landyacht318 wrote:
This is more of a heads up, than a question.
I removed the alligator clips and about 4 feet of 10awg 2 wire from my Schumacher 2/12/25 amp battery charger.
And used the yellow 10-12 awg Butt connectors to attach this:
I like to remove the yellow/red/blue plastic and use some shrink wrap instead. Usually 2 layers around each connector, and then a larger one over both.
The connector end opposite the charger goes to a short length of 8awg then to 2awg right to the batteries. The Negative wire goes to a buss bar and through a shunt. Total 1 way length from charger to battery, about 4.5 feet, over progressively thicker wire.
Long story short, recently I set the charger to 25 amps, and after 10 minutes, I smelled burning electronics.
The splice right where the butt connectors were was melting and smoking.
I have since soldered these connections instead, but have to conclude that the Butt connectors cannot handle a continuous 25 amps. They might have been bought at Harbor Freight. I can't remember that far back.
I had used the charger like this sporadically for over 2 years, and noticed the connections became warm, but never hot. I wonder if the extra heat was caused by the increasing resistance as my batteries age.
Needless to say, I'm soldering everything than can pull over 20 amps in the future, and anything else I have the time for.
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