Fuse Panel in 26M Can't Get to the Fuses!

[BOAT]

How do you remove the fuses from the electric panel??? (I have the little seadog panel with 5 fuses) There is a little red button on each that says FUSE and I push on that but I can't get it to open.

[Tomfoolery]

There's a very small slot in the side of that square fuse holder (the black base part). Push a pin in there against the wire spring lock, and it should pop out.

[BOAT]

Thanks Captain tkansler. My eyes are not so good and the sun was setting but I did notice that slot. I will go out in the sun today and put a pin in it.

Thank You Greatly!

[Tomfoolery]

Figured I might as well share, as it was hard learned on my part. Squinting at it in dim light with older eyes and no glasses, don't you know.

[BOAT]

Yeah, I was running for a little bit in WOT yesterday and I guess the batteries got too full they blew the fuse on the cabin lights. I had all of them on at the same time (they are the old incandecent you know) and they suck a ton of electrons and with both batteries on fully charged, well - after about 3 minutes of bright light in the cabin everything went dark.

That ETEC 60 has a monster altrernator. I probably should get bigger batteries or just switch to one monster battery.

[Hamin' X]

There are only two things that will blow fuses: Too much current draw, or over-voltage. The latter is a problem with the engine voltage regulator/alternator and will usually burn out incandescent bulbs, before blowing the fuse. The former is a problem with the circuit. A full battery does not enter into the equation. Check for short circuit, possibly intermittent, that might have been brought on by hull shock when motoring at WOT.

~Rich

[Tomfoolery]

And don't assume the fuse that's in there now is the right one. It might be undersized for the load. Or overvoltage is causing overcurrent in that circuit, since it's purely resistive (as incandescent bulbs essentially are), again with either bulbs that draw too much, or a fuse that's too 'small'. Someone may have stuck one in that they had handy, and not necessarily the right one for the load and the wiring.

[Crikey]

With the Etek 60, I think you can monitor the voltage output on the built-in NMEA2000 interface, if you're using it on the right gauge. Otherwise a dealer checkout on the alternator system.

[BOAT]

There have been no troubles at all burning all cabin lights for hours on end until after my little excursion on Sunday. We have been in sea trials for a few weeks here with "boat" and we got a high wind warning from Santa Ana winds and they said the strongest wind would be Sunday so that's when we put out to test the rigging under heavier conditions. We ran the motor WOT also in the swells with full ballast to check the pounding. It was much smoother in the rough water than I expected. (Rough water is kinda rare over here but I still wanted a test).

Came home and while in the driveway at night the lights went out about 2 minutes after I turned them on. (Strange).

Here is a link to the Seadog manufacture panel instructions with part numbers and fuse instructions ect . . .for our future reference:

http://assets.seattlepub.com:8020/Super ... hSheets/20

[Russ]

There are only two things that will blow fuses: Too much current draw, or over-voltage. The latter is a problem with the engine voltage regulator/alternator and will usually burn out incandescent bulbs, before blowing the fuse. The former is a problem with the circuit. A full battery does not enter into the equation. Check for short circuit, possibly intermittent, that might have been brought on by hull shock when motoring at WOT.

~Rich

What Rich said.

Fuse blowing means something is wrong. Unless it was simply a defective fuse. Fully charged batts don't have anything to do with it.
The factory bulbs need to be replaced. They use WAY too much power and get hot. As he said, extreme voltage will probably blow bulbs before fuses. I bought a cheap 12v digital voltmeter that plugs into the 12v socket.

That cheap Seadog panel Roger installs is also junk (keeps boat cost down). As you learned, the simple task of changing the fuse requires a tool like a paper clip and hopefully you don't lose something or break the holder replacing it.

Yea, I'm with Rich on this one. I'd keep a watch to see if you have some other issues. Vibration causes lots of wiring problems. Hopefully just a fluke and you will be fine.

--Russ

[BOAT]

After the WOT run Sunday I noticed the lights were really brighter than I have ever seen them.

