New Boat - off to check the house battery bank.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by lesterbutch

I do not understand possibly risking the lives of everyone on board, because you wanted to save money and not replace your batteries in a timely fashion?

They were not and as yet are not my batteries.
If you read the post you would have seen these are in a boat I am purchasing.

I cannot help but feel you are being "penny wise and pound follish"! My life and those of my loved ones and friends are surely worth more tha a few batteries!

You make it sound like that if a boat has flat house batteries we will all explode into a ball of flame.

If the housebatteries are working great, I will use them
If they dont, I will replace them and have budgetted for it
But I sure as sh1t wont replace 1200 amp hours ($5000) of batts "just because".

[ranger58sb]

Our oldest bank of AGMs is in its 11th season, still seems fine.


-Chris

[BruceS]

If 'they are duds' the voltage will only drop slowly over some time.
If you have the time & can get at the battery bank I'd check the voltage battery by battery after being off charger/shore for a couple of hours.
It may only be that ONE battery has a crook cell. (or more)
If the rest hold up OK you might get some interest by selling them to a land lubber for his outback fishing shack. (more than scrap value)

[SV Sailfish]

Hey, congrats on your prospective boat purchase!

Now sell it before you even spend a dime on it and have the 2 best days in boating back to back!

Then give a grin and go have a fine Aussie beer!

Cheers!

And for God's sake... don't you dare take that boat anywhere with old batteries. You will risk the lives of all on board. (seems someone said that up above somewhere)

[Tempting Fate]

Personally, I would never trust batteries I had not personally cared for, even if they were just a few months old, let alone ten years! If they were much, much newer, I would have a pro to a definitive load test (best) and capacitance test (with his expensive meter; second best). Best to use common sense and replace them.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Tempting Fate

Personally, I would never trust batteries I had not personally cared for

I am trusting them to run the fridge and TV
If they fail the beer goes warm and I cant watch game of thrones.
Hardly the end of the world.

Best to use common sense and replace them.

Easy to say when it not your money.
If you want to pay please make a direct deposit to......

Common sense says the motor in my car needs replacing as it has 270,000km on the clock.
Reality says its still working so the money stays in my wallet.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by SV Sailfish

And for God's sake... don't you dare take that boat anywhere with old batteries. You will risk the lives of all on board. (seems someone said that up above somewhere)

Will our death involve a fiery explosion?
How about unicorns?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by BruceS

If 'they are duds' the voltage will only drop slowly over some time.
If you have the time & can get at the battery bank I'd check the voltage battery by battery after being off charger/shore for a couple of hours.
It may only be that ONE battery has a crook cell. (or more)
If the rest hold up OK you might get some interest by selling them to a land lubber for his outback fishing shack. (more than scrap value)

Thanks Bruce, I'll get them checked properly when out of the water soon for final survey and bottom job.

[smac999]

the only way to proproply test the house bank is with a c20 test. and this will take up to 20 hours. so not really something a buyer can do.

I normall see AGM's last ~5 years. they last less then flooded acid.

I have some 2-3 year old ones at my house right now that only test at ~80% capicity.

those 10 year old batteries will probably work, but you might only have a few hundred amp hours intstead of 1200

a new 1200ah AGM bank will cost you ~$4000 usd or so

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

This is an off the Internet picture of the panels it has.
They should shed more light on things?
Line in the green claims batteries are charged?
If they are duds, disconnecting shore power while fridges are running should see a rapid drop on that line right?

that panel isn't the one from your boat. they are different loads.

sort of.

with a 60a load, the 1200ah bank should last 20 hours down to 10.5v. don't use that panel amp gauge. that is only the panel and not the net battery draw. you'd need a shunt right on the battery.

a big fridge would probably last a few days