12v Outlet Fries Chargers

[WanderingStar]

My 12v outlets have blown fuses on my Garmin plug, (I thought the plug was bad) and now cooked my wife's iphone charger (sorry honey!). Any ideas why? I have two, it happened from both. Could they both have gone bad? Or can the wiring or batteries be responsible? The spotlight works in the same outlet.

[landmineop]

Were the chargers designed to plug into 12v dc or were they dsigned to plug into 120v ac. Just wondering.

[WanderingStar]

12v, car charger types.

[landmineop]

A few minutes with a volt/ohm meter and you can trace out the wiring to find the short. If you don't have one head to Radio Shack and get one.

[kd3pc]

either AC across them, or over voltage...

[deniseO30]

12 volt outlets seem to short if the plug is not inserted straight and all the way in. it's happened a couple of times to me.

[btrayfors]

Check the polarity and be sure they're negative ground. The chargers and the Garmin would care, the spotlight wouldn't.

Bill

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

Check the polarity and be sure they're negative ground. The chargers and the Garmin would care, the spotlight wouldn't.

Bill

I suspect the same as Bill. The red + wire goes to the center pin and negative to the socket walls reverse this and you'll blow many modern chargers...

[jaybeegee]

I had a similar problem and found that my unit was shorted!

Now I have a problem that I cannot find a replacement unit which fits the ca.22m socket on the switch panel i have!

Also make sure you are using appropriate sized fuses (typically 10amp) for the cigarette lighter socket. do a quick calculation by dividing ivide the number of watts by the voltage.

cheers

[hellosailor]

"12 volt outlets seem to short " That would blow the fuse/breaker to the socket, not the fuse in the lighter plug or device itself.

I vote for a failed regulator in the boat, putting 16-17 volts on the "twelve" volt system instead of 14.3-14.4. Second choice, some AC leakage into the system.

Spotlights are very tolerant resistive loads, you can run 'em for a while at 16-17 volts before they burn out. Versus most electronics, which will become toast at 15.