Electrical Connections pt3

Today has been a good day for Liberty Call. For a while now, I have been wanting to change out the old, dated electrical distribution panels with something a bit more modern and that has all working bits.

This "works". But its a freaking nightmare behind that panel. Whoever wired it up didnt know, or obviously care, about what they were doing.  The DC Meter as well as the old battery select switch don't work, So obviously, these need replacing.

I've always liked Blue Sea Systems. Their products are top notch and are well designed. Its for this reason I was drawn to their traditional metal panels. They are REALLY nice. Unfortunately, they are also REALLY expensive. A simple 8 breaker panel runs around $200. If you need two of these and an AC panel as well as a guage or two. Things begin to skyrocket pretty quick.

A couple of months back, I priced my ideal setup for my new Electrical Distribution System and it was close to a $1000. Nope...  So I put that away in my "nice to have, but keep dreaming" column of my project book.

Fast forward to today as I walk into a Marine consignment store and what do I see sitting in the bottom of a rubbermaid bin? Almost exactly what I have been looking for. Holy Cow!

Now of course, I try to remain calm, and ask the store manager what they want for it. He doesn't know as it just came in, so he gives a call to his partner. They come back with a price for $200. That is a steal in and of itself, but I tried talking them down. After a little bit of haggling. I walked out with this sweet piece of tech for $150. When I got back to the boat, I checked West Marine and they're website has this exact same panel listed at over $700!!! Talk about bargain of the year. I couldn't be happier.

Now the panel does have some cosmetic issues that I will try to address. It also has a couple spots of corrosion on the back and sides of the panel that need to be cleaned up as well. But all in all, its in excellent shape.

Here's the backside of the panel.

It may look imposing, but its actually quite simple and logical once you inderstand what you're looking at. I can't wait to get this installed, but first, I will remove every item from the panel and clean the panel the best I can. I'm also going to call Blue Sea Systems and see if they refurbish old panels. That might be the way to go.

UPDATE: Blue Sea Systems cant refurbish the panel unfortunately. It appears that they get the parts offsite and build the panels at their factory. The Customer Service Rep was shocked when I told her how much I paid for it though. :)