mbrown2
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2007
- Messages
- 7,693
- Reaction score
- 5,370
I went back and forth about posting this but this site is about sharing one's experience and my recent boating experience has been less than stellar. Some background; we have owned a lot of boats from Eliminator, Schiada, and DCB's. However it was our 2004 Malibu 23 Wakesetter which was the work horse, ride or die, and always got the most use which was basically floating Parker and a taxi to the floating establishments (15 yrs/500+hrs). Well it was the workhorse until it caught fire and has since been totaled by our insurance company due to it being unable to repair.
Rewind to prior to Memorial Day when I had the boat serviced at So Cal Speed and Marine (great guys great work) and after they were done we had them deliver the boat to Ron's In Your Audio which was going to troubleshoot amp/speaker connection as we had speakers cut out in open bow. They had boat for a week or so and during the visit there they asked me if I wanted to install a new battery switch and onboard battery charger. I have known Ron since 2002ish…so I thought yeah…it would be more convenient to use an onboard charger versus the outboard chargers I had been using for 15 years so they installed a new switch and battery charger.
Fast forward to Memorial Day where we use the boat, replaced one of the large Odyssey's and even had Ron's team help with that. Use the boat Memorial Day and put it away and plug into the new charger for the first time.
Fast forward to June 21st where we are back out for a week visit….I go to get the boat to take back up to Ron's to switch out to a new head unit. As a I'm pulling back the cover I notice black streaks on the interior as I peel back the cover more I can smell smoke…as I lift the battery hatch I can see a fire had started in that area and that area is completely burned out. It looks as though a fire started but put itself out due to lack of oxygen from hatch being closed, and cover being on. I am little in shock.. I call Ron's and he is out of country till end of month, but I explain the situation and that I won't be bringing it by but I will bring it by later so they can see it take pics and figure out next steps. I tell them if they talk to Ron please have him call me.
I take it by Ron's later that day and let them take some pics and they said they would let Ron know and call the battery charger company (Powermania) and get them involved. I let them know I would likely turn it in to my insurance and then they could deal with my insurance company as I could not wait for Ron to return and I want to get the repair or next steps underway.
I called my insurance company and they got an adjuster assigned within 2 days. They had to bring it back to Malibu in SoCal for a full assessment and hired a Fire Cause expert come to perform an investigation.
The fire investigator came out and inspected the boat. They found battery charger or the install to be the cause and once the Malibu assessment was done they would possibly do forensics on the power charger. He said it might not even have flamed up but it got so hot it did damage like flames, it also had lot of smoke…being covered helped. He thought the short or whatever was causing the issue tripped the breaker inside the garage. Malibu did their assessment and said the boat was unrepairable. When they added up cost of engine harness damage, electrical, interior replacement and all the other components; they ruled it unrepairable. Ron's did notify PowerMania and one of their engineer's called me. I let him know when/where he could see/observe the boat and they never made it out.
Ron did call me ay after his insurance was notified by mine. Ron was sorry this happened. He feels confident it was not install as they have installed many of these devices. Hopefully the insurance will do a forensic of the device and figure it out.
The boat has since been totaled and we had a fixed value policy and were paid out quickly. State Farm did an amazing job and I would recommend them. They will now go after the insurance companies of the installer and device to figure out cause / liability.
I have had other types of chargers installed in boats before….and never had an issue. But I would not have that charger installed again… Hopefully others will have a better experience. They are supposed to have features built in to shut off if they get hot and even fire suppression features if flame is to start but none of the protection worked.
Boats can be replaced and it would have never been the same which is why they said it was unrepairable. We are just blessed that it did not get more involved and burn down the storage unit and other 6 storage units attached. That would have been horrific.
We will have a new boat by labor day but it definitely won't replace the memories of the old boat….but we will make some new ones.
Will post some before and after pics..
Rewind to prior to Memorial Day when I had the boat serviced at So Cal Speed and Marine (great guys great work) and after they were done we had them deliver the boat to Ron's In Your Audio which was going to troubleshoot amp/speaker connection as we had speakers cut out in open bow. They had boat for a week or so and during the visit there they asked me if I wanted to install a new battery switch and onboard battery charger. I have known Ron since 2002ish…so I thought yeah…it would be more convenient to use an onboard charger versus the outboard chargers I had been using for 15 years so they installed a new switch and battery charger.
Fast forward to Memorial Day where we use the boat, replaced one of the large Odyssey's and even had Ron's team help with that. Use the boat Memorial Day and put it away and plug into the new charger for the first time.
Fast forward to June 21st where we are back out for a week visit….I go to get the boat to take back up to Ron's to switch out to a new head unit. As a I'm pulling back the cover I notice black streaks on the interior as I peel back the cover more I can smell smoke…as I lift the battery hatch I can see a fire had started in that area and that area is completely burned out. It looks as though a fire started but put itself out due to lack of oxygen from hatch being closed, and cover being on. I am little in shock.. I call Ron's and he is out of country till end of month, but I explain the situation and that I won't be bringing it by but I will bring it by later so they can see it take pics and figure out next steps. I tell them if they talk to Ron please have him call me.
I take it by Ron's later that day and let them take some pics and they said they would let Ron know and call the battery charger company (Powermania) and get them involved. I let them know I would likely turn it in to my insurance and then they could deal with my insurance company as I could not wait for Ron to return and I want to get the repair or next steps underway.
I called my insurance company and they got an adjuster assigned within 2 days. They had to bring it back to Malibu in SoCal for a full assessment and hired a Fire Cause expert come to perform an investigation.
The fire investigator came out and inspected the boat. They found battery charger or the install to be the cause and once the Malibu assessment was done they would possibly do forensics on the power charger. He said it might not even have flamed up but it got so hot it did damage like flames, it also had lot of smoke…being covered helped. He thought the short or whatever was causing the issue tripped the breaker inside the garage. Malibu did their assessment and said the boat was unrepairable. When they added up cost of engine harness damage, electrical, interior replacement and all the other components; they ruled it unrepairable. Ron's did notify PowerMania and one of their engineer's called me. I let him know when/where he could see/observe the boat and they never made it out.
Ron did call me ay after his insurance was notified by mine. Ron was sorry this happened. He feels confident it was not install as they have installed many of these devices. Hopefully the insurance will do a forensic of the device and figure it out.
The boat has since been totaled and we had a fixed value policy and were paid out quickly. State Farm did an amazing job and I would recommend them. They will now go after the insurance companies of the installer and device to figure out cause / liability.
I have had other types of chargers installed in boats before….and never had an issue. But I would not have that charger installed again… Hopefully others will have a better experience. They are supposed to have features built in to shut off if they get hot and even fire suppression features if flame is to start but none of the protection worked.
Boats can be replaced and it would have never been the same which is why they said it was unrepairable. We are just blessed that it did not get more involved and burn down the storage unit and other 6 storage units attached. That would have been horrific.
We will have a new boat by labor day but it definitely won't replace the memories of the old boat….but we will make some new ones.
Will post some before and after pics..
