[url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5078.msg43151.html#msg43151[/url]

My boat is a '97 and had the same charger. It failed each spring following winter storage. Professional Mariner replaced it. The second time, they replaced it with a newer model (name escapes me) that is a much smaller, fan cooled model. It has worked flawlessly ever since.

[QUOTE=roger;13757]Thanks for the reply. That is very distressing about the possibilty of fire risk. I went on line to PM website and under trouble shooting it said that if ammeter is bouncing then disconect ground for 3 minutes to reset the charger. I have had the boat almost 8 years, no problems, not sure if it is the original one from 1996. Is the fire risk something that just pops up suddenly after many years of good service or is the charger defective from the get go. I leave my charger on during the week with fridge on. I may change that going forward with what I read in the threads here. Please don't yell at me for not just getting rid of the Flyback charger, if my charger is defective then I will. Does anyone still have this charger on their boats or has everyone removed them.

1996 C36 Mk II, #1545
Manistee, MI[/QUOTE]

There is a new ProMariner charger, just like the Sterlings that get good reviews. Please don't confuse the two. It is the Flyback models that suffer catastrophic failure. [url]http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=125606[/url]

We posted that Critical Upgrade after scores of reports, many of them from one skipper who never seemed to learn his lesson, although he attributed the THIRD one to lightning.

I'm not yelling at you. We're just warning you, based on my 13 years and our group's 25 years of experience.

There is also the "ongoing" "do-I-leave-my-boat-plugged-in-with-my-fridge-operating" discussion. I won't go there, 'cuz there are two basic trains of thought on that one.

Your boat, your choice. All we can do is share the good things and the bad ones. What's your boat worth to you? It's like anchors: for a few hundred dollars you can eliminate the uncertainty.

Have you clicked on the link in Reply #5? Should answer your question. Good luck, easy to do. Footprint should have little to do with it, buy a GOOD charger should be the priority. If it is in the same location, then the wiring is easier. If not, it's still "do-able."

This covers older and some newer chargers, also with a link back to the one I posted earlier: [url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4352.0.html[/url] If you check the dates, you'll see when they were written, and note that they cover the older (good) Xantrex products, which, unfortunately, no longer exist.

FWIW, in the past few years Xantrex has been hobbled by poor customer service and poor products. Poor products in that they fail all too often. Many of the boards I read continually recommend staying as far away as possible from Xantrex products (other than the echo charger they "inherited" and haven't changed from a company they bought out). For some reason, this is a continuous theme, from our C34 experiences, to catalinaowners.com, to Sailnet, to Cruiser's Forums, etc.

As I said before, we can pass on both the good and the bad news, and you have to make up your own mind.

If it was my boat, I would not invest in a Xantrex product that has been made in the past two years.

Especially when there are so many other, better products out there, being promoted by people like Maine Sail who really, really, really knows what he's talking about.

Your boat, your choice.

I do not have a standalone charger. In 1998 when we bought the boat, I immediately removed one of those old heavy chargers with an ammeter on it and installed a Heart Freedom 15 combined inverter charger. This was before Xantrex bought Heart. It's been working great ever since.

Mastervolt, Victron, Sterling and the NEW (not the old FlyBack) ProMariner (same as the the Sterling) are well respected.

[url]http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=125606[/url]