Fried Charger, no mains power.

[Deep Owl]

We are at Azay-le-Rideau. Early this morning, there was a power “outage” affecting our area of the site. Later, we tried switching on again and smoke came out of the battery charger; luckily we were still there or we might be contacting you from a hotel! An Englishman in a Carthago has also had his charger fried.

It turns out that there was an overcharge which the electrician hasn’t been able to fix yet.

I have unplugged the charger but in the past, when the Sargent green charger light is not on, I still have mains power but this time NO mains sockets are working. I’ve tried all the fuses which seem OK; what am I missing?

For anyone following my oil light saga, that is working! Our other problem of the last few days is that something must have landed from a tree and cracked the bottom of the overcab skylight, and rain seeped in last night!

 

[Figaro]

Your having an eventful trip

 

[GeoffnDee]

Could it be the Motorhome circuit breakers for the mains sockets that have tripped ?

 

[PeterCarole29]

Sorry you have had this problem You may do well to look for a surge protector to connect to the incoming mains

 

[PeterCarole29]

Someone no doubt could find the nearest place to you to get one

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[Pausim]

Your misfortune Deep Owl has me thinking that perhaps I should be fitting a protection device. I hope you can overcome your problems. I have known a breaker to trip without moving to the off position, all it took was pushing it to off and then back on to reset it.

 

[Deep Owl]

Well, deep breath! We tried a battery shop in Tours recommended by the site; they had similar chargers but not what I was looking for. They said try a big dealer 15 minutes away; they had nothing recommended a bigger dealer, they had nothing.
We realised that with no mains power, we would have to rely on the vagaries of driving and 100w solar for all 12v functions for the next 5 days, so…… We drove with one 5 minute stop, to Calais, got on the 21.24 shuttle, and arrived home in the West Midlands at 1am, only to wait 15 minutes for 1 of the 3 ambulances blocking our cul-de-sac to allow us past. My wife walked 20yards to our house and opened up before I parked!
In all, 570 miles in the day, €95 tolls and €130 shuttle extra cost, but we slept safe and sound in our own bed. And we can sort the charger at our leisure. On getting home, we found that the Qualcom 3-USB charger which was plugged in, had also been fried, so a serious overcharge!
The next question is, do we replace the 3-stage Sargent charger exactly as was or a different system with added surge protector?
In answer to comments about switches tripping, I assume that mains power enters the van from the blue socket through the charger, even if the charger is not set to charge, so as the charger smoked when plugged in and had to be unplugged, no mains power was passing into the van?

 

[Pausim]

In answer to comments about switches tripping, I assume that mains power enters the van from the blue socket through the charger, even if the charger is not set to charge, so as the charger smoked when plugged in and had to be unplugged, no mains power was passing into the van?

Between the blue socket and the charger there will be a consumer unit with breakers and RCD.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

I would have just connected a car battery charger from the incoming 240 volts on site to maintain the leisure batteries and carried on.

 

[Deep Owl]

Between the blue socket and the charger there will be a consumer unit with breakers and RCD.

Which is the Sargent EC450 consumer unit. Which didn’t stop the charger or USB charger getting fried!

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[Deep Owl]

I would have just connected a car battery charger from the incoming 240 volts on site to maintain the leisure batteries and carried on.

That is what I think the Battery shop was suggesting, but it’s really only a temporary solution, and a faff! His unit had a French 2-pin plug on it.

 

[Pausim]

Which is the Sargent EC450 consumer unit. Which didn’t stop the charger or USB charger getting fried!

Has the EC450 been fried?

You need something else to avoid surge, under voltage and over voltage damage. Perhaps.

91300000 | Sollatek, AVS30 Surge Suppressor Unit 230 V ac Maximum Voltage Rating 6.5kA Maximum Surge Current Over Voltage | RS

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