Wiring for a guest battery charger

[John F.]

Crows Nest came with a Guest intelligent charger that has been fine for years. I'm going through some of the wiring. The battery charger has a regular 3-prong plug on it, and Crows Nest is wired with a regular household outlet--not a GFCI--from Lowe's that the 3-prong battery charger cord plugs in to. This doesn't strike me as real safe. The outlet was corroded and is out of the boat. I was thinking of cutting the plug off of the charger cord, and splicing (with connectors and solder) the cord into the wire that used to feed the outlet. Does this make sense? Or should I just reinstall a GFCI outlet.

John
(electric stuff scares me)

[Tooeez]

I just installed an intelligent charger a few months ago, and I think I know why you have a three prong plug. The installation instructions state in no uncertain terms that if you cut the plug off the warranty is void. I had every intention of cutting off that plug and hard wiring the unit, but with my luck I would have had the one in a thousand bad unit that would have to be returned, so I installed an outlet to plug it into. (of course, since I didn't cut the plug off there was no problems with the unit) If it's out of warranty I think hard wiring is the way to go.

[Pete Fallon]

JohnF,
It's not very hard to upgrades your inlet for the 110V system. Most of the old inlet wiring are toast after 30 years, the inner jacket on the 3 conductor cable is dried out and needs to be replaced with new Marine Grade Boat Cable. The wire is just under 6' from where the original inlet is to the first 110 volt outlet where the battery charger is located under the aft dinette seat to the outlet that way you don't have to cut the plug off the charger(which voids the warranty). I have been preaching for years about the old 3 conductor black cable that feeds the rest of the 110 volt outlets in the 31's. All the 31's tha6 I have surveyed the old wire insulation is dried out and cracked and needs to be replaced before you have a fire on your boat. ABYC standards recommend that a breaker be installed in the 110 volt shore power from the inlet to the first outlet if it is over 72"some of the newer inlet plugs have breakers built into the new inlet outlets ABYC also states that GFIC outlets be installed at all wet areas, in our boats that's one in the head and one in the galley area. I have also seen some owners putting a regular 110 V duplex outlet in the starboard engine box, which could cause a spark which could lead to a fire especially in gas boats. If I were you I'd rewire the entire 110 v wiring bring it up to new standards It's not that hard to do and if you don't want to do it your self there's lots of qualified marine electricians out there.
Pete Fallon

[John F.]

Pete/Tooeez

The boat was rewired two owners ago. The wires are in great shape. So, I guess what I will do is put a new gfci outlet in and plug in to that. Sound ok?

John

[Pete Fallon]

John F,
Sounds good to me, as long as there's a breaker in the shore power line between the 110 inlet plug and the GFIC receptacle.
Pete Fallon