Onboard charger for boat causing shock?

[rjguess4ever]

My old onboard charger stopped working. So I had to get a new. the old one's intire housing in plastic. The new on is a bass pro xps 20 amp 2 bank charger. Its housing is metal. I hooked up the new one and plug it in. Its working, charged my battaries nicely. I went out to the boat and leaned over in the boat and I got shocked. Not a real strong shock but enough to make you jump back. The charger is attached to a metal box where the battaries are at as shown in the picture. What might be causing the new one to send a shock. Whn the old one worked great i never got shocked from it. well sorry I could not get the pics to upload. I also just tested my outlet and it's reading as an open ground. Could that be my problem. Also will this damage my charger or battaries, ect. thanks to all who respond.

 

[tommays]

Re: Onboard charger for boat causing shock?

The shock has to be from and issue ON the AC side , You could have the HOT and netural wires mixed up

I would try pluging it into a GFI outlet and see if it trips

 

[joed]

Re: Onboard charger for boat causing shock?

The open ground is a problem and should be repaired. Once it is repaired you might find the charger trips the breaker now that the fault has a path to ground.
The charger has some sort of fault that is apply power to ground.

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Onboard charger for boat causing shock?

Probably not the charger's fault. Original post stated that a circuit tester is showing an open ground on the outlet, that's the issue. I'll bet you a cup of coffee that if the charger is plugged into a properly grounded outlet that it will be fine. I'd guess that somewhere in the house or garage wiring some genius combined the neutral and ground wires (either intentionally or by mistake), hence the "ground" has some voltage on it. ALSO, the outlet you use for the charger should be a GFI.