Technological Advantages of Dairyland Galvanic Isolators

Onshore safety grounding systems are designed to protect your vessel and others when they are connected to shore power. However, this safety measure can affect boat hulls and metal components, due to the presence of dissimilar metals in the grounding system and your boat. Aided by the water’s electrolytic properties, this galvanic corrosion will ultimately damage your yacht’s drive system and hull.

Protective coatings and sacrificial anodes can help prevent some corrosion from occurring, but the most reliable method of eliminating corrosion on your boat is through installing a Galvanic Isolation (GI) device. Placing a Dairyland GI in series with the grounding conductor for the shore power cable will:

• Block the flow of DC (galvanic) current that can corrode your boat
• Ensure AC current can flow to ground during a lightning or AC fault event
• Provide peace of mind with a fail-safe design and a virtually unlimited lifespan

Dairyland manufactures Galvanic Isolator models to a higher level of performance because we recognize the safety and liability implications due to inadequate grounding from our experience with similar products in the energy industry. Dairyland brings this experience to the marine industry by offering a much more complete and conservative approach to boat grounding and galvanic isolation.

 

Reliable, Fail-Safe Design

The American Boat and Yacht Council wrote standard A-28, which includes criteria for galvanic isolators and the NEC requirement for safety grounding under all conditions. Through Dairyland’s efforts and example, the standard includes provisions for fail-safe design, ensuring an effective grounding path even when tested to the limits of the conductor’s current rating. This assured safety grounding is a critical safety feature. All of Dairyland’s devices are rated as fail-safe and come with high levels of AC fault capability, which exceed the A-28 required ratings.

Additionally, each device is rated with high levels of AC fault protection as well as a significant lightning surge current rating. During an AC fault or lightning event, the isolator will instantly switch to conduction, passing all current from the boat to ground. These important product ratings will ensure that the product withstands these conditions and minimizes the chance of a product failure.

 

Rugged Marine Construction

Other isolators on the market generate large amounts of heat, not ideal for a marine setting. Compensation is designed into these products through heat sinks or cooling fins, open vents or even small fans–all potential points of failure.

Designed for a marine environment with harsh conditions, the Dairyland Galvanic Isolator is hermetically sealed against moisture and has no known limit for its lifespan to date. Its design removes the need for heat sinks or fins, and each model version comes with a high steady-state AC current rating, in order to match or exceed the rating of the ship-to-shore cable. This rugged design makes the Dairyland GI completely maintenance-free. Historically across product lines, in the marine world and in the energy industry, Dairyland’s failure rate is lower than 0.001%, so you can rest easy knowing your purchase will outlast any expectations.

 

Third Party Verified

At the core of Dairyland’s design philosophy is the desire to offer rugged products that last. Our customers can look to our extensive third-party certifications as an indicator of our commitment to product performance. Across the board, Dairyland products undergo independent laboratory testing and our galvanic isolators meet and exceed marine industry standard ABYC A-28 and are also UL certified to meet national electric code requirements for “effective grounding path”. Our products are used throughout the world in a variety of harsh environments, from marine settings to desert pipelines and are trusted to perform.