  we connected to the battery and bypasses  as it should the engine or house battery  switch it's very important to have your  Chargers be connected directly and only  directly to a battery and not be  connected where we were showing on this  switch side battery chargers cannot be  switched ever black and white otherwise  welcome to the world of magic okay it's  a little bit similar to what we were  talking about yesterday what did we say  yesterday we said a good way to test if  your bilge pump works and it works on  switch is to actually disconnect turn  your battery switches off and go test  your bilge pump right lift the float  switch where your battery switches off  that's something we can all do on our  boat you want to confirm that your bilge  pumps work even when the battery choices  are off because if there's a fire if you  leave the boat whatever you do you turn  that battery switch off your bilge pumps  will still operate that's really  important and you also want to know that  your battery charger is not connected at  a switch distribution but it's connected  at directly at the battery all charging  circuits on a boat all of them black and  white there is no debate on this have to  be unswept okay every single one and  that's why in this slide I show all  these this is a charger charger charger  charger charger charger charger and this  is simply a few loads but all of these  are charging circuits and these are all  loads the AC switch on your breaker  panel you're gonna want to turn that off  first because you want to see what the  voltage is without it you know what the  house the house battery voltage is  without a battery charger is the moment  you energize a battery charger you want  that voltage to rise if it doesn't rise  then your battery charger is not  connected to that battery your battery  charger if a battery charger should  always be energized like all the time  would that be fair way to describe that  yes I mean yeah absolutely  in short yes your battery charger should  never  ever ever not be energized honestly my  battery charger on my boat  every time I plug into short power my  battery charger is always on waiting for  AC to come in there's no reason to not  recharge your batteries unless of course  you have a old charger that's going to  be called not a charger but a converter  and that converter is gonna actually  boil your batteries but if you have a  battery charger that's built in the last  20 years there's no reason for having  not maintaining your batteries batteries  want to be maintained and the only way  to do that is with a battery charger  yeah it's a little bit hard to  conceptually your question is a little  bit different there's no such thing as a  battery charging you that the battery is  fully charged you're looking for an  effective change a battery charger is  not gonna indicate if something is on or  off there's no sort of state you know  it's not like that it's you're looking  for a change of voltage there's no such  thing as a nominal good voltage it's all  about a change of voltage think about  the example of a swimming pool I used  that last week with someone else  you could have a huge pipe coming into a  swimming pool and that's women pool it's  an Olympic swimming pool it could be  literally a pipe the size of meat or  white there can be flow into the  swimming pool  and yet the swimming pool is not full  right you could literally have the tap  on it's literally an aqueduct coming  into a swimming pool and it's not to say  that until the pool is full you didn't  have flow you can't it's about to change  the pool was dry or the pool was at X  level and suddenly the level is rising a  change of level rising is an indication  that a charger is working but you will  never ever and this is a good this is a  really good question because I give this  all the time in this summer all the time  people worry and they and as we should  but they say Jeff I just turned on my  alternators and my batteries are not at  14 for my alternators broken or I turned  on my battery charger and suddenly my  batteries are not at 14 4 volts I'm like  ok alright let's let's talk about this  what was your battery voltage prior to  starting how big is your battery bank  and do you expect to be able to feel a  sway  Poole instantly of water regardless of  size of the pipe going in and the size  of the pool it would be impossible how  could you can you feel a lake in an  instant there's no such thing the only  way you could do that is literally if  you have a bucket and you have a glass  and you take a bucket and you pour  literally a bucket into a glass but I  can tell you that all of our alternators  and chargers are a tiny fraction of the  battery bank size remember what I said  yesterday I said battery chargers are  minimum ten percent of capacity how long  is it going to take for something that  charges at ten percent of capacity to  recharge a battery bank that's a long  time right if you've got something that  is 100 amp hours and your charger is 10  amps 10 amps into 100 you won't see a  full battery instantly it's gonna take  hours literally hours and the more  depleted your battery bank is the longer  it takes for you to get to that so it's  a great question because it it clarifies  this nuance between on or off battery  chargers alternators don't turn on and  suddenly actually have a full battery  you might see a change but it will take  time for that battery to get completely  full and that's different