Marinco SeaLink: Best 12 Volt Plug and Receptacle Available
The 12 Volt dash receptacle has historically been one of the most problematic items on a boat. They corroded and failed way too soon, causing major annoyances for the boater.
Not long ago, Marinco designed and developed a virtually foolproof, corrossion resistant 12 Volt system called SeaLink. It’s a simple receptacle and plug that mate together to form a “sealed” connection. It boasts a 5 year warranty, utilizes a 10 amp fuse (plug) and simply will not corrode.
Boating is about fun and enjoyment. The typical boater is concerned and attentive to marine electrical issues, but doesn’t wish to fixate on boat wiring. The advances made by Marinco’s SeaLink range have almost eliminated problems affiliated with 12 Volt dash connections.
Check out these part numbers at your favorite retailer:
Receptacle: 12 VRC
Plug: 12VPG
Combo Pack: 12VPK
Editor’s Note: John Tinghitella formerly VP Sales / Marketing for the Marinco Electrical Group spent many years in the trenches of the marine electrical products market. He’s moved on and now runs the hottest negotiation training group in the business.
Boaters Guide to AC Electrical
Many seasoned boaters have an aversion to using AC Electrical around boats in marinas.
Water. Electricity. That’s a natural concern.
Marinco has been designing, building and supplying the best marine AC electrical products since 1972. Safety is always the first concern. And the best way to ensure safe shore power product usage is through training and education.
Marinco makes it easy to know how to use these products. They publish a great booklet entitled: “Boaters Guide to AC Electrical”, known around the marketplace as the “Shore Power Manual”. It’s the definitive resource when it comes to shore power. This guide drills out the mystery and concern, with straight-forward, easy-to-understand tips on AC Electrical.
You can order this booklet by visiting their website: http://www.marinco.com/view/96/guides
Editor’s Note: John Tinghitella formerly VP Sales / Marketing for the Marinco Electrical Group spent many years in the trenches of the marine electrical products market. He’s moved on and now runs the hottest negotiation training group in the business.
Reconnecting a complex marine electrical system
Kevin,
I just purchased a boat with a fairly complex electrical system, which was disconnected.
I am trying to piece it back together again with an incomplete
wiring diagram. Some components have been added, removed or changed since the original diagram. In addition not of the components provides documentation for this full scale system.
The system is comprised of
- One engine battery (actually 2 6v serial),
- One house battery (also 2 6v serial),
- Solar Panel with Solar Regulator, Alternator,
- Battery Isolator,
- Heart Inverter/Charger
- Dockside AC.
I would love to see a sample wiring diagram for this type of system if one exists anywhere. If not, my biggest question is where to ground the AC? I have read conflicting information regarding whether the AC & DC should be grounded to the same common ground.
Can you shed any light on the subject and/or direct me to resources that might be helpful?
Dazed & confused,
Andi
August 19, 2008
Andi,
I have never found a great resource for boat wiring diagrams. It usually comes be piecing together schematics from several sites.
One of my goals for Easy Ac/Dc is that perhaps someday this site will become a no charge repository/library for this type of boat wiring information, which would be a real aid to all of us who work with marine electrical.
So, if any of the readers know of a source for diagrams and schematics – or, if you would be willing to contribute a few of your own – please send me an email. If everyone contributes just a little, the amount of material available to all of us should be impressive.
On a more helpful note, please check out the Guest battery isolator manual. This should help you to correctly connect your battery isolator.
AC Ground
- All AC ground green wires are connected at your AC distribution panel.
- The AC ground and AC neutral are not connected.
- The AC ground should be connected to the DC ground.
The main reason for this arrangement is to trip an AC breaker if there is a fault between the AC and DC systems on your boat. Without this connection, when a fault occurs, all metal components connected to the DC system will become energized at 120v ac. There is too much resistance in the water and no direct path back to AC ground to cause the breaker to trip.
I hope that this is helpful.
Kevin
Installing inverter with Guest galvanic isolator
Here is a boat wiring inquiry from a reader who is concerned about adding an inverter into a marine electrical system that already includes a galvanic isolator.
Kevin,
I have a Guest 30 amp Galvanic Isolator I have had for a few years. I’m installing an inverter and plan to install the isolator. I’m looking for options on where I can install the unit. I’d like to install the unit after the inverter and near my AC and DC distribution panel and near the DC ground bus. Is this a possible installation location?
