Battery charger danger?

[Westie82]

Hi guys, so this weekend I pluged in my van, and came back to find it filled with smoke after 15 mins on the hook up. Pretty concerning considering that no fuses on the board or main breaker activated. Maybe I caught it in time before they went but still quite a bit of damage to the board by the looks of it. This could be quite a safety issue should this have happened at night. Think a fire alarm might be a good idea in future!

 

[bxl_lad]

20 year old electronics, suppose it's testament to how well they were built in the first place (how many electronic devices these days will last that long?).
I would say you were lucky to get to it when you did, but perhaps a heads up that we should not take these thing's for granted where electricity and gas are concerned, especially as we sleep in these vans...
If you're looking for a replacement suggest you check the forum for posts on the Fraron charger that's almost a direct plug and play replacement (with the added bonus of engine battery charging included). The old units can be replaced but at double/ triple the cost of the Fraron or can be repaired, but would you sleep well with a repaired unit?

 

[Westie82]

20 year old electronics, suppose it's testament to how well they were built in the first place (how many electronic devices these days will last that long?).
I would say you were lucky to get to it when you did, but perhaps a heads up that we should not take these thing's for granted where electricity and gas are concerned, especially as we sleep in these vans...
If you're looking for a replacement suggest you check the forum for posts on the Fraron charger that's almost a direct plug and play replacement (with the added bonus of engine battery charging included). The old units can be replaced but at double/ triple the cost of the Fraron or can be repaired, but would you sleep well with a repaired unit?

Yep been looking at the threads on replacement chargers and I definitely think that I will be getting a "Fraron" (all that modern tech has to be a bonus). Yeah I don't think I really want to repair the unit as all the rest of the components are pretty old so something else might go. Might be a bit paranoid but going to put a smoke detector in the van somewhere as the smoke was seriously thick and smelt pretty toxic, hate to think what could have happened if me or the Mrs were asleep .

 

[MartG]

Not nice... I don't think it would have caught fire but noxious fumes nevertheless. Looks like a capacitor has blown, they do dry out over the years and there's plenty more on the pcb which could go the same way. I would replace the whole unit with a new one.
Wonder if VW should fit CO & smoke alarms to the new models... although a smoke alarm might be useless when having a fry-up!