than a car  because in a car our batteries are tiny  and the alternators are much bigger  that's why this suddenly as soon as you  start your car your voltage is at 14 4  because let's say for example in this  printer in one of our service vehicles  it's like a 300 or 200 50 amp alternator  on a battery that is 100 apps our of  course as soon as you start that engine  the battery's at 14 4 but on our boats  all of our boats think about how big is  our alternators as a function of our  battery banks ice their fractions and so  when troubleshooting a battery charger  or an alternator there's no such thing  as knowing instantly there's no number  you're looking for other than a change  it's sort of like I'm trying to lose  weight right now I can tell you that  I've been at it and it didn't happen  overnight I'm working on it but it's a  slow gradual change and it's the same  thing with your alternator or your  charger it's about a change not anything  sudden does that make sense excellent  question  in short you always want to recharge  your batteries always batteries don't  want to be left in the state of  discharge if you can  in short you now now is the time to  charge your batteries always flooded  lead-acid batteries AGM lead acid  batteries gel it acid batteries all  don't want to be in a state of discharge  if possible you're causing and left in a  in not permanent but a long state of  discharge they're gonna sulfate and so  that's why for example if you have a  battery charger you want to leave it on  all the time and you want your batteries  to be on a battery charge or 24/7 always  unless you're away from the dock and  you're boating and it you don't have to  do it but then you're gonna have shorter  battery life if you don't you know  people that leave their boats and  hangars for example and that happens a  lot right tons of people do it tons  happens all it like tons of people do it  and then have their boats in the hangar  and don't have a battery charger on even  if they disconnect the loads of the  battery are damaging their batteries you  cannot have a battery unconnect it to  anything literally disconnected anything  and not getting a charge for six months  you can do it of course you can but  you're gonna damage your batteries  you're absolutely damaging your  batteries batteries want to constantly  get a charge every day they want to be  flow charge forever they do not want to  be on their own without a charge and if  you don't do it you can do it all the  time you can leave them in a hanger for  six months you can disconnect all  deletes from it but when you get back to  that boat in six months your batteries  are gonna be about 50% of capacity over  six months and you're gonna have  probably worn the batteries down by half  their life for the first time you do it  and then a second year you do it another  half and then your batteries instead of  lasting you five to seven years are  gonna last you two to three years the  question is when you're connected to  shore power do you have to have your  battery switch on all to recharge your  batteries the answer should be no  absolutely no because the switch should  have nothing to do where your battery  charger is connected to battery chargers  have either single output dual output  three output  this battery charger has two outlets  it's connected at the same time to an  engine battery and a house battery you  don't choose if it's connected to one or  the other it's connected to both and so  you regardless of where your switch is  that battery charger is going to be  charging your engine battery and your  house battery even if both battery  switches are on or off the battery  switches could be they could disappear  you could remove them the battery switch  is here it it's after the charger so it  doesn't matter I'll take offline  Daniella will talk about it but battery  chargers bypass switches now if you have  a single output inverter charger for  example and you want to share with  another battery then yes you might put  the battery switch on to combine but  combine is different than on or off  that's forcing this battery in this  battery to be in permanent parallel but  you should not have just an inverter  charger you should have an ACR we talked  about that yesterday yeah the question  is another question is let's say my my  battery charger is switch I've come to  realize that how do I solve that problem  well if and this is a big if if your  battery charger is right now on this  post which is the switch side if you  move it you could just move it on to  that post and it would become unswept  right now that's the thing to with  electrical remember it's like a little  bit I give that analogy all the time  moving a decimal point on a number  doesn't seem like a big deal if you  didn't understand what it means right  like really I mean moved it to the left  one digit move it to the right one digit  that's a factor of 10 right like your  paycheck goes from a hundred dollars to  a thousand dollars or opposite right it  goes from a hundred dollars to ten it  makes a big difference where that little  decimal is right and with batteries and  electrical system moving a wire from one  location to another location that could  be two inches apart is a world of  difference and so if your battery  charger is connected on that battery  switch post right here moving it two  inches to this side will solve that  problem but where is it your battery  could charger could be  the panel who