I have set my AC system up to feed 30 amps for AC power directly into the inverter and use the inverter AC out to feed the boats 110 volt distribution panel. I am using a Xantrex MS2000
Inverter/Charger.
Thanks in advance for your help.
John
John,
The best place to install the Galvanic Isolator is between the shore power inlet and the inverter.
The galvanic isolator is trying to prevent stray current corrosion by inducing a voltage drop between your boats DC negative system (Boat Ground) and the AC ground (green wire) at the dock.
The inverter probably has a circuit that connects the AC ground to the DC ground internally. If the GI is not between the inlet and inverter, then it will not be able to induce the drop required to block the corrosion.
Thanks,
Kevin
Affordable LEDs for Boaters
This morning’s New York Times published an interesting 
overview of the increased use of LED lighting in non-marine applications.
One part of the Times piece, which is an excellent read, looks at the dilemma faced by the lighting industry giants who…
…face a tough problem. Their businesses were built on customers who regularly replaced light bulbs. How do you make a profit when new lighting may commonly last 50 to 100 times as long as a standard bulb?
Even so, these bulb manufacturers…
…seem convinced that new lower-cost L.E.D. bulbs, with their improved efficiency, will eventually become the chief substitutes for incandescent bulbs in homes.
Still, the most obvious stumbling block to a widespread shift to from incandescent or fluorescent to LED light is the increased cost. And the differential isn’t slight…
…a standard 60-watt incandescent usually costs less than $1. An equivalent compact fluorescent is about $2. But in Europe this September, Philips, the Dutch company dealing in consumer electronics, health care machines and lighting, is to introduce the Ledino, its first L.E.D. replacement for a standard incandescent. Priced at $107 a bulb, it are unlikely to have more than a few takers.
Luckily, for those of us who deal with boat wiring, most of our lighting is purchased as a part of a fixture and only occasionally as a stand alone bulb or, as we move forward, diode. This tends to help decrease the price increase for this great new technology. 
That is, while the light engine itself may be exponentially more expensive, once it is coupled with a, say, navigation light housing or cabin light fixture that price spread becomes considerably more palatable.
This is especially true of a dedicated housing for an LED. A marine electrical manufacturer might realize little or no cost gain by rigging an old fixture with an LED. But, when a light housing is designed from scratch for this application, a clever manufacturer may find any number of application efficiencies that can help to offset the cost of the light engine itself. Just one example of this would be the different design accommodations required for the heat dissipation between incandescent and LED fixtures.
A great example of this type of engineering ingenuity can be seen in all of the new LED lights recently introduced by Attwood. 
Building upon the inherent advantages of the new technology, e.g., extremely low power demands and heat output plus extremely long “bulb” life, the Attwood engineers designed their fixtures to stand up to the serious rigors of boating – including making each impervious to water incursion – while keeping aesthetics and surprising affordability as top priorities for each offering.
Attwood is incredibly bullish about the future of LEDs in boating. Other marine vendors have dabbled in LED, with an occasional – and usually expensive – LED fixture added to their existing incandescent product offering. Not Attwood. In just the last year, they have introduced the marine industry’s most comprehensive line of LED lighting, including both one-mile and two-mile navigation lights, all-round lights, cabin lights, strip lights, courtesy lights, docking lights, and underwater lights. And each, without exception, is an excellent value given its advantages over the incandescent that it obsoletes.
Clever New Concept in Trolling Chargers
The Guest division of the Marinco Electrical Group has introduced a genuinely clever new concept in battery chargers that should be a huge hit with both fishing boat users and manufacturers.
By adding a voltage sensitive relay to Guest’s legendary potted charger technology, these new units don’t only charge both a boat’s starting and trolling batteries when connected to AC power – the traditional role of a trolling charger. The new Charge Pro Plus chargers also allocate the alternator’s output to both batteries – while the boat is underway.
As Guest explains…
The new Charge Pro PLUS system combines a Guest charger with an alternator power module (VSR) to continuously charge the trolling motor or house battery while the engine is running.
This one-of-a-kind system allows energy which is normally wasted on a fully charged cranking (or starting) battery bank to be re-directed to the trolling motor or house battery bank – ensuring that all batteries are fully charged.
