Yandina Products

FloatingMoneyPit · Post by **FloatingMoneyPit** » Tue May 02, 2006 2:57 pm

I picked up a galvanic isolator from Yandina via Defender as part of a planned shorepower installation. I'm also considering their 100A battery combiner. The units are smaller then most competitors' and less expensive.
Can anyone comment on these products?
http://www.yandina.com/

I looked at the combiner manual online and liked their suggestion for reusing the 1-2-both-off switch instead of scrapping it to buy 2 or 3 new on-off switches.
2 goes to house bank, 1 goes to starter bank, alternator goes to 2/house, starter motor goes to common, and the combiner goes across 1 and 2. Leave the switch on 1 at all times. So, your starting battery is always connected to the starter, house is always connected to the house bank, alternator charges the house until it's happy and then combiner includes the start bank, and you can parallel house with starter using "both". If you get a runaway starter motor just switch to Off. It excludes a way to disconnect the house, but I can live with that.
Am I missing something? Is this a legit power setup? Anyone happen to know if the Blue Sea combiner recommends something similar, or do they try and sell you on replacing 1/2/both with 3 on-off switches?

Ric in Richmond · Post by **Ric in Richmond** » Tue May 02, 2006 7:02 pm

Wow that someting to consider. I couldn't find it in the yandina web pages, but I think I understand it.

I just bought a combiner from westmarine (after price matching it with them...dropped $40!!!!).

I was going to reuse my 1/both/2/ OFF switch a bit differently.

I have 4x 6 volts golf cart batteries in two seperate 12 v banks (one port/ one stbd) and a seperate starter battery.

I bought one extra switch. I am going to use the new switch with the starter battery.

I was then going to run port side house to #1, stbd side house to #2 and keep it in the both position so all the house banks were on one circuit up most of the time.

This would allow me to run on one bank if one battery died, or if I was going to use the autohelm or the inverter and wanted to be sure I had reserved some house power for later.

If the starter battery failed I can simply disconnect its positive lead from the switch it is on and move it over to the house switch. Access is decent so that would take two minutes.

I could also add in one more switch to parallel it or force the combiner to do it...but that is hard on the combiner. I also could have my portable jump start pack that goes with me and just jump the battery. (or even a jumper cable come to think of it!)

But I have to think more about the option Yandina presents.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Tue May 02, 2006 7:43 pm

Andina (the human behind Yandina) sometimes posts on the CSBB, and from what I've seen she's pretty nice about answering questions about her products (which isn't to say that folks here aren't - of course! - but just in case you wanted to get her take on something). It is *bit* kinder and gentler than the old CWBB - which it replaced - but it's not as civilized as what you are used to here :-)

You can find it here:

http://www.cs-bb.com/forums/CSBB/index.cgi

FloatingMoneyPit · Post by **FloatingMoneyPit** » Tue May 02, 2006 9:28 pm

Ric,
http://www.yandina.com/manuals.htm
Check the Combiner 100 on the manuals page of the Yandina site. Funny, of the 3 scenarios the describe in the manual, only 1 is for boats and it's an outboard powerboat. But the principle is the same.
The Combiner 150 manual has more details. I'll have to give a closer reading later. It also appears the combiners have some extra leads which allow them to be controlled remotely, too.

By the way, what is the West Marine price-matching policy? Do you have to corner the store manager in a back aisle with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge? Or is it a standard thing? God knows I've seen Blue Seas stuff much cheaper elsewhere. Would be nice to pick it up when I need it instead of waiting for the UPS truck.

Rachel, I agree about the CW board. I check in there occasionally, but it feels too much like an internet board. Too many off-topic flames and BS'ers. But it WAS neat to ask Robert Perry -- yup, THE Robert Perry, folks! -- a question and have him answer it personally. Like meeting baseball greats at baseball card shows as a kid all over again. And the volume of users means you're sure to get some kind of response, but caveat emptor...

Like Tim says, it's all about boats here. I like it that way. Feels more like chatting with the guys at my previous small-town marina while waiting for bilgekote to dry. Some of us even seem to know what the heck we're doing ("we" not necessarily including "me", that is!)

Post by **Tim** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:09 am

FloatingMoneyPit wrote:By the way, what is the West Marine price-matching policy? Do you have to corner the store manager in a back aisle with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge? Or is it a standard thing? God knows I've seen Blue Seas stuff much cheaper elsewhere. Would be nice to pick it up when I need it instead of waiting for the UPS truck.

We've had a discussion about this on here before. The deal is that if you show the folks at WM another catalog or flyer that shows a lower price on a particular item, they match the price--but often subtracting a shipping cost if the item is catalog only. (I'm not sure what the criteria is here, but having been told that once at the store, it pretty much soured me on the whole deal forever.)

It's a nice enough policy, and handy if you happen to need something NOW and have already done your research elsewhere. But, as I said in the earlier thread on this topic (which became one of the more unpleasant threads ever on this forum, thanks to one individual), I just buy where the price is lower in the first place. I see no reason to give WM (or any other retailer with higher-than-market prices) any business when other retailers are selling the product for less all the time.

The beauty of capitalism is that WM, or anyone, can charge whatever they want...but likewise I can buy wherever else I want, if I so choose. I'm not about to cart a file cabinet full of catalogs to my local WM so that they can deign to lower their inflated price to the level that 6 other retailers already charge routinely. And if you happen to be in the store without your fliers or catalogs, you're out of luck: pay full retail and like it.

If they want to price match, why don't they just bring their prices in line in the first place? This is why I choose not to shop there. Others may make their own choice, but I'd rather pay UPS for shipping myself. This sort of pricing policy just rubs me wrong.

I admit that part of my problem with WM is that the local store is so poor here. I know that the stores are far better in other areas, but our local one isn't even worth a visit.

That said, I'm not the consummate bargain hunter either. All I ask is a fair price: fair for the retailer, and fair for me. Good enough. I haven't the time to price compare every item. So this means that almost anyone BUT West Marine gets my boating dollar now. Even with a wholesale Port Supply account, WM is higher than most--and when I found out that WM employees get far lower prices than my wholesale, I pretty much quit with them altogether, as it just showed how inflated the prices were to begin with. The boating industry isn't big enough to screw people routinely; it all comes back in the end.

I'm not necessarily right, and I admit to being a stubborn Mainer (sometimes to the point of self-inflicting inconvenience), but this is how I feel about it. Obviously most people must feel differently, as West Marine continues to grow. And I have no problem with that...but I shan't be contributing to their growth, either, when I can instead reward a company that actually charges fairer prices to begin with.

Ric in Richmond · Post by **Ric in Richmond** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:31 am

I took in my order page printed from http://www.skipper-dan.com/ and the did look it up on their system.

They matched it dollar for dollar and didn't add shipping...but I think it is fair to pay and they probably should have.

They are always more than willing to price match though. Did it with my GPS, Saved close to $80.00 last week with blue sea stuff.

It is all about value. Be close on price and close by with good inventory and service and you have my business. I live this daily as a State Farm Insurance Agent. If there is any business that is being gone after by internet and 1-800 it is Insurance. We grow every day by offering a great value. We know price is important. We also know that information and service is important. A good mix and you create value.

Thanks for the link to the yandina manuals with the info.

george · Post by **george** » Wed May 03, 2006 1:07 pm

Defender sold me a 3db antenna and coax for half of what West Marine was asking. ($55 compared to $98)

It pays to shop around. I only use West Marine when I go to their store and pick it up, otherwise you can find better deals somewhere on the Internet.