knows where they connected  it don't know you gotta look for it  battery chargers are meant for all  batteries we often install inverter  chargers on boat and will have what's  called an auxilary charger to handle  engine batteries like some boats have  two engines three engines port engine  starboard engine generator those are all  engines they've got to have a battery  charger absolutely when sizing a battery  charger right you generally only think  about the deep-cycle aspect of the  battery that's going to be really  demanding but no all all batteries want  to stay on a charger  here's another caveat you see this all  the time people have a boat with a  generator so it was an expensive boat if  you have a generator on board it's not  inexpensive and the manufacturer most  likely did not install a charger on that  generator battery but you know what they  did instead somewhere buried in the  manual they said that you should run  your generator at least once a month  once a month now that sounds really  doable when you loved your boat and the  boat is new to you and you say to  yourself hey you know what I'm gonna  come down to the boat every month and  I'm gonna run the generator always and I  will never forget because I love her so  much I'm so excited of course I'm gonna  do my ritual how often do people are  able to do that and follow through every  month forever I mean forever and they  better do it and if they don't then that  battery is gonna drain and is running  your engine once a month enough for a  battery no it wants to be on a charger  24/7 so even then you're compromising  your generator battery one of the most  popular things that we do in our shop as  soon as I see a generator I can  guarantee you 95% of generators do not  have a battery charger connected to it  why because the manufacturer of the boat  was trying to cut corners and somewhere  buried in that manual is run the  generator if you want to recharge the  battery and so we end up putting a  battery charger for the generator  battery and on some boats they have two  generators some boats have three  generators and so we'll put a generator  battery charger and we'll have multiple  leads go into all those battery banks  because there's nothing more sacred than  a generator battery that is your get out  of jail card  there's no amount people say oh it  doesn't matter I'm like no no no you  don't understand we're an open conflict  it does matter your generator batteries  that trump card that gets you out of  jail you start your generator you have  no more problems on your boat because  now power is flowing and so you keep  that generator battery always  beautifully topped off because that's  the one thing that when everything else  fails on your boat suddenly you start  the generator your chargers work and all  the rest of your batteries can get a  charge next inverter Chargers so  inverter Chargers are both a push-pull  right if you think about old Chargers  used to be converters and you think I  mean it sounds pretty similar but  opposite invert convert right this sound  like opposite an inverter charger is an  inverter converter that's basically what  it is so it does two things an inverter  can either pull vc power to make AC or  it can pull AC to make DC right current  can vote both directions right it  depends on the situation when you're  away from shore power or a generator  your inverter charger is going to become  an inverter only because you're gonna  pull power from your batteries to create  AC and when you're connected to shore  power or you're having a generator you  certainly don't need AC because you're  either on a generator or Shore and then  you're gonna take AC and convert it to  make DC so it's a bi-directional device  okay and what I was emphasizing  yesterday is for the large part and  remember all rules have exceptions all  rules have exceptions but 99% of you  have an inverter charger with only one  single DC positive connection to it okay  only one inverter Chargers are by  definition can only be connected to one  battery bank that's it you're not  charging your inverter charger does not  connect to four battery banks it's not a  charger only it's an inverter charger  and since it's only going to have a DC 1  DC positive connection to the device  so when troubleshooting an inverter  circuit one of the most popular things  that we look for especially to confirm  that it can invert generally were  troubleshooting inverting first because  that's when people notice there's  problems most people don't even know  what to confirm if their battery charger  works or not but I'll let me tell you if  the microwave doesn't work or the  nespresso doesn't work people will  definitely know that first step is  you've got to see if this inverter is  connected to some sort of DC power right  because an inverter can't create AC if  it doesn't get DC all right that would  be the first thing stinked before you do  that and a lot of us don't know how to  turn an inverter on or off in the remote  panel but that's an essential step it  sounds silly but a lot of us don't know  that our inverter charger remote panels  have this little button and some of them  are there buried like magnum it's easy  it's on/off zan tracks it's a menu  structure it's not a one button you have  to find it in the menu you can enable an  inverter or you can disable an inverter  and so some instances clients say my  inverter doesn't work and what happened  is someone was playing with the