No blower power 342

Black_Diamond

Doing my boat projects and hit the blower switch and no blowers. Worked fine 2-3 weeks ago. Power at switch. Breakers ok. No power at the blowers. Blowers work fine off direct battery power. Neither the helm or power panel switch turns them on. Both switches light up though. I've messed with nothing in the engine room since they last worked. Any thoughts? I checked the helm switch and it switches fine with a meter on it.

Black_Diamond

I did pull the engine room fire ex to get it serviced. Would the blowers disable with that circuit open?

l-skynyrd

BD...I had a problem with a fuel pump not working and it turned out to be corrosion on the plug connector. A little wire brushing and it has worked fine for 4 years. Might want to check if there is a connector somewhere in line that needs cleaning.

TikiHut2

BD. I recall that the blowers tie into the extinguisher wiring as a shunt when its deployed to prevent feeding a fire fresh oxy and to prevent venting fire retardant so youre probably right. Mike.

Black_Diamond

Tiki, it makes sense, I should have the ext back in a week or two sure would elimnate a pita to rewire. All the connectors looked good.

frodo13056

BD, a quick check would be to put a jumper in the connection for the extinguisher circuit. If there is an interlock between the extinguisher circuit and the blower circuit, that would be good info for future use!

Black_Diamond

I thought about that too. I'll have to wait until next weekend though, no sunday hours . I'll post back on it.

Black_Diamond

Double entry. See below.

Black_Diamond

Thanks RY. If it's not the fire ext circuit, I'm at a loss. I wonder being diesel if yours is wired different?

Black_Diamond

Al - thanks for the comments.  Both blower switches light up when turned 'on'.  Both breakers good (not tripped and tested with a multimeter).  No power at the pin connector at the blowers themselves.  There is power at the swtich (helm).  I'm jump the connectors to see if it works then, but not sure wich to jump, I think there are 6 wires at the connector at the switch.

 

Very odd as they both worked fine ~3 weeks ago.  The only thing I have done with wires or even in the bilge was remove the engine room fire ext. to get it recertified.  Would the fire ext switch be wired to cut the blowers off?  There are 3 wires going to the fire ext, 2 black that are connected and the other wire (don't remeber the color off hand.  Wierd they would BOTH go out at the same time.

TikiHut2

Here's a thought that I think you were onto.......  :-?

(LINK TO ANOTHER BLOWER DISCUSSION)

Just sayin' ....

Black_Diamond

Thanks for the link Tiki.

TikiHut2

Here's hoping that you'll plug that wiring for your recertified fire extinguisher back in and it'll all be good. It's the kind of system I wanted last year but just didn't get to. Heat sensitive release and/or manual release with a blower tie-in to shut down the blower that'd feed a fire new oxygen and to keep the fire suppressant from being exhausted......but I may be wrong. That happened once

(FIREBOY SUPPRESSION LINK)

Or SEAFIRE with FM200

Black_Diamond

I'm at least a week off from working on it again. Chillin in Orlando for work Big PowerGen show.

Black_Diamond

I snagged my fire ext back from waiting to be re-certified today and plugged it in and hit the blower switch: presto working, so the sensor on the fire ext does indeed cut the power to the blowers...at least on mine.

Black_Diamond

Either the ground or the hot, not sure but at least it works!

TikiHut2

Rest assured that no marine electrcian who'd be astute enough to properly wire a blower shunt switch on your fire suppression would ever put a switch on a ground wire.

Black_Diamond

Cutting the 'hot' makes more sense for sure from a proper electrical standpoint.  I did not bother to check any further once they worked with the fire ext plugged back in.  The Fireboy-Xintex site for the fire ext 'alarm' says nothing about wiring the blowers in, in fact the instructions if the fire ext goes off are to shut off the blowers and engines.  Makes sense the blowers are wired in.  I know on some of the Xintex options you can have it cut the engines too.

TikiHut2

Sounds like it was one of those confounding but easy fixes.

An engine cutoff when fire suppression is tripped is an opt on a gasser but mandatory on a diesel from what I've read.

Michael T

Nice thinking Steve. I would want to use my blowers anyway as they tend to draw fresh and cooler air into the engine compartmment which is good for the engines and might also expell any CO that might be present. A win-win IMO. MT