Do I Need a New Battery Charger ?

[Joe500]

My boat has been out of the water for a year. I've noticed recently that the battery bank 1 is quite low, it's normally charged by a small solar panel but that doesn't seem to be working. The solar panel feeds into a solar regulator with dual outputs to battery banks 1 and 2. Battery bank 2 was registering nearly 14 volts in the daylight today but I don't know why battery bank 1 isn't charging. Maybe the solar output for battery bank 1 shorted out, or maybe battery bank 1 is just too big--it's about 280 Amps, whereas battery bank 2 is perhaps 90 Amps.

So I thought I'd plug the boat in and charge it. There are no boat size outlets but I used an orange 100ft extension cord plugged into a regular household style outlet on one side, and with the help of an adapter, into the boat's 30A socket at the stern. When I flipped the switch on the permanently installed battery charger (I don't remember the make/model, probably the original one that came on my 1987 Beneteau), battery bank 1 came up to about 12.5 Volts from about 10.5 where it was in the morning. But it never went higher than 12.5V. Does that mean the charger is not working properly? Could the fact that I'm not giving the charger 30amps make it malfunction? (I think the adapter limits it to 15amps). Once I unplugged the boat after about 5 hours, the voltage immediately dropped to around 11.8V. Battery bank 1 contains two group 31 batteries that are each about 1 year old.

[sailcruiser]

Originally Posted by Joe500

My boat has been out of the water for a year. I've noticed recently that the battery bank 1 is quite low, it's normally charged by a small solar panel but that doesn't seem to be working. The solar panel feeds into a solar regulator with dual outputs to battery banks 1 and 2. Battery bank 2 was registering nearly 14 volts in the daylight today but I don't know why battery bank 1 isn't charging. Maybe the solar output for battery bank 1 shorted out, or maybe battery bank 1 is just too big--it's about 280 Amps, whereas battery bank 2 is perhaps 90 Amps.

So I thought I'd plug the boat in and charge it. There are no boat size outlets but I used an orange 100ft extension cord plugged into a regular household style outlet on one side, and with the help of an adapter, into the boat's 30A socket at the stern. When I flipped the switch on the permanently installed battery charger (I don't remember the make/model, probably the original one that came on my 1987 Beneteau), battery bank 1 came up to about 12.5 Volts from about 10.5 where it was in the morning. But it never went higher than 12.5V. Does that mean the charger is not working properly? Could the fact that I'm not giving the charger 30amps make it malfunction? (I think the adapter limits it to 15amps). Once I unplugged the boat after about 5 hours, the voltage immediately dropped to around 11.8V. Battery bank 1 contains two group 31 batteries that are each about 1 year old.

Assuming you've checked water etc. I'm struggling with this now myself. If your charger is like mine (proMariner New Pro 20 ferro resonant type) it will kill your batteries. Leaving it on will boil them from what I was told. My gut reaction to the new charger is yes. It sounds like there is more going on though. Fuses? regulator? There are some very knowledgeable folks that will get you going in the right direction. Check a thread I started on batteries for a lot of detail. I was told setting up 2 banks with primary charging going to house with an echo charger to the start bank.

Hope this helps. I'm pretty new too but reading a lot!
SC

[osirissail]

Sounds like battery bank 1 is dead or dying. Try disconnecting the charger feed to battery bank 2 and see what the charger does. Or swap the feeds.
- - Also if you have multiple feeds off the battery charger - one feed to battery bank 1 and another feed to battery bank 2, you might have a bad or loose connection in the feed to battery bank 1.