inverter  charger remote panel disable the  inverter at the remote panel the  inverter doesn't work but it's not that  doesn't work it was shut off at the  panel so first step is can you confirm  that your remote panel is on and it's  enabled for the inverter that's  obviously the first step the next step  is seeing if there's any sort of voltage  now if you have a remote panel if this  thing is energized and you have power  there you know that your inverter is  obviously working and has DC because  otherwise there'd be no light on there's  no way an inverter can show you an  indicator light or a panel indicator if  there's no power connected to it right  so that's the first thing if you can't  see anything then obviously you're  questioning why but if the remote panel  is energized and you're not running a  generator and/or you're not connected to  shore power the inverter is not powered  by magic it's powered by something and  therefore the batteries must be  connected to it if it isn't powered and  it's a blank screen now you got to ask  yourself why is it that I don't have  power to my inverter one of the things  you got to look for is this switch right  here it's a little non discreet switch  in between from the house batteries and  it's an on/off switch it could be beside  the inverter or it could be near the  batteries and sometimes it's unlabeled  right you don't know and that's which  has to be on if it's off the inverter  doesn't get power the inverter will  never work because it's not connected to  the batteries if you have an inverter on  your boat and you ask of it more than  it's rated for let's say you have a 2000  watt inverter and for whatever reason  you load 3000 watt on that inverter the  inverter will not just do will not stop  at 2000 watt trying to vid invert it  will try to do everything you asked of  it has no ability to stop itself from  trying to give you three thousand five  thousand ten thousand it'll do what you  asked  the only thing safeguarding the inverter  from actually damaging itself because  it's being asked to do something it  can't is that fuse so for example it  often happens that people will disk it  will tear in their boat over and  suddenly you lose shore power and they  had a bunch of heaters connected they  lose Shore power they had about 40 amps  maybe 3000 4000 5000 watts of heating  onboard electrical heat they lose their  power the inverter was enabled but stand  by the innovative orso's oh my god we  lost shore power let me try to meet  demand the inverter switches internally  suddenly from bypass to invert and it  tries to run 5,000 watts of load and  this fuse blows so if you lost shore  power and when you read the doc let's  say and suddenly you lost power and then  you also lost your inverter it's because  you asked the inverter to do something  it couldn't do and the fuse which is  called a class T fuse right here  blew and that's why everyone should  always carry a spare Class t fuse if  they have an inverter charger always  class teeth class tango like classroom  class T fuse find your fuse for your  inverter charger whatever it is and buy  another one you  thing I have one on my boat or do I have  to I have a lot because when I go  boating you know what I want to do I  want to go boating the last thing I want  to do is worry about my boat electrical  system letting me down  so I'm a Boy Scout I'm always prepared  the amount of spares I have on my boat  it's amazing it's incredible I'm ready  for anything because in the middle of  nowhere why would you want to ruin your  trip for a fuse I mean come on  and you can't find all those in the  middle of nowhere in a channel REE  you're not gonna go to one of those  places that barely has milk and maybe  you have mustard on the shelf and you're  like hey you know I'm looking for a  class-c about 350 amps you have one in  the back shell they're like who are you  what are you talking about are you  kidding me no way you got to go into  town for that Oh where's town oh well  it's you know a couple days this way  you're like crap  classy fuse find out your inverter fuse  and if you ever overload your inverter  suddenly because you lost shore power or  you were running the generator and you  switched you'll probably end up blowing  that fuse and remember this is a big  gotcha inverter Chargers are not just  inverters they're also chargers you lose  your inverter ah you know what you can  live without an espresso maybe but you  can't live without a battery charger you  just can't you just can't that means  you'd have to run your whole boat  through alternator all the time being  connected to shore power or running your  generator is irrelevant that means now  your alternator is the only sole source  of power for your boat and remember when  I asked earlier who doesn't have a  battery charger on their boat and nobody  lifts up their hands that's how  essential a battery charger is if it  wasn't essential some of us would lift  up our hands some more than one or two a  lot of us say well battery chargers not  that important battery chargers are  incredibly important and when you lose  an inverter charger not working your  trip is done it's done it's over it's  it's it's you're done because an  alternator will have to run forever to  meet the loads you'd have to do circles  around  you'd be like well let's go we're gonna  stay here but we're gonna motor eight  hours a day every day to repower our  batteries because it's just not enough  you know