SW200

The Albright SW-200 is rated for 250 Amps continuous carry current as well as 1000 Amps for over 60 seconds. It is rated to break 1500 Amps at 96VDC without damage. It is the most common main contactor used in EV conversions today. This contactor has a long history durable service including often being used to break potentials well beyond its ratings. We do not recommend exceeding the ratings until further testing can be done, but find it encouraging that it has held up to much abuse. The contacts are made of a silver alloy, are of the dual break configuration and can easily be inspected visually. Magnetic blowouts and the mounting bracket come installed. Additionally we modify the unit with a special snubber diode on the coil terminals that is rated for use with the Zilla and Hairball. Beware that the snubber diode that sometimes comes on these units from the Albright factory will not protect the Hairball driver circuit from damage. When in doubt it is always better to add the snubbers that are sent with the Hairball. The magnetic blowouts give the contactor power terminals polarity. For proper operation the side of the contactor with the + label should be connected toward the most positive side of the high voltage pack. Also, if using it with high voltages, we always suggest leaving 3" of airspace next to the open ends of the contacts in order to allow space for the arc to be blown out in the event of a high load disconnect. Some people use two or three of these in series for higher voltage ratings. The Hairball is capable of driving two coils directly, but three would overload it and so it would need an external relay to take the load of the coils. When mounting multiple units we also suggest avoiding sharing the arc blowout zone around the contact tips to avoid a plasma ball between them.