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Distractions and batteries dont mix.


Binder

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Not being able to go fishing this weekend,I thought I would start the process of swapping over to my 24volts motors.

Got the old batteries out, got the new batteries in, was just in the process of swapping the Anderson plug on the 24 volt circuit from grey to red,so I cant mix up the 12 and 24 volt battery banks. Looked at my watch,crap,10 minutes past when I was supposed to wake the missus up for her afternoon shift! Damn, raced upstairs,luckily she was already in the shower,started cooking her a feed.

Anyway, got her safely off to work without being late,wandered back down to the shed to get on with the job. thought where was I ? ,looking in to the boat. oh yeah,ready to bolt up the earth on the 24 volt and I'm ready to go.

Well I wasn't. I had not put the new red plug on the cable had I.

Bolted the earth cable to the battery got up to go to the other end of the boat and all hell broke loose, was like looking in to the sun. Violent flash of light, looked down, the two bare ends of the cable were welded together, Grabbed a screw driver and ripped them apart.

Very carefully wrapped a rag around one of the wires and carefully unbolted the battery.

Long story short, the 50 amp automatic fuse was dead, the Anderson plug contacts were ruined, and I was one very lucky individual that I had not exploded the batteries. Probably only thing that saved me is they had not been on charge for a few hours.

This is what happens with 140 amps at 24 volts dead shorts

post-11051-144599079818_thumb.jpg

compared to two good contacts

post-11051-144599079826_thumb.jpg

The fuse saved me,it is a bimetalic one that is supposed to heat up and curl up so it opens the circuit when it shorts, then close when it cools down. Didn't quite work that way,it just instantly blew a hole through the bimetalic strip.

Very lucky to get out of this for the price of a $10 fuse and a set of contacts.

I've always run fuses on my electric motors circuits, very glad of it today!

post-11051-144599079832_thumb.jpg

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Very lucky, there was potential for a worse outcome.

A good warning to always run fuses or breakers on electric motors even if you think 12v is low voltage, it can easily cause a fire in the boat.

I would have rathered the wife was a few minutes late. :evil:

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