in most cases it's just not  enough and so that's why you can't even  be at the dock you can't even go to  anywhere like I've had a client once  they had to come to the dock they left  the boat they want in a hotel room until  the technician came and replace the  inverted charger because you can't stay  on board what are you gonna run the  alternators at the dock you know eight  hours a day at idle and we know that  idle is not enough for an alternate  output so what you're gonna start  running your boat eight hours a day at  cruising rpm to go nowhere  so you can recharge your batteries not  gonna happen that's done your boating  trip is over so don't have your boating  trip be canceled because you're missing  in class t fuse the question is is it  better to have a backup charger and  inverter of course yeah but then there's  a problem with space and cost yeah we do  that all the time when I get to about a  50-footer trawler 42 depends on how sort  of far they go I love having an inverter  charger and having an auxilary charger  that has three outputs and one of those  outputs is a backup to the house let's  say a 40 amp and I have it as a backup  on a terminal circuit breaker that's off  I did that on a fever 49 recently and  it's right there just waiting it's if he  ever loses that inverter charger he can  run his boat 40 amps and is no problem  it's more than he'll ever run his boat  on 40 amps for 24 hours is what is that  it's almost a thousand amp hours he'll  never run through a thousand amp hours a  day there's more power than he'll ever  need it's not enough to recharge a  battery bank quickly but enough to be  connected at shore and run your loads  and so we always we encourage and that's  why I'm not a big fan of having one  single inverter charger like I was in a  big fan of having just one bus for all  your networking I like redundancy you  know it's I don't know maybe is was I  like that before being an engineer or  I'm like that because of an engineer I  don't know but I just don't like to have  all my eggs in one basket so yeah having  an inverter charger single output make  sure that that fuse hasn't blown and  remember you can actually troubleshoot a  Class t fuse and the only way to know if  it's blue or not is with one of this I  had a client  that didn't have one of those had to end  up leaving the dock didn't know left the  Anchorage when all the way back to  another like a marina that actually had  a class defuse two days of Motoring two  days of mortaring not like two hours a  day like eight hours a day to get to a  place where he could buy a class T in  the end it had nothing to do with the  class T you know why he didn't know cuz  he didn't have a voltage digital  voltmeter contestant so if you don't  have a digital voltmeter on your boat  honestly this is not a make feel good  present whatever you do you need to have  one because if you don't know how to  operate it at least you can be told on  the phone how to operate it by a friend  by a technician your service provider  someone but you got to have a digital  voltmeter on board question correct yeah  the question was if you have an inverter  and you have a generator your generator  would still feed your AC panel yes your  generate would still feed your AC panel  even with the inverter down but the  problem is without a charger your DC  panel which is most of your lows on your  boat your lights your water pump right  your fridge in some cases some fridges  are ACDC but some fridges are DC only  are not gonna be powered eventually the  batteries are gonna drain themselves how  big is that battery charger a battery  charger a 40 amp battery charger is  about a newer one right not like you  know 40 years old 20 year old charger  this big this wide bub this thick okay  not it's not that big they would  generally be near the batteries  generally near the batteries now that's  a 40 amp 100 amp charger is about this  big this big and about this wide almost  the size of an inverter not as big as an  inverter but pretty damn close pretty  damn close inverted Chargers oh yeah  Chargers oh yeah absolutely we sell  everything yeah all this stuff yeah yeah  the question is did I sell Chargers yes  Chargers I mean like we have a huge  warehouse with tons of stuff I mean you  have to but yea Chargers are readily  available Pro Mariner you know we talked  about that yesterday is that  Master Vil Vic Tron I mean there's as  long as it's a name that you've heard  more than once right if you've never  heard of something that's a little weird  and if nobody's ever heard about it then  that's really weird  you know go with something and again  it's not to say their products not good  but this is an important piece of  equipment it's like being on a hot you  know it's like being on a mission I  don't know in a hospital the perforator  or something and you're like it's a  piece of equipment you've never heard  about before this is the heart of your  boat your batteries if they don't get a  charge you're done like it's it's game  over like your trip is you can't boat  without batteries if we could boat  without batteries a lot of boats would  be a lot happier all right because this  is not easy okay now remember we were  looking at the DC side but what about  actually having the AC not coming into  this to actually charge the batteries  that can happen too because remember  this is not just an inverter the  inverter DC goes this way when it's when  you're looking at inverting but