Switching Away from Blue Sea Products.

[Scalf77]

I recently started to move away from Blue Sea products and instead started using some Marinco BEP Pro installer products.

The switches have been my go-to for a while. The m-series (300 A) and e-Series (350 A) switches have been my go-to for a while, for panel through hole mounts are will probably still use.

I recently used a Marinco EZ-Mount Pro Installer Off/On Switch (400 a). The advantage is that these can be mounted and wired from the front. The interconnection height is also the same as other BEP Pro installer products. This makes connections to their fuse holders and bus bars using their link and joiner bars easy.

Here you can see joining a Class T Fuse holder and EZ-Mount Switch together

They also have a nice line of bus bars

Now If they would just come out with an MRBF fuse holder.

 

[86Scotty]

How do the prices compare? My problem with Blue Sea has always been price.

 

[Scalf77]

There are some things a little cheaper, and some a little higher (the Switch is higher in this case). The savings comes in installation time and layout space. The link bars are a godsend. Of course you can get the Blue Sea knock off parts on Amazon.

 

[basssears]

I'm going to let the "switching" pun in the title go for now

Thanks for another option, I'd always been a Blue Sea fan but was unnerved by an M series switch failure last fall on an off grid cabin setup, could have burned the whole system down. Best guess is some sort of internal resistance that caused it to heat up and smoke (but no active flames) and melt some wiring. Might have to try some Marinco stuff.

-- Bass

 

[drobinson-SMB]

@basssears glad to hear there wasn't a fire!

That wire looks pretty small, was this a battery disconnect?

Also the melt on the end of that stud makes me wonder if it shorted against another wire?

 

[basssears]

@basssears glad to hear there wasn't a fire!

That wire looks pretty small, was this a battery disconnect?

Also the melt on the end of that stud makes me wonder if it shorted against another wire?

Disconnect between an charge controller and positive bus bar. Wire is small because it's about 24" run total (1 foot on each side of the switch) carrying 40A @ 48V.

Wasn't another wire in the area, the melt on the end of the stud makes me wonder too. I also wondered if something fell in there (it's in an older shed that is a little dusty / cobwebby) and shorted across it somehow? I hadn't really thought about the fact that the casing of the switch is open to things falling in there, might try to figure out how to cover that (without causing a bigger fire hazard) in case that was the issue.

I haven't replaced the switch yet (just took it out of the system for now, I can always trip the breakers at the panels to de-energize that side of the system) but I should probably put it back in, and I have another M series switch as my main battery disconnect switch.