My first comment on this site after bringing the boat home was about wires laying on the bilge floor under the aft berth. First maod I did to the boat was install a loom under the middle spline in the aft berth liner to run all the wires. They are up and out of reach from any water now in case of a leak.

In my opinion ALL the wiring in the boat is kinda crappy, not just the panel - but that's not a big deal to me because I will be replacing most of the wiring anyways. I want to put in a better panel and when I do that I will re-run a lot of the wires.

The blown fuse was 5 amps, those lamps are crazy power hungry. I don't need heaters, just lamps.

I put in a 7 amp fuse, tested it for about 30 minutes and everything was fine and that's about it - it's probably fixed for now - but in the future I expect more trouble. I need to be able to bang the boat around HARD without electrical problems. I suspect I will be upgrading the entire electrical system. An erosion short is a real problem in a car but a fiberglass boat? (HA! just try to get a short to ground! WHAT ground!?) Seems unlikly. A dead short line to line will eventually blow the main fuse as I increase the size of the panel fuse so that will show itself soon enough if the fuse fails anymore.

I will be changing to LED soon enough and replacing electrical 'stuff' too. I NEED to be able to hit the water HARD without problems. The rigging held up well, (although that forstay really does bow pretty good with full genoa over 24 mile per hour winds. I think I shall reef it (furl) over 19 knots (but I did put up the "secondary forestay" that everyone suggested. The hull feels 'pretty good' (better than expected). Pretty stiff for such a light hull. I was surprized how well it takes the heavy sea's, (if you can call them that over here).

This was our first Santa Ana high wind warning for 2013 so it was my only chance to try heavy winds. Wew don't get them every day like you guys on the east coast. (where the sailors are manly men).

[Russ]

After the WOT run Sunday I noticed the lights were really brighter than I have ever seen them.

That would concern me. Like I said, a simple digital voltmeter might show an issue with overcharging by the alternator which will damage lots of stuff if that's happening. If the fuse was only 5 amps, it may have simply been too small.

In my opinion ALL the wiring in the boat is kinda crappy, not just the panel - but that's not a big deal to me because I will be replacing most of the wiring anyways. I want to put in a better panel and when I do that I will re-run a lot of the wires.

LEDs are great. After replacing all my lights with LEDs I found the cheap pilot light on the panel used more power than the fixtures.

--Russ

[BOAT]

Yup, the panel sucks too - those lights on the panel are silly. The exposed buss in the back is really a great thing if you swamp your boat or get any water under the liner (NOT!).

I would like to have a 2500 bilg pump on board so you think I will trust the factory wiring? (no).

I will be pulling new wires. But first I need to find the right panel. Did you replace the entire fixtures in Luna Azul Captain Russ or just replace the bulbs??

[Baerkanu]

The blown fuse was 5 amps, those lamps are crazy power hungry. I don't need heaters, just lamps.

I put in a 7 amp fuse, tested it for about 30 minutes and everything was fine and that's about it - it's probably fixed for now - but in the future I expect more trouble.

FWIW, when I picked up our 2013 in Sept from Blue Water Yachts, Cheryl mentioned that having all of the interior lights on commonly blew the fuse. She said Todd routinely puts a bigger fuse in on delivery. Honestly I haven't delved into the electrical system on the boat yet, so don't know if he changes it from a 5 to 7 amp or what, but it may be the same (and apparently common) problem that Cheryl mentioned.

- Clay

[RobertB]

Yup, the panel sucks too - those lights on the panel are silly. The exposed buss in the back is really a great thing if you swamp your boat or get any water under the liner (NOT!).

I would like to have a 2500 bilg pump on board so you think I will trust the factory wiring? (no).

I will be pulling new wires. But first I need to find the right panel. Did you replace the entire fixtures in Luna Azul Captain Russ or just replace the bulbs??

I would not run the bilge pump off the main panel (or any panel). If/when I install a bilge pump, I intend to connect it directly close to the batteries, possibly off the battery selector switch, with it's own fuse and switch. Reason, this is a last ditch safety item and should not be controlled where it can be inadvertantly turned off and at a distance from the batteries where more paths of failure exist.