Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

[Cannondale]

Got told by a local Mercury dealer it does. He said for electrical repairs on Johnson/Evinrude outboards, he'll use any aftermarket brand available and will buy by price if requested by the customer. He'll use OEM Johnson/Evinrude, but has no qualms about aftermarket on them.

But for Mercury outboards, he tries to use only Mercury/Quicksilver branded electrical parts. He says the Mercs are just picky about electrics and he just doesn't want come-backs after using "substandard" electric parts. He will use aftermarket on Mercs, but if he does, prefers only Sierra parts.....no others....but he advises not to.

He's been in business for well over 30 years and I've bought two boats and three motors from him over the last 20 years and I trust his judgment....he's never tried to screw me. He's always been very fair with his prices and his work has always been first rate.

So, does he have a point or is he just trying to sell the more expensive Quicksilver parts over equally good aftermarket stuff?

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

He may have just had good luck with merc stuff, and bad luck with aftermarket. I have not had that experience, and will try aftermarket stuff. So far, it has worked for me for the VR and PTT motors I have installed.

 

[Brewman61]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

Hard to say for sure. He may have experienced problems in the past with poor quality parts, which may or may not still be the case. I can't see why any quality brand aftermarket parts woulnd't work, assuming they're made for the specific application. One thing to consider- he may not make more profit selling Mercury branded parts.
Mechanics usually get discounts- his profit margin on name brand parts could possibly be lower than on certain aftermarket ones. But if he's been in business as long as you say he probably is more worried about his reputation and quality of his work than parts profit.

 

[saumon]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

I'll pick any CDI parts (voltage regulator, stator, switchbox, etc) before a Merc/Quicksilver one. They're cheaper too. Not as much as Sierra or Mallory but cheaper anyway.

 

[Cannondale]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

Thanks for all the input. Guess it's aftermarket....decidedly cheaper than the Quicksilver choice, although I did purchase a new 16A Red Quicksilver stator---but got it uber cheap off ebay.

Thanks all!

 

[RRitt]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

its all in the wattage. The regulator puts out a constant 12v and the alternator varies by engine speed. Lets call VA the alternator voltage output. You already said 16A stator so lets use that.

(VA - 12 ) * 16 = wattage.

if we figure the alternator goes 18V at middle to upper middle throttle then the regulator has to dump off 96watts.

That's a lot of heat for an electronic device. Most transistors burn out long before they reach 100W. So make sure that the aftermaket has a good heatsink or your charging system might end up being unreliable.

 

[1979checkmate]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

i put CDI above Sierra any day of the week. I have all cdi on my merc inline.

 

[444]

Re: Do voltage regulator brands matter? Like on Mercury outboards?

In trying to track down a charging issue, I went through two $$$ quicksilver rectifiers for my mercury inline 6. After blowing two of them at $60 a piece from the boat shop before realizing the problem must be the stator, I read on the mercury forum some guys are running $5 radio shack brand rectifiers. Hmm, tough decision there on which on I'll be going with next...