Where is Your Shore Power Charger Located.

[alenka]

I am looking to replace the simple, Jeanneau supplied, shore power charger with something a bit more sophisticated.

The current one is housed under the port seat in the aft cabin.  

1) I am not sure if this was the standard fit point on the 43DS?

2) I am not sure the space is big enough for some of the more sophisticated inverter/chargers such as the Victron??

I know a few 43DS owners have already gone through a similar re-fit.  So I am looking for suggestions as to where a larger box might go without taking up wardrobe space.  

All suggestions welcome, including those regarding make and model of an inverter/charger capable of delivering 2kw to the 230v circuit.

Thanks in advance.

[mickmeck]

I also have the Jeanneau supplied charger in the aft cabin port side under the seat. The previous owner also installed a 2500 Charger Inverter under the sink. They had to remove the trash can to make it fit but it seems to work fine there. 

[alenka]

Thanks.

I had not thought of that... Particularly as it is under a potential water source; And I have earmarked the area for a washing machine.
Boat design these days does not leave an awful lot of room to play with!

[zaphod]

May 31, 2021 16:21:43 GMT alenka said:

Thanks.

I had not thought of that... Particularly as it is under a potential water source; And I have earmarked the area for a washing machine.
Boat design these days does not leave an awful lot of room to play with!

The fact that you are even contemplating a washing machine on a 43ft boat tells be that modern boat design provides lots of room! Go look at a similar size boat from the '80s and tell me where you would put a washing machine!

I think an inverter under the sink is a terrible idea! Water leaks happen sooner or later. Electrical systems should never share a space with water systems!

[mickmeck]

May 31, 2021 17:06:05 GMT zaphod said:

May 31, 2021 16:21:43 GMT alenka said:

Thanks.

I had not thought of that... Particularly as it is under a potential water source; And I have earmarked the area for a washing machine.
Boat design these days does not leave an awful lot of room to play with!

The fact that you are even contemplating a washing machine on a 43ft boat tells be that modern boat design provides lots of room! Go look at a similar size boat from the '80s and tell me where you would put a washing machine!

I think an inverter under the sink is a terrible idea! Water leaks happen sooner or later. Electrical systems should never share a space with water systems!

I can't agree more. That was my first thought but it is there and when I replace it I will be installing it somewhere else. Until then, I am very focused on water leaks. 

[zaphod]

May 31, 2021 17:48:46 GMT mickmeck said:

May 31, 2021 17:06:05 GMT zaphod said:

The fact that you are even contemplating a washing machine on a 43ft boat tells be that modern boat design provides lots of room! Go look at a similar size boat from the '80s and tell me where you would put a washing machine!

I think an inverter under the sink is a terrible idea! Water leaks happen sooner or later. Electrical systems should never share a space with water systems!

I can't agree more. That was my first thought but it is there and when I replace it I will be installing it somewhere else. Until then, I am very focused on water leaks. 

It wouldn't hurt to devise some kind of drip shield to protect any openings in the inverter enclosure if you can do so without disrupting cooling air flow.

[rxc]

I have replaced my battery charger twice(!), and both replacements fit into the original spot on the port side. THey are simple devices - just a charger with all the normal programming capability for different types of batteries, only 40 amps capability. I have contemplated what would be required to transition to LiPO4 batteries, and decided I am too old to do that again. My inverter is under the aft berth.

The only real issue is cooling, because that small space can get pretty hot. I once tried to mount a small vent fan there, but it collected too much cat fur, so now I just open it up when we are in a marina or at home, and let it ventilate freely.

[alenka]

Hi RXC,

I a trying to keep both both functions in one unit and that seems to push the size up quite considerably, although I believe Victron now make a compact unit and I have just come across Axantra (think that's the name) but never seen their products on sale over here.

My current unit has a fan built in and I added a second vent because all that was doing was circulating hot air around the enclosure.  It helps but still requires opening up fully for time to time otherwise it never cools down.

[andreshs1]

Hi there

I also have the same setup on the port side.

that being said, my plan is to mount it in the saloon, portside bench after the chart table, after the port side chain plate attachment

That cabinet is not very deep, yet, there is hips of space behind, thus, just remove the back of the cabinet under that seat, attached a photo I came across sometime ago that gave me the idea



BTW, that same cabinet can be extended downwards by removing the false floor


Cheers

[alenka]

Thanks for the photo.  I had thought about that area (once came across a 43DS with a Genset fitted into that space) but thought the cable runs might be a bit on the long side.

I am thinking of four AGM's for the house bank, moving the starter battery to under the floor just forward of the engine.

I was aiming for 2000 w continuous load from the inverter with power boost to supplement for shore power if required. That should cover the microwave, toaster and hairdryer (not all at once). It might even let me have a few minutes of Aircon which I seem to remember requires 750w but has a high start up load.

If I can find a model that fits there is still the problem of buying it in Greece. Shipping from the UK is not an option post Brexit as Greek customs will take around 10 weeks to release it and charge a massive amount of import duty.  

Has anyone experience of German on-line chandlers?

[rxc]

I used to have a Xantrex Freedom combined battery charger and inverter in my old boat, and I would have installed one in my 43DS, if I could have found a place to make it fit back in 2007, when I was fitting out for cruising. After 14 years of poking around the boat, I think it could have fit where I installed the inverter - upside down under the aft bunk. You can cut holes in the storage bins under the bunks, and there is a lot of empty space there. Routing wiring for something like the Freedom would be great, because it senses whether there is shore power, and automatically switches the inverter on when shorepower goes away.

Mounting something upside down on a panel is not something one thinks about, but I also have my SSB head unit mounted upside down in the storage compartment aft of the chart table. It has no problem in this orientation, and I have filled the rest of the space with spare equipment and parts for projects on my "to-do" list.

[rxc]

I just found the photo of my aft cabin, opened up for the battery replacement project this past winter.



You can see the four golf cart batteries in the boxes provided by Jeanneau. The engine starting battery is in a cutout on the stbd side. The genset starting battery is out of the cutout on the port side.

There is an inverter mounted upside down on the port side, outboard of the genset battery. Look for the cordless drill and you might be able to see the bolts. The installer for my genset cut the first hole, for the genset battery, which gave me the idea to move the main engine starting battery to the stbd side. I think I was able to re-purpose all of the original battery wiring, and only had to make up a few small cables to finish the wiring. I think there may be enough room under those panels to install a battery charger/inverter unit, if it does not need a lot of ventilation. That may be the limiting factor. I don't use the inverter very much, and have a ventilation fan running when the battery voltage is over 13.4v.

This was a major effort, because there was a lot of battery acid rot to the structure of the battery boxes. I had to cut out quite a bit and fabricate replacement pieces that were glassed in place. I originally thought about lining the interior of the boxes completely with epoxy, to combat the acid coming off the batteries, but if I had, they would likely not have fit the boxes.

Rebuilding all of this to accomodate LiFEPO4, rewiring, and redesigning the system to handle multiple chemistries is why I have not converted. Flooded lead acid works well enough for me. I replace the golf carts every 7 years, the genset, bow thruster and main engine batteries every 4 years.

[rxc]

It is amazing what happens when you look at a photo like this and think about it. It would be pretty easy to move the main engine starting battery to one of those little storage holes that are currently used for battery water bottles. Or I could add two more golf cart batteries.

Oh, the things you think up once you get over your fear of cutting things apart.

[alenka]

Thanks RXC,

The photo and your comments give a lot of food for thought.  I tend to use the storage under the bunk so the idea of an up-side-down inverter might not work for me, but utilising the battery water storage area for the start battery could be a good solution rather than building a cradle under the floor.  

With Covid restrictions I cannot even get to the boat to measure up the space available under the seat so buying a new unit is proving a pain.

The existing batteries have not taken well to two years of minimal use. I asked the yard to take them out and check them in the shop last September... They left it until last week!  And yep they are fit for nothing, which leaves me with not much time to sort things if we do get on the water later this month.

Really appreciate your comments, photos and suggestions.

[saltymetals]

My original fitment shore charger (Cristal) gave up the ghost at about 14 yrs so i replaced it with a Victron Centaur 40A. This is perfectly sufficient to charge my 4 x 110Ah domestic on the first circuit and my 1 x 80Ah (engine) and 2 x 50Ah (bowthruster) on the second circuit. It never has to work very hard because i have 300W solar and 400W windgen. If there was a big problem to re-charge quickly there is always the 80A alternator on the engine.

This Victron model will charge two circuits and has the usual 3-step charging procedure. It has a built-in fan but was a bit larger than the Cristec charger which had failed so would not fit through the existing hole on the top. I increased the cutout on the side, slid the Victron unit in through the enlarged slot and then covered the slot with brass vent panels. pls see photo (if i can figure out how to attach it to this message).

I use the wide storage slot under the aft berth to store my aft cabin dividers when not in use so i have to leave this space clear. When I increased the domestic batteries from 3 x 110Ah to 4x 110Ah i put the extra one in the space where the engine battery had been so all 4 of the domestic now fill the originally designed space for the batteries. A 110Ah battery is not necessary for the Yanmar 4JH3-TE and a 80Ah battery is perfectly sufficient. I placed this in the space under the saloon floor just outside the door into the head. Just a little extra heavy duty wiring and a battery box was needed. 

If you are thinking of a 2000W inverter i would love to know what you decide upon since my preference would be for a pure sine wave Victron model.  Eventually my plan is to add a Daewoo Mini washing machine under the sink but before doing that i want to convert the empty space under the saloon table to slide-out storage drawers. Somewhere on this forum you will find a thread about this and how a previous owner achieved it.
Best of luck
Andrew    



 

[alenka]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the insight and the photo. I forwarded the one supplied by RXC to IBA and suggested we put the starter battery into the spot forward of the battery bank on the Std side. I only used to keep distilled water in there and with sealed batteries it was no longer necessary.

I will send your picture to IBA too.  

Not being able to get to the boat I cannot measure up the space available which is very frustrating; As is the lack of response from Greek chandlers in Athens who never bother to reply to emails.... Par for the course as you will have found.

I am hoping the Victron compact charger/inverter will fit.  Being one unit it should be clever enough to work out that it shouldn't try and charge the batteries when AC is being supplied through the inverter. A problem others have warned me about.

We have about the same amount of solar but no windgen on FG.  

I also want to put a compact washing machine under the sink. Candy used to make a mini one but will check out the Daewoo which I have not come across.

Thanks for your input.

Brett

[wheelsucker]

Thanks to Ralph and Andrew for the pictures.  Similar to Brett, at some point we need to install a compact charger/inverter somewhere so definitely interested in the discussion.

Regards,

Brian

[zaphod]

Jun 1, 2021 7:31:40 GMT alenka said:

Hi RXC,

I a trying to keep both both functions in one unit and that seems to push the size up quite considerably, although I believe Victron now make a compact unit and I have just come across Axantra (think that's the name) but never seen their products on sale over here.

My current unit has a fan built in and I added a second vent because all that was doing was circulating hot air around the enclosure.  It helps but still requires opening up fully for time to time otherwise it never cools down.

I installed a Xantrex Freedom XC Pro Inverter/charger, and I am very happy with it so far. 2000w inverter and 100a charger that fits in the same spot the factory charger was located.

[rxc]

I bet that zantrex would fit in the spot where I have my inverter. In 2007, they were much larger. That is a great spot for them, because the 12v wiring run between the xantrex and the batteries will be very short. Only issue would be ventilation.

[zaphod]

Jun 9, 2021 20:01:35 GMT rxc said:

I bet that zantrex would fit in the spot where I have my inverter. In 2007, they were much larger. That is a great spot for them, because the 12v wiring run between the xantrex and the batteries will be very short. Only issue would be ventilation.

The spot where mine is does have some ventilation in the form of slits cut into the face of the battery switch panel but it is still fairly enclosed. I guess it all depends on how heavily you use the inverter at high power. The unit doesn't generate much heat most of the time, but it is something to keep an eye on.

[alenka]

Xantrex do make a model specifically for the European market but as you might expect there is no distributor in Greece.  Now that sending goods from the UK to Greece takes weeks if not months and incurs high import duties I would now normally look for a supplier in Germany.

The German address turns out to be a very small village south of Dussledorf. It doesn't seem right and street view doesn't cover this area. 

Anyone had any luck buying Xantrex in Germany??

[zaphod]

Jun 10, 2021 15:49:18 GMT alenka said:

Xantrex do make a model specifically for the European market but as you might expect there is no distributor in Greece.  Now that sending goods from the UK to Greece takes weeks if not months and incurs high import duties I would now normally look for a supplier in Germany.

The German address turns out to be a very small village south of Dussledorf. It doesn't seem right and street view doesn't cover this area. 

Anyone had any luck buying Xantrex in Germany??

Xantrex is now owned by Schneider Electric which is a global industrial electrical company so I would be surprised if you couldn't get their products just about anywhere in the world.

[reiner]

I have a Victron centaur 12/60 charger in this port side locker which fits well and works without problem.
My only problem is that the Victron charger and my Paguro 6000 genset dont fit well.
The generator even with his 6kW stops from  time to time but only with the charger.
I believe that this inverter technology is producing somtimes short high current peaks
which is not okay for the generator.