The 12V and 24V VSR modules are rated for alternator charging systems up to 70 Amps.
The benefits of this new approach to DC power management include
- Continuous charging of trolling battery whenever the boat engine is running
- Extension of fishing time, keeps fishing boats on the water longer
- The harnessing of previously unused or wasted alternator power for trolling use
- Increased longevity of expensive trolling batteries
The real-world gains that fishermen will realize from this new system to fishermen are impressive. A 70 amp recovery should translate into one additional minute of trolling for every minute running across the water. This will make the unit a very attractive add-on to the builders of fishing boats – many of whom are searching for new features to jump start sluggish sales.
While this sort of all-inclusive DC power management has been attempted previously by others in the marine industry, the products offered were either seriously underpowered or prohibitively expensive – or both. Neither is the case with the new Guest chargers.
Guest’s initial offering of these innovative new chargers will include units with dual 4 amp and dual 10 amp outputs. Either configuration is available for either 12 volt or 24 volt systems.
For more information on these chargers, please visit Marinco’s gorgeous new website at marinco.com
Voltage Drop Troubleshooting
In response to a reader’s question at MarineAcDc, Kevin Hannula has posted a quick overview of some of the issues that might cause a voltage drop in a pontoon boat wiring system.
It’s worth checking out.
Clever “QuickConnect” for DIY Pontoon Electrical
Several of our readers have alerted us to a very slick offering from the folks at Pontoonstuff.com. Their new QuickConnect line goes a long ways towards alleviating the confusion (and headaches) caused by adding major electrical components to – or totally rewiring – an older pontoon
boat.
Pre-loaded and pre-wired to make installation exceptionally easy, the Pontoonstuff QuickConnect system includes OEM quality gauge panels, switch panels, accessory harnesses, and even a deck-mounted light holder complete with sidelights, horn, and docking lights. And, as the name suggests, all of these parts are engineered to be quickly connected together by the boat owner.
It is obvious that a lot of thought went into this system, which is built from the highest quality marine grade materials. Everything is strictly first-class, from Carling switches and Faria gauges on the panels to the Attwood and AFI components in the light pod. All of these parts are then wired with the finest quality copper wire – tinned for superior corrosion-resistance. As you would expect, both the wiring and the circuit protection accurately anticipate the usual amp draw for each accessory.
This QuickConnect family of products assures that DIY electrical work can be done both quickly and safely – at least for pontoons. One wonders why a similar system couldn’t be offered for other types of boats?
Electrical Safety vs Cost Cutting
Excellent advice from the folks at Marinco…
There’s an old axiom that states, “the strongest chain is only as reliable as its weakest link,” and the same analogy can be applied to your boat’s DC electrical system. Put it in a harsh salt water or freshwater environment, where a vessel’s wiring and components are subjected to more concentrated abuse in one season than your family car would experience in five years, and it’s easy to realize that small electrical problems can get out of hand very quickly.
Safety on board starts with a reliable DC electrical system – one that is installed and designed with proper high-quality wiring, components, and connections. If you’re tempted to take shortcuts when wiring your boat, don’t. These types of cost-cutting measures can come back to bite you at the worst possible moment – potentially compromising the safety of your boat and crew.
“Electrical Connections” and Tinned Wire
Don Casey has put together an excellent overview of basic marine electrical common sense that is well worth checking out. His piece, Electrical Connections, serves as a good introduction to a number of boat wiring issues.
In the article, Mr. Casey makes a very strong case for the use of tinned wire…
The wire must be copper, but even copper corrodes in the marine environment, and corrosion is the primary cause of electrical failures on a boat.
Plating each strand of the wire with a thin coat of tin–called tinning–dramatically improves corrosion resistance. The additional cost of tinned wire is nominal, the benefits substantial. Under normal circumstances use only tinned wire.
A real-world endorsement of Casey’s advice can be found in the harnesses of several excellent boatbuilders. For the past several years, 100% tinned wire
has been the rule at Manitou Pontoons, Crest Pontoons, and Rinker Boats. In addition, this common sense upgrade can be found on select models from Starcraft, Sunchaser and Smokercraft.
As Mr. Casey points out, this is one of those all-too-rare cases where there is a negligible upfront cost increase for using the best material available. Given the long-term benefits to boat owners of using tinned wire, one wonders why this exceptional boatbuilding practice is just that – an exception.
