Recently when returning to my slip on my Yorktown 39CC, I ran into a problem that is threatening to be expensive to repair. The problem happened after tieing up, and shutting down the engine, and hooking up shore power, I went below and switched the ship to shore switch to shore. Upon doing that there was 2 loud pop's, and 2 puffs of smoke came out of my inverter/charger. (It's a Freedom Model 20 P/N 81-2511-12). My understanding is that particular model 2500 watts. My research say's there is no direct replacement, requiring me to upgrade to the 3000 watt, bad news $ wise. Good news is the newer ones are true sine wave inverters. As with everything I have done to the boat, if I have to replace something, I bite the bullit and try to improve it.
To describe the problem that I have, I believe I did something to the charge portion. I have the Heart Interface basic remote panal, and when I cycle through and the charge led illuminates, the batteries show less than 12 volt and turn into red led's. I left it alone and returned the next day, and the batteries were green but only 12 volts. When I switched on basic equipment the voltage started dropping. the charger was still indicating it was in a charge state, and there was a annoying humming coming from the unit. The fan cycled on and off but no joy with charging resulted. I read in the owners manuel that "Equalizing" the batteries might be necessary. I tried that, and although the lite show was entertaining for about a minute, I left it running only to get the same results. (Before anyone asks, I checked the batteries for fluid level, all ok.) I am running 4 house batteries, and one engine battery. All of them are marine deep cycle group 27.
I invited my local marine electrician (@ $100), and he said it's probably the battery charger half of the unit, but he wasn't sure.
What I need to know is, "Has anyone else had these problems, is it worth trying to have the unit repaired, any ideas of what a dumb a** could try to possibly fix the situation, and in lew of that, are there some troubleshooting techniques to narrow down the problem.
To describe the problem that I have, I believe I did something to the charge portion. I have the Heart Interface basic remote panal, and when I cycle through and the charge led illuminates, the batteries show less than 12 volt and turn into red led's. I left it alone and returned the next day, and the batteries were green but only 12 volts. When I switched on basic equipment the voltage started dropping. the charger was still indicating it was in a charge state, and there was a annoying humming coming from the unit. The fan cycled on and off but no joy with charging resulted. I read in the owners manuel that "Equalizing" the batteries might be necessary. I tried that, and although the lite show was entertaining for about a minute, I left it running only to get the same results. (Before anyone asks, I checked the batteries for fluid level, all ok.) I am running 4 house batteries, and one engine battery. All of them are marine deep cycle group 27.
I invited my local marine electrician (@ $100), and he said it's probably the battery charger half of the unit, but he wasn't sure.
What I need to know is, "Has anyone else had these problems, is it worth trying to have the unit repaired, any ideas of what a dumb a** could try to possibly fix the situation, and in lew of that, are there some troubleshooting techniques to narrow down the problem.