On Board Charger Causing Interference

Willhound

Just installed a ProMariner Prosport plus onboard charger. Kicked back with a cold one to admire my handiwork and when I hit the stereo button I'm getting major interference. On VHF too. As soon a I kill the charger everything is good.  Checked all my connections. No faults showing on indicator lights. Anybody else have this happen? Only other thing I can think to check is make sure the ground and connections are good on the recepticle the charger is plugged into.....

Bayrunner

The grounding would have been my thought, but make sure your stereo is ground good also.

Willhound

Thanks @Bayrunner. Will check both, but both stereo and VHF ran great before installing charger. And still work well if charger off. 

Black_Diamond

Bad ground is a start. Are the radios connected to/thru the charger and not to the battery?  

Dream_Inn

Interesting. I have the same charger, & I have gotten interference every once in a great while. I'll have to check it out.

Willhound

Radio's are hooked to a power source at the dash, off 12 volt system.

Just had a thought, thinking about grounds....
I did install a third battery that will be cabled parallel as a second house battery. I did hook the charger to it, since it's a three bank charger. But I'm waiting for cables to be made as I installed it on the opposite side of the engine bay to distribute weight. So the battery is being charged, but isn't "grounded" by the boat.
When I head over tomorrow, I'll disconnect that battery and see if that fixes it.

raybo3

If the problem does not go away you may have to add a "choke" or a "filter" on the feeds to the radios. Not a big deal to add them....

Willhound

Thanks Raybo. Have seen them. Heading to the boat this morning.  Will disconnect the "homeless" battery and see if that makes a difference. For an area that has so many boats there really aren't any large marine suppliers so it's gonna take my local shop a few days to put together the cables I need. 

Willhound

Well...was able to score a set of decent 2 ga. cables and everything now properly hooked up. And still major EM interference on radios. Will check grounds...but as soon as I turn off the charger everything works great. Will contact ProMariner tech and also look at filters for the power feeds. 

Willhound

ProMariner could only suggest trying to add a line filter as mentioned. But after a few hours on charge the intereference lessened substantially.  Reported this to ProMariner support and we think the batteries were pretty low, causing the charger to really put out the amps. As its settling down, less of an issue. Will investigate filters anyway.