Two Battery Tender Jr's bit the dirt

[Hoople]

Humm, maybe the downstream electronics lived through whatever happened. I still would probably go with the "trade in" idea for $7.50. That is pretty fair.

As far as your surge protection question, I have something better. Go to Mouser Electronics and purchase part # 594-2381-595-51416 @ .95 cents/each. This is the business end of most surge protectors you find in the stores. You will need 3 of them for each charger you want to protect because your going to do it better. (they usually install only 1) Install them inside the device you want to protect.

The line cord has 3 wires. A Phase, a Neutral and a Ground wire. Keeping the leads as short as possible, install all three MOV's where the line cord makes contact to the circuit board or terminal strip. Solder 1 MOV from Phase to Neutral,,, solder 1 from Phase to Ground and solder 1 from Neutral to ground. These MOV's will clamp a pretty healthy spike and as long as the utility pole transformer on the corner doesn't take a direct hit, you should be ok.

And there you have it. A $3 surge protector.

 

[kc5gxc]

I appreciate the surge advice and have saved it. I have one of the chargers going again. Used a transformer...120VAC to 16VAC...a doorbell transformer from Ace Hdwe. $9.50 total. Charger is a Frankenstien now...ha ha...I will put it all together in a box. It does work normally as I tested it. Cheaper than paying the shipping, etc....but looks really stupid...haw. I will get an input surge protector fixed up. On the transformer package it says "do not install in attic"....guess this means it's too hot for transformer. Well, in my shed where I was using the chargers, it has been 100 plus degrees routinely. Maybe these chargers just can't take all the heat ? Anyways, I won't leave them on all the time anymore.
Thanks for the help.............Pete

 

[Wayne R]

Have you noticed any issues with lights dimming in your home from time to time, can't say why two tenders would blow out at same time but a voltge spike is suspicious, if you were to have a loose nuetral in your home elecrical system either in your main line or at the point of attachment, this can cause spikes, and can do damage to other electronics and or equipment in your home, just a suggestion to check out.

 

[kc5gxc]

Wayne: I have noticed the dimming lites in this shed. Has been this way for a long time and I cannot find out why. Happens noticibly when I run the weed blower to blow the floor....will dim the lights and then correct itself. Blower will change tune. I have a freezer, fridge and another charger for my drill running and no problems noticed with them. These chargers have been running off and on for quite a few months.
I will check that neutral....have changed what I thought was a bad breaker, but was not.
Thanks, Pete

 

[Hoople]

Did not know it was a remote shed until now. That puts a whole different light on the problem. That would explain the entire cause & effect of blowing both tenders at once.

Since it is a remote shed, check that the Phase & Neutral on the wall outlet are not reversed. Don't just go by the color of the wires & color of receptacle screws. Use a meter. Bet you find either phase & neutral are reversed or ground is floating. That would give you no surge protection even if you would have a surge protector installed.

 

[Bodeen]

Lightning? Or if your power company is anything like Florida, Flash and Flicker, they could have caused it. Seems though you would have had more loss than just the tenders. Maybe the circuit is overloaded causing them to pull a higher than normal amperage. If you have a long run of smallish wire and too much plugged in. It would cause a low voltage thus the amperage increase.

Calling Hoople :small3d028:

Bodeen

Goes back to what I said here. If you have a long run with small wire and lots of load (sounds like you do) then you have a large loss due to the length of the run.
I just received the Battery Tender Junior that I ordered and in the instructions it goes in great detail how long of and extension cord you should use and the awg size of the wire. I bet you have an improperly sized service for your amount of load.

Bodeen

 

[Wayne R]

Pete, you can easily check the polarity by buying a receptacle tester Harbour freight sells these for $5.00 it will show by indicator lights if your receptacle is properly wired simply by plugging it into the receptacle , Home Depot sells one made by Commercial Electric for $8.00 or a electrical supply house sells an IDEAL tester for between $20 and $25.00 I have found the cheaper testers work fine or you can take the receptacle out and check by meter as Hoople said, although reverse polarity will not have much of an effect on these chargers and certainly will not fry them, the first thing i would do is change the receptacle and the light switch in the shed and check that the splices in the box are good I don't know how far your shed is away from the panel or your house or if you have a sub panel in your shed, However without doing the math rule of thumb is for every 200 feet from the source the line experiences a voltage drop, generally the wire size is increased by one size to accomodate for this and there is an equation and a formula for figuring this out, however I don't think that's your problem, these chargers consume very little power, generally when people experience a loose nuetral situation in their home the first place it becomes noticeable is in their lights they will dim and re brighten either throughout the house or sometimes more noticeable in one lighting circuit than another pending what phase is unbalanced, if the situation only exists at the shed then somewhere between the panel and the shed there"s probaly a loose connection. If your shed is on it's own circuit then it would either be at the panel or at the shed, if it's on with another circuit then it may take a little investigating, should you determine you may have a whole house problem and not to scare you but have it checked out as I said before a loose nuetral at the point of attachment and or main can do damage to electronics and appliances and possibly cause a fire

 

[glider]

I have the AW Sperry unit for about $10 in Home Depot that tests the polarity of a receptacle. Well worth the price to test all the outlets in the house. Very easy to use.

 

[kc5gxc]

Wow....lots of good info...my shed has it's own meter..but the wiring is all patched together as part of it was torn down to repair. I will check the polarity...got a meter. The bad connection on the neutral is what I bet it is. It's the worse kind of problem...intermittant...ha ha. I got good grounds on pole at the meter and the shed. I got circuit breakers....believe all is safe just need to find where that loose connection is. Too hot to mess with it today....runs about 100 deg in there and keeps the bike warmed up and ready to go.
Thanks and when I do find what's wrong, I will post it. May take awhile, tho.
Pete

 

[dbmg]

This maybe off the wall but... with my house i was having a on going dimming light concern to the point like the power was going out in a storm. Then at times lights would get so bright it seemed they were going to blow. I was always changing light bulbs in the house. Finally had enough called power company came out and where the power feed from the pole to wire to house they found the couplers on both wires were burnt and deteriorated. They hooked a meter on and tested both connections and house was loosing ground. Power company replaced both buckles at house and I have had no more problems since and its going on a year now. And no more replacing light bulbs all the time.