on board charger?

[keyks42]

How long of life should you get out of a 12 volt on board charger? If I get a new one should I get 12 or 24 volt? My charger was brand new when I bought the boat in 2003. Any help would be great

Mark

[YUM]

I dont know about the life span, but from my understanding the difference between a '12v' and '24v' charger is just the number of banks the charger has (the number of leads). So if you wanted to charge 1 battery get a '12v' (single bank), want to charge 2 batteries get a '24v' (two bank) etc...

Is your charger no longer working?

[keyks42]

Yum

My charger isn't working. I went to plug it in and have no power.

[YUM]

I would be pretty happy to get 5 years out of an onboard charger. But if your going to get a new one just figure out how many batteries to need to charge and get an equivelent number of banks... hope this helps?

[ricqik]

If you have 2 batteries, get a 2 bank 12v onboard charger. As far as life expectancy of the onboard charger, I don't know. I've seen some still going strong after 8yrs and some gives out in 2yrs, regardless of brand. My 4 bank is 4yrs and still ticking.

[firebug]

If your in the market for a new charger MinnKota has some great chargers. Alot of them now have rebates on them. They come with a 3yr. warranty. Before I go buy a new charger just do a simple test on your charger. Take a volt meter and test to see if there 12volts coming out. If you do your chargers ok but if not your batteries could be bad.

[Norsky]

I currently have the same problem. I bought a Guest charger (2613) 3 bank-- in 2003, it won't charge at the full stage anymore. I've drawn down the batteries a couple times and when I plug the charger in, it only has the green light on, indicating a trickle charge and the battery being almost fully charged, which it is not. I hope I haven't ruined the batteries I just bought last fall by not having them fully charged through the winter. I think I'll go get a Minn Kota charger. I saw the rebate, any place in the metro cheaper than others? I saw the MK 315 for about 169.00

[montanagriz]

I have a very similar problem. I have a 24v Guest charger that was new on my boat when I bought it in 2005. Worked fine for a season, but then about half way through the year, I would run my batteries down after a day of fishing, plug in the charger and both the red "charging" and green "ready" light would be lit at the same time. I double checked the connections and everything was rigged properly, but the batteries were not getting charged. Any ideas if this is a fixable problem or is it time for a new charger? Also, is MinnKota the way to go if I get a new one? Appreciate the input guys.

[Norsky]

The red light should be on when the unit is fully charging a discharged battery at max capacity, the red and green lights are on as it becomes nearly fully recharged, and then only the green light should be on as a trickle charge that won't overcharge the battery. That's the way mine used to work. I'm going to have everything checked out tomorrow.

[EBass]

I have a minnkota dual bank on my 3rd year and no issues. I did bite the bullet and picked up 2 Optima's though. I should be set.

[canon]

What is the difference in chargers? I only charge my 1 trolling battery, so I went to fleet and picked up a simple charger from the automotive section, it charges at 1.5 amps and costs $20.00. It has two cabels going to the terminals and has a short plug that I attach to an extension chord. I don't know much about the on board cahrgers. Is the only difference that I can only charge 1 battery? Are the larger and more expensive ones for multiple batteries?

[MuskieJunkie]

 Originally Posted By: EBass

I did bite the bullet and picked up 2 Optima's though. I should be set.

I just plugged in my Guest onbaord charger for the first time since October and my Optima battery was showing the red and green light, so it was at least 90% charged. I was impressed.

[Norsky]

Most of the on board chargers are fairly expensive since they can charge 2 or 3 batteries (or more) at a time. Usually at least 5 amps designated to each bank. They are vibration resistant and waterproof also, further adding to their expense. I ended up buying a minn kota MK210, 2 bank charger, since my motor charges up the cranking battery just fine. After I installed it, I found out the serial number is on the bottom, you evidently need that to fill out the rebate form. So, now I have to uninstall the whole works and reinstall it after I get the serial number (it's not on the box).