when  you're actually charging it starts from  here going that way right so it's like  this for inverting and it's like this  for charging so when you're now talking  about my charger of my inverter does in  charge it's very similar to a charger is  your source selector switch at the right  place is your AC double pole breaker on  is your inverter charger breaker on and  that's the confusing part I was saying  last night or yesterday how many times  do I go I'm on a boat and I see an  inverter breaker off and it's literally  off of the breaker panel they're like oh  I don't need my inverter I'm connected  to shore power it sounds normal  to me it's absolutely right there that  statement is a hundred percent accurate  the problem is the label is actually not  really the right label it's an inverter  forward slash charger and that label is  extremely rare I see that maybe once out  of a hundred so it's a code word it's an  inverter and a charger but the owner  read the label you can't blame the owner  it's an inverter I'm connected Shore  power I don't need an inverter turn the  inverter off well  they don't realize it's an inverter  charger and if you turn the breaker off  to the AC feeding the inverter charger  your charger will never work because  without AC a charger not cannot create  DC right you can't go without an input  and create an output right everything  has to have an input so without AC  coming into an inverter charger you will  never ever have a charger work  could you have shore power go directly  to an inverter charger and then go to an  AC panel yes you could  unusual wiring but yes possible in  high-end boats people that don't want to  want extreme simplicity we're gonna end  up putting a very large inverter in line  between the panel and the shore power be  like a Victor on Quattro but that is  extremely unusual extremely unusual  there are tons of pitfalls of going that  way it's not that straightforward very  unusual and generally when it's done  people didn't understand what they were  doing and there's a lot of pain a lot of  pain remember that manual I was telling  you about the inverter charger remote  panel the pad the manual has hundred  pages there's no way a man's gonna read  that so there's no way it's almost a  joke and that's the reason why  electronics manufacturers don't even  print manuals anymore honestly most  people don't miss them you don't read  them hey before I remember when I had my  CA T or e 80 a chart plotter the manual  is almost imagine how much it costs to  print a small production manual 20,000  units likely rly that is 200 pages in  color it must be crazy I mean what is  that like it's got to be over a hundred  two hundred three hundred dollars to  print that manual it must be insane and  the manufacturers realize how many men  are gonna reap that 1% there's no way  they don't even bother anymore there is  simply no more manuals with any pieces  of electronic equipment you want to read  the manual now it's on the device so  means the device has to be on to read  the manual because if it's not on or go  online and print it for yourself and  honestly it's very rare that I get an  owner asking me where the manual is they  don't even have bother asking they're  just sort of start playing and that's  the problem with inverted chargers is  they just start wiring them in without  reading the manual and hence I make a  really good living fixing other people's  mistakes it's it's really that when it  comes down to that so inverter Chargers  big takeaway know how to turn inverter  charger on and off at your panel you  should know that now if you don't you  want to be curious because one day  someone is going to muck around and  might  your nephew a friend I know it all  yourself you know I've got clients all  the times falling on the resort they're  like you know what Jeff I played around  the wife was telling me I shouldn't have  done it  I don't know what I did but come and  help and at least they're honest and for  those I have super amount of sympathy  it's the people that say no the paddle  did it all by himself you know I've  never touched it and then you go in and  all the settings are like completely  random so you're telling me that the  panel failed but it failed arbitrarily  at all these wrong settings like I'm  like yeah it's possible I guess but  really I don't think so  so Jeremy you got to be careful I tell  this all the time especially with a lot  of sophisticated stuff Jeremy you can't  snap your fingers and start back at the  beginning of the labyrinth a lot of  times when you go down a journey and you  start changing changing menus and  selections there is no going back  there's not a single poison you're like  you know what I whatever I did just  let's go back to the beginning at that  point you're like I have no idea what I  did I'm lost and then it's like  nothing's working and that happens a lot  with double inverters they're supposed  to be stacked unstacked and then they're  not working and then people are freaking  out it's because they went into menus  and they start playing with them okay so  it happens to all of us honestly there's  nothing wrong with making mistakes but  try to make sure that you know how to  fix them so go back to your inverter  charger removal panels and know how to  enable the charger disable the charger  enable the inverter and disable the  inverter through soft keys on that  remote panel because that generally is  going to be the first thing to fail