Guest battery chargers??

[Capt Skip]

I have stopped useing the Guest chargers after a bad experiance. In addition to the 23 Seacraft I have a 34' Bay built charter boat. She is wood and I like to keep the batteries charged for obvious reasons, bilge pumps. Anyway one morning I hoped aboard to take the charter out and smelled charred wood. After further investigation I found the battery charger charred. It scorached a patch of wood about 3" around the charger. I was very lucky it didn't burn up. Anyway Guest refused to warrenty it after the first year it was 18 months old. They explained that occasionally some diodes inside the case short open instead of closed. This creates the overload which does not trip the GFI recepticle. They know it happens but only rarely and still they would not replace it. Anyway West Marine took care of it as I am a goodn (2 boat$) Customer. I chose to replace it with an aluminum model. I am not an electrical engineer and I am shareing what Guest told me. I am very lucky it was not in the confines of a tight engine box as mine was on the underside of the gunnel protected from weather but open to the air with no other components around.