Hot Relay

[Tomtom39]

I have been having problems with charging my house bank of batteries and have now discovered that my main relay had gone and looked a little old anyway:
I have now replaced and surprised that it gets quite hot when running the engine for a period of time.
Is this normal..?
I have been told that this is quite normal as it is taking quite a few amps hence the size of the relay.
Sorry for the lack of information but a slight novice at the engineering side.
Cheers nick

[Blue Stocking]

What function is this relay performing? Where in the system is it located?

[Tomtom39]

Hi thanks for the quick response.
It is located on the charging side of the 12 volt system. So in short I have the small relay at the back of the alternator that tells this big relay to open or close to send charge to the batteries and it is this big relay that gets a little hot. It has 2 large gauge red cables which run directly to the battery banks .
Thanks
Nick

[hellosailor]

Sounds like a continuous duty solenoid which is part of an external regulator function. If it is rated for continuous duty, there should be no problem, assuming "hot" isn't too hot to keep bare flesh against it.

[David M]

You may want to consider changing it out for a combiner or an isolator....something designed for charging both banks and yet keeps the house and staring banks isolated when necessary. Having this automated is a nice thing to have.

Just wondering, is what you are talking about possibly a battery combiner? If so, it should not be getting real hot to the touch.

[Tomtom39]

Thanks for the really informative responses. I was told that I could swap out for an automated battery switch/charge regulator but where I am in the Caribbean right now would be very costly so will wait until back in the uk.
Currently a nice lot of amps going in to both banks and seems to be regulating nicely when close to full by dropping the input of amps.
Thanks again
Nick

[boatman61]

Check out prices in St Maarten.... they beat most places including the UK on prices for a hell of a lot of gear