Wanna Go Swimming......
Anyone up for a swim in this marina......?? AC Shore power FAIL!!!!
In fresh water it takes approximately 0.1A or 100mA to kill a human being. Here we have AC leakage, going somewhere, most likely into the surrounding water. This is 19 times the lethal amount to kill a human in fresh water...... Ouch!!
Cooked Regulator
Notice the cracking of the epoxy potting material on this expensive regulator. This Balmar regulator was installed less than 3" from a very HOT engine manifold and literally cooked to death.
Common sense 101...?
Improper Lug Stacking Melt Down
This is a 350A Class T main battery fuse. It powered, among other things, a windlass and bow thruster.
Someone thought it was OK to install the smallest loaded wire and terminal on the BOTTOM and then stack the HIGH AMP loads on top of it.. This is a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD IDEA!!
DO NOT DO THIS!!!!
The highest amp loaded terminals/wires ALWAYS go on the bottom and smaller loads stacked in order on top to a max of FOUR TERMINALS PER STUD!
The bottom line here is that this almost started a boat fire. The fuse holder itself was physically MELTED.. Please remember that high resistance can start fires well before a fuse or breaker trips..
This fuse holder had FIVE wires on it with the heaviest load on top of the four smaller wires.... "DANGER WILL ROBINSON"....
Fuese Holder Melt
This is what was left of the fuse holder from above. Full MELT! The owner was very lucky this was caught in time. Keep a sharp lookout and keen eyes for FAIL......
Wire Nut Melt
There is a good reason wire nuts are verboten on boats...
This is one of those reason. The wire jackets entering this wing nut are both MELTED from high resistance...
Wire nuts on boats = M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, come on sing along,,,,,,,,,,,
Of course we can't forget the sight for sore eyes in the back ground. Four 1GA battery cables were tied together with electrical tape and a 10X24 machine screw with no locking washer. You guessed it, they were also loose....
DUMB !!!!!
Please, Please, Please DO NOT use a 150W inverter in a 12V outlet!!!
When I boarded this boat the smell of burning electrical and melting plastic was awful. It led me to this melted 150W inverter charging a 17" laptop computer.......
The 12V outlet was rigged with 16GA wire and NO FUSE.......
I see melted inverters like this more regularly than you care to know about.
Inverters have NO PLACE being plugged into a 12V outlet on a boat!!!!!!!!!!!!! Darwin Award dumb....
A DC Leak
This is why open crimp terminals should not be used in the bilge area!
A proper heat shrink butt splice or more properly routing the wires higher than the cabin sole, would have prevented the thousands of dollars in corrosion damage this 12V DC leak caused. Doh'.....
Solder Fracture FAIL
This wire was in a bilge and soldered into a bilge pump system. It fractured at the solder / wire juncture and fed live DC power into the bilge water. The owner noticed the boat sitting low and about to sink....... If you don't know how to solder, DON'T....!
A HUGE Reapir Bill $$$$$$$
And this is one of the seacocks destroyed by the failed solder joint above.... Cha-ching $$$..
If you don't know how to solder, DON'T !!
If You Can't Solder Then Please DON'T!!
Another solder FAIL.... If you look close you can actually see the terminal that broke off......
Solder Embrittlement
This wire was also starting to fail at the solder / terminal junction...
We Don't Crimp Solid Wire......
#1 Please don't use solid copper wire on boats.
#2 Please don't crimp to solid conductor wire!
#3 This is what a high resistance melt down looks like due to crimping solid conductor wire....
