Outsmarting the Dolphin Smart Battery Charger

Servicing a bit of high tech electronic kit is not really a ‘thing’. Their integrated circuits and capacitors work or they don’t but faced with forking out a ‘boat unit’ for a replacement, the affectionate boat owner’s term for $1,000; well, you’ll give it a go won’t you?

So what’s it all about?

Zofia came equipped with a Dolphin  brand ‘smart battery charger’. This item basically controls the delivery of power to our battery storage bank. Our various batteries are essential and are a level of complexity beyond a car battery. We have an isolated battery to start the motor. Another that operates the power guzzling bow thruster and anchor winch. Both are self explanatory and although the engine starter battery is pretty critical we could manage without the powered anchor winch (with difficulty) and the bow thruster which is really only used for extra maneuverability in tight places like marinas. The house batteries are a whole other world and responsible for ongoing power delivery to the fridge, freezer, lights (navigational and domestic), VHF radio, navigation equipment, AIS, radar, auto-helm and other instruments, pumps, entertainment systems and such. We are merely 21st century sailors and only as good as our electrical system and electronics allow us to be.

The thing about storage batteries and smart chargers is this; different types of batteries require different charging regimes based on their chemical composition and ability to accept and store power. Our batteries are AGM’s and just slightly different to wet cell lead acid car batteries. In practical terms, a specific voltage needs to be delivered for a particular length of time to enable the batteries to accept and store the charge. Why is our charger ‘smart’? It’s because it has multiple settings allowing for a choice of a variety of conventional battery types plus sensors and timers to monitor progress and adjust delivered volts. When it’s done it’s job, the battery status will be at ‘float’ - and hooray for that because it’s what allows us to float too.

So, let’s roll back to Noumea, mid 2017 and a visit to the Port Moselle Marina. A pair of idiots in pursuit of an endless summer surfing surfari docked on our marina finger. They proceeded to dismantle the power bollard because they didn’t have an appropriate power plug. In case you are wondering, it's a european one. In doing so, they blew the power to the entire marina finger. Sadly this was just minutes from us disconnecting ahead of departure and we didn’t even realise we had a big problem until a couple of days after. We were leaving already fully recharged and believed it to be a shore power issue. A few days later we discovered that our ‘smart charger’ had saved our entire boat electronics when it’s sacrificial fuses were blown by the ‘event’ at the marina.

  

Clever, clever charger!

Luckily, the Bloke was able to clean the carbon charring and replace the mini spade fuses. It was terribly annoying at the time as it required a return trip to Noumea. We thought we’d dodged a bullet but not indefinitely. It was evident that there was some damage to the fuse area when the fuses continued from time to time, to blow/melt. There was no clear pattern to it but we sort of understood that we were living on borrowed time and buying and re-buying replacement fuses would only take us so far before an inevitable and dreaded replacement. This is called 'Doing an Egyptian' and living in de-Nile.

 

2 pairs in under 30 mins is too much! 

 

On the bright side, should we replace our smart charger with a New Generation one, it will have a cycle for lithium batteries and could be a more powerful one too. Ours only has a 40amp capacity. We could replace it with a 60amp one which would enable faster charging. A win. If we ever decided to change over to lithium batteries, the charger would be one of the several control systems that would require upgrading. Yay, we’d be Lithium Ready! Double win.

A ‘boat unit’ however, is not easily parted with. When the fuse replacement regime was looking to no longer be viable, the smart charger needed a more serious looking at. Replacing the fuses twice in 20 minutes? Absolutely not viable! It was time to dismantle our bunk, remove panels, not merely lift them, and remove the charger to inspect the back of the board. Time to bite the bullet. The electrical tool box was already out, why not the “F” box as well?!

 

Amazingly, the Bloke was as calm as could be. He called for labels to be printed and photos to be taken to simplify exact restoration after everything had been taken to bits. Dismounting and dismantling the charger was revelatory. No wonder the bloomin’ thing was fusing all the time! What little brushes and such did we have to remove this gunk he asked? Plenty as it turned out and the best yet was the ‘Air Duster’ or can of compressed air.

 

Organisation required to conquer chaos

The before and after photos are the basis for great optimism. Fingers are crossed that we get to keep our ‘boat unit’ a while longer and the ‘F’ Box can stay holstered. We might have just outsmarted the ‘Smart Charger’. Now that’s truly winning!

Nothing like a blast of fresh air to clear things up