Quick Battery Charger and/or Lopolight Experience

[DragonflyBob]

Greetings CF forum readers. Thanks for opening my thread.

Our new to us 2016 Dragonfly 32 is equipped with a Quick NRG 250 25A shore power battery charger and a Lopolight LED masthead combo Tri-color/anchor light. Both are currently non-functional.

It looks like I need to replace both and the easy route is to replace with same units for drop in replacements. More details for each follows.

Quick NRG 250 - It’s dead as a door nail with power plugged into it and no LED status lights coming on. I verified 120VAC at the power source. Not being an electrician, I did unplug the unit and tested continuity on its power cord and measured around 340 k-ohms which seems quite high. I opened up the power connector on the cord and all the connections look healthy, no corrosion at all.

Easy route is to order another NRG 250 as it will drop right in replacement wise but concerned if I’ll be replacing it in another 5-6 years. Anyone with similar experience or perhaps I was just unlucky?

Lopolight - The comments about this product line seem to be love/hate given how much they cost. I did contact the head of Lopolight USA and he responded back within 2 hours via email. The light has a 5 year warranty which expired last year but he believed they may give me a full or partial warranty on it. So I need to go back to the top of the mast and take a picture of it and file a warranty claim.

Anyone with recent Lopolight experiences wanting to weigh in good or bad? The replacement cost of this light which includes a Windex mount is around $1,200. Perhaps Lopolight will go easy on me and I’ll get a replacement for substantially less but still concerned about reliability. It’ll be kind of a pain to install since all the work will take place from a bosun’s chair 60 feet up.

Thanks for any feedback and Merry Christmas!

[lmxr]

The older (2009) Quick SBC charger on our boat works well. Currently charging lithium batteries, even though the unit was designed for lead acid only.

Perhaps look into the chargers and inverter chargers Victron has on offer. Most Victron chargers are either 110 or 220 though, while the Quick covers the whole range. I would think twice before purchasing a charger that hasn't programmable voltages and hasn't an enable input (for compatibility with lithium BMS's).

[DragonflyBob]

Originally Posted by lmxr

The older (2009) Quick SBC charger on our boat works well. Currently charging lithium batteries, even though the unit was designed for lead acid only.

Perhaps look into the chargers and inverter chargers Victron has on offer. Most Victron chargers are either 110 or 220 though, while the Quick covers the whole range. I would think twice before purchasing a charger that hasn't programmable voltages and hasn't an enable input (for compatibility with lithium BMS's).

I decided to go back with the same Quick NRG 25a charger. If it dies in 5-6 years, I guess it’s not a disaster.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by DragonflyBob

Anyone with recent Lopolight experiences wanting to weigh in good or bad? The replacement cost of this light which includes a Windex mount is around $1,200. Perhaps Lopolight will go easy on me and I’ll get a replacement for substantially less but still concerned about reliability. It’ll be kind of a pain to install since all the work will take place from a bosun’s chair 60 feet up.

I don't have any firsthand experiences with Lopolight but I have had good experiences with Aqua Signal 34 lights. The tricolor plus anchor version is recently discontinued and you can get them on close out at Defender for $200. I would expect them to last longer than a Lopolight. There are other good alternatives out there e.g. Hella or Signal Mate.


You might also consider replacing the tricolor with an anchor light (only) and using the deck-level running lights instead. Or you might choose to abandon the entire tricolor/anchor assembly in place and use the deck-level nav lights, and use a battery-operated anchor light hoisted in the foretriangle when anchored, depending on your plans for the boat.


As you may be aware, tricolors are not universally thought to be a better idea than deck-level running lights, because they are harder for other boats to see at short distances against a background of coastal lights.


An anchor light in the foretriangle is more visible than one at the top of the mast, and may be all you need, unless you have plans to anchor for multiple nights in a row unattended where the batteries in a hoisted lantern would not endure.