why would the battery charger be hooked up to the hot water heater?

[lime4x4]

Have a 86 searay 268 weekender.The boat has 4 batteries installed along with a battery charger when connected to onshore power.Tonight i was getting ready to take the engine out for a rebuild and noticed that the wires from the battery charger also go to the heating element of the hot water heater

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: why would the battery charger be hooked up to the hot water heater?

i guess they were using shore power to heat water. heater must have a 12 volt element, and a heat exchanger from the engine.

 

[lime4x4]

Re: why would the battery charger be hooked up to the hot water heater?

yes it has a heat exchanger.So should i just keep it the way it is or should i rewire it to use the batteries with a on/off switch?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: why would the battery charger be hooked up to the hot water heater?

if you are running the engine it will heat. i would definately put a switch on it, as the element is on the total time the charger is on. if you are going to be staying aboard weekends in the marina, might do a 2 way switch, batt-- charger, to use shore power rather than battery.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: why would the battery charger be hooked up to the hot water heater?

Is the charger hard wired to the batteries?
Are the wires going to the water heater off the same connection as the wires going to the batteries?
If yes that maybe okay as long as there is a fuse in the circuit somewhere.
If the heater is added to the wires going to the battery, the wire from the charger to the heater wires may be too small.

It sounds like a shortcut was made in the wire runs by connecting to the charger output versus running wire to the battery switch or a terminal block/fuse panel.