Electrical and physical heater problems - 07 outback V

[rob.williams@gmail.com]

Hello, I purchased my '07 outback V towards the end of July this year. I've put about 65 hours on the boat so far.

The other night we were out on the lake and I was running the nav lights, docking lights, stereo, and heater (on high). In addition, I had two lights from home depot charging on the cigarette lighters.

I have the 325 engine with 70 amp alternator. The heater's fuse kept popping. I'd push it back in and the heater would run for about 5 minutes... then the fuse would pop again. Has anyone had this issue? I've run the heater on high many times before. Am I drawing too much power because of the changing lights? An easy test is trying again with and without the lights charging which I'll try next time I'm out on the boat. Just curious if anyone else has had this issue.

Secondly, there are three heater tubes. Two on the walkway, and one by the driver's feet. The heater tube by the drivers feet has melted off. I don't know why, but the tube itself melted off the place where it mounts on the boat. Has anyone had this problem either?

Thanks for any advice!

-Robert

[zabooda]

The single speed fans on the heater are similar to the engine compartment fan. I would think the heater is connected to a seperate circuit with its own breaker than connected with the cigarette lighter plug. The components on the heater shouldn't be melting as the heat source is supplied by the engine through a heater core and that temperature is not hot enough to melt plastic which would be hot enough to burn peoples tooties. Something else would have melted the plastic. Someone may have tried to shrink the tubing on the back and got an open flame a little too close. I think your heater is made by Heatercraft and they can contacted on the following website.

http://www.heatercraft.com/

[rob.williams@gmail.com]

I tested the heater while I was out today. Stereo was the only thing on, nothing charging and the heater's fuse still popped. Looks like something is wrong electrically with the boat (yay...).

Looks like the heater is connected via a separate circuit as zabooda suggested. I'll likely be calling the dealer to explain the issue to them. Maybe when I take the boat out for the year I'll bring it down there and have them take care of any warranty issues.