moonman wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2012 at 6:48pm:

Fuse is necessary for safety of the unit but there should be one inline on the power cords that come with the unit. It will work without the fuse but you are taking a risk re a power surge.

A 3 amp fuse is relatively common for this kind of unit.  It should be placed on the hot (red wire) side.   Accidental grounding is your biggest risk of a power surge ... like, say, getting water in the circuit some where (and when does THIS ever happen on a canoe trip!).

dd