Good weather so thought I would go out.... Fail.

[tdonoughue]

Beautiful day here on Saturday, so I thought I would take the boat out for a spin. Got all packed up, went up and started to prep her. Turned on the electrical and the UHF came on and started beeping with a LOW BATTERY message. Problem was the charger was still plugged in. Even with a bad battery, that should not be. And the stereo came on. So while I was down there, I jiggled the wires on the house battery. The stereo crackled. A few more jiggles and the whole thing shut off. Loose connection, right?

Right. So I pulled off the offending wire (the one that goes to the switch) and behold, the crimp was not good, the wire loose, and I was able to pull it right out. Tried to bend the connector back, but had to give up on that and break out a new connector. Couldn't get enough clamping force with my pliers (it is a 1/0 wire), so borrowed a C-clamp to get it crimped enough at least to go out. Good. Put that back together (everything came to life again), but still got a LOW BATTERY alarm (with the charger still plugged in). So, what about the other side of that wire? If I had a bad crimp on one side, I may have a bad one on the other... Nope, that one seemed solid. What about the other side of the switch? Oops. Seemed loose. So I pulled the switch off the wall to get to the studs to redo that connection. Found:


Yep. Switch was in 2 parts. You can see in the photo the top part and the broken studs into which the screws holding the switch together fit. Looks like the broken switch was not then connecting the circuit well and causing low voltage. Oh, but the crimp I was after was fine... <sigh>

It is a Blue Sea switch (from the Add-a-Battery Kit). Looked for a new one and they were like $46, so I popped a note off to Blue Sea customer service to see if it is under warranty (they do mention a lifetime warranty on some stuff on their website). We will see what they say...

 

[VitaminSea]

Bummer, where you able to bypass the switch and get out for a cruise, or where you batteries too depleted to allow for that?

 

[tdonoughue]

I probably could have bypassed (moved the wires on one post to the other), but that didn't seem worth it (time and risk) for a little solo cruise. Had I been out and needing to get back, certainly would have done that in an instant. In this case, the captain declared the boat unseaworthy and went home to re-attack when proper parts could be obtained.

I also have a proper crimper on the way from Amazon, so I will fix it all right when I go back.

 

[tdonoughue]

Coda: wrote to Blue Sea yesterday. By 11:15 am today I have an email saying, yes, it is covered and asking my shipping address. I like Blue Sea.

 

[Beachbummer]

Bummer. Sorry to hear.

Two weekends ago my engine died unexpectedly soon after leaving the dock, and would not crank. Turns out the hatch switch broke apart. 15 minutes later a piece of foam and 2 tie wraps and the button was forced push. Resume. Same has happened twice with the kill switch. Made me think of electrical supplies I ought to have permanently on the boat.

It's all about how comfortable you are with the level of risk introduced by the "fix". If you made it home safe and unharmed, and boat is still floating, you made the right call. Direct wiring of the battery might have gotten you and outing, but if you are not comfortable with the level of mess/risk, you got it right. The alternative is a time machine, and we don't have those yet.

 

[zipper]

Glad they covered you. There was a manufacturing problem that they had a few years ago.

Blue Sea Battery Switch Failure - The Hull Truth - Boating and Fishing Forum

The Boating Forum - Blue Sea Battery Switch Failure - After loosing all power and propulsion 50 miles off the NC coast in a boat with only 60 hours on the clock I wanted to share the problem I ran into with the Blue Sea 6007 switch. after looking around the web I have found other folks have also...

www.thehulltruth.com

https://www.tidewaterowners.com/warning-blue-seas-m-series-switches-are-failing-t2255.html

You don't have to googl too far to find the switches falling apart.

 

[TimW451]

Bummer on the missed trip. Kudos to Blue Sea for bailing you out!