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POWERMASTER, has anyone heard of these?

christophert

By christophert
in Boat Equipment

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WotEver Veteran II

WotEverDonate to Canal World

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Sorry to labour the point but you're guessing again. Yes it could be... almost anything.

 

Get an ammeter, they're not expensive. Once it's fitted then every single question that you've asked (and some of the ones we've asked) can be answered.

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christophert

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Shoreline make fridges that run on 12V or 24 V unless yours is a custom. When on shore power the battery charger will replace the energy supplied from the batteries to the fridge. Please tell us the model number of your fridge. A photo of the nameplate would be great. This might be inside the fridge on the door jamb.

Sorry, my mistake. it is 12/24 I thought it plugged into the mains. Confused how it can work off the 240v now. Was told it did both post-27392-0-67139000-1476192507_thumb.jpg

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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Sorry, my mistake. it is 12/24 I thought it plugged into the mains. Confused how it can work off the 240v now. Was told it did both attachicon.gif20161011_141625_1476192045999.jpg

 

That's the (possible) answer - the fridge has been sucking all your 'lectric, and possibly taking out more than your battery charger has been putting in.

 

Is there any note (on the plate) about wattage (I'd guess it would be in the order of 50-65w) so drawing 5a

 

 

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WotEver Veteran II

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That's the (possible) answer - the fridge has been sucking all your 'lectric, and possibly taking out more than your battery charger has been putting in.

 

Have I mentioned that an ammeter would tell us?

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christophert

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It runs from the battery! If your battery charger is supplied from shorepower it puts back into the battery what the fridge takes out.

Starting to understand it now ... I think.. I thought it automatically switched to mains when it it plugged into shoreline power. That's how it was sold to me. But it still needs the batterycharger to do the converting I guess. So as my batteries are presently disconnected and battery charger is obviously not charging anything, the stupid thing wont work??? So much for it works off the mains then! Yes if the battery charger is plugged into the batteries. Isn't this rather misleading?

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WotEver Veteran II

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I've just been looking at ammeters on Ebay. As OP has a 3kW inverter he needs to be able to read 300A. Nowt wrong with the Chinese ones, they work fine, I was hoping someone might jump in with a personal recommendation.

 

For OP I'd wire the shunt in the +ve with one end on the battery post and every other +ve connection on the other side of the shunt. He can then see exactly what is going into and out of the batteries. So if for instance he's getting a -ve reading while plugged into shore power then he knows there's a problem with the shore power or charger.

 

Tony

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christophert Collaborator

christophert

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Yep. Seen me coming!!

 

 

 

That's the (possible) answer - the fridge has been sucking all your 'lectric, and possibly taking out more than your battery charger has been putting in.

 

Is there any note (on the plate) about wattage (I'd guess it would be in the order of 50-65w) so drawing 5a

 

 

 

Just spoken to ShoreLine. Fridge has no DC and pulls 1 amp per hour. 3 to 3 and a half amps when working hard, according to them

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dor Veteran II

dor

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You are not trying to charge the batteries (power the charger) via the inverter are you ?

 

I've come across a boat where the charger was trying to charge the batteries from the 230V supplied by the inverter...

 

Flattened the batteries pretty quickly!

 

Just spoken to ShoreLine. Fridge has no DC and pulls 1 amp per hour. 3 to 3 and a half amps when working hard, according to them

 

 

The fridge will draw about 3.5 amps when running, but once down to temperature should only run 30-50% of the time. So running current is 3.5A, average current (over say 24 hours) will be about 1 - 1.5 amps. This is normal for Shoreline fridges.

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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Yep. Seen me coming!!

 

Just spoken to ShoreLine. Fridge has no DC and pulls 1 amp per hour. 3 to 3 and a half amps when working hard, according to them

 

What do you mean the "Fridge has no DC" ? That what your 12v supply is.

 

Lets not get into the use of incorrect units, suffice to say '1 amp per hour' is wrong, its like saying "30 miles per hour per hour"

 

What they (you) mean is 1Ah.

 

It is probably actually drawing about 4 amps but it is only running for 25% - 33% of the time (runs more often if you open the door, or the outside temperature is higher, or you put 'warm' stuff in the fridge).

 

If it runs 25% of the time it is 1Ah

If it runs 50% of the time it would be 2Ah

If it runs 100% of the time it would be 4Ah

 

I'd be very surprised if it was as low as 1Ah which would be 24Ah over a 24 hour period (so about 25% of your battery capacity of NEW batteries)

I would expect it to be much nearer to 2Ah, or 48Ah per day - (about 50% of your battery capacity of NEW batteries).

 

Batteries should not be discharged below 50% to make them last as long as possible, so your 2x 110Ah batteries allow you to use 110Ah before recharging them, or if they are already 'of reduced capacity' (say 50Ah each) the fridge is now using almost all of your battery capacity, Using lights, pumps, phone charger, PC etc etc just means you are flattening your battery lower and lower until it is eventually totally kaput.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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WotEver Veteran II

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Seeing as you said you want to learn...

 

... 1 amp per hour.

No, 1 amp. However long it is drawing it, a minute an hour, a day, the current draw is 1 amp.

 

There is no such thing as amps per hour unless to describe a current which is steadily increasing hour on hour.

 

In one hour it will have taken 1Ah (amp-hour) from the batteries, in three hours 3Ah etc

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WotEver Veteran II

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Update on batteries - Disconnected this morning at 10.00am. After overnight charge reading 13.3 and the other reading 13.2

Time now 3.30 and reading 13.2 and 13.1

I know it's still too soon as they need to settle. May leave them till tomorrow morn before re-connecting.

Connect a headlight bulb or similar for about 10 minutes, that should get rid of the surface charge.

Can anyone recommend gauges and meters please, so I can monitor it all.

 

Maplins and Ebay have been mentioned. Anyone suggest good makes, and what else I should get. An ammeter will be a good start for me. Thank you

In addition to an ammeter I'd recommend a SmartGauge:

http://www.merlinequipment.com/markets/group.asp?groupid=48

 

Tony

SmartGauge doesn't measure current so no need to phone Cactus.

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