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Author Topic: Marcum (Charging Issue)  (Read 1474 times)

Offline Sir ION

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Marcum (Charging Issue)
« on: Feb 14, 2018, 11:20 AM »
Hey there,

Had my Marcum flasher for a couple years now with no issues.  Noticed now the last couple times I try to charge the battery, the green indicator light is on the charger, and never turns red as if it is charging the battery.  I still have a dead battery, and tried a different battery, and that doesn't seem to do the trick.  The inline fuse does not look blown.  Anyone else have issues with their Marcum charging system? 

Offline bobberbill

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #1 on: Feb 14, 2018, 12:03 PM »
Just try a different charger. Any 12v battery charger will work. Put the setting on low amps if it has different charge rates. Measure the output of the Marcum charger with a volt meter. It should be 12v..

Offline docbas

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #2 on: Feb 14, 2018, 12:38 PM »
Marcum's charging system is junk.  Most people use a battery tender jr. with good results.

Offline 3300

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #3 on: Feb 14, 2018, 06:24 PM »
check your fuse. see what it does with out plugging it in and have the battery connected to the charger only and not plugged into the wall outlet.
measure the voltage at the charger connectors and again at the battery while plugged in.

Offline ice dawg

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #4 on: Feb 14, 2018, 06:32 PM »
I have found a lot of fuses to be bad that looked ok. Test it with an ohm meter.
It seems to go from zero to hero all some have to do is lie.

Offline crappieslayer37

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #5 on: Feb 14, 2018, 08:57 PM »
The light should turn green. Had tbis same experience with my showdown charger. If they cant get the charger right what about rhe unit? Vex man all the way now ;D

Offline 3300

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #6 on: Feb 15, 2018, 08:36 AM »
The light should turn green. Had tbis same experience with my showdown charger. If they cant get the charger right what about rhe unit? Vex man all the way now ;D

if you had read what was said, you would have read it is green.

if you plug your charger into the wall and not onto the battery it will be green.
this means an open circuit while plugged in. if it is green while not plugged in at the wall and while attached to the battery then it is a faulty charger that lasted two years.
an open circuit can include loose battery terminals or loose fitting quick connectors at the charger plug or a bad battery among other things.

so if you had this same open circuit experience with your showdown, then the fuse would be the main culprit. a fuse can blow or just get defective over time. if it blows it can because it had too much load while hooking up the charger. this can happen if you plug in the charger at the wall first and then plug the battery onto the other end last. this creates a surge of energy the fuse thinks it needs to protect the circuit and opens up. give the charger some thing to do before plugging it in is best to avoid blowing fuses. so if hooking up the wrong way doesn't blow your fuse all at one time it can hurt it a little each time your doing it until it is open, but you can't see that it's opened. as said a tester is all that is needed and those are cheap enough at 6$ harbor freight.

showdown had the fuse blow when hooked up wrong more than any other sonar i have read about for people not knowing how to hook them up. the fix is super simple for those who didn't know how to use the charger and that is to bump up the fuse rating by one amp. the stock 2 amp is a little small for the application unless connected correctly.

as far as these types of chargers are concerned i don't trust our lives to them because i have had a wire fire while at home from this type of charger, but a different brand.  this is also why many of us in the know use some thing else such as what i recommend and that is the battery tender jr. even for your vex. they are 25$.
if you trust yours, you should do it on cement or some thing that can't catch fire and ideally not in your living space so you can't breath the smoke from the fire and so you don't have smoke damage.

you ask about the marcum unit. nothing is wrong with mine. the op isn't complaining about his head unit. sounds like yours was fine also and the charger has been working for a couple of years and still maybe working for the op.

Offline KB67

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #7 on: Feb 15, 2018, 09:55 AM »
I found that if I left my charger plugged in all the time, it would stay green and not charge. If I unplugged it when not in use, I was Ok to charge to the next day. I still don't trust it enough, so use a battery tender.

Offline backinmich

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #8 on: Feb 15, 2018, 07:28 PM »
My wife and I each have a Showdown and two different style Marcum chargers that came with them. The chargers are frustrating. Sometimes they show red, sometimes green. You know a battery needs charging, one charger shows red, the other green. Sometimes one seems to be working, other times it's the other. Anyway, switching back and forth I've been able to keep both our units charged for 6 years. If you can't put up with this kind of playing around, probably get a Battery Tender Junior as suggested by others. I should probably do that! Although the Marcum chargers are crap, I've been happy with our Showdowns.

Offline tvlle

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Re: Marcum (Charging Issue)
« Reply #9 on: Feb 16, 2018, 08:49 PM »
Here is my charger after a couple of years. I think that I have only charged it a few times. This year when I went to charge the battery the light would only turn green and nothing would happen. When I too a close look at things I found the cord frayed and the fuse blown. The fuse looked good but a real close look and you could see it blown over on the side. An ohm meter tested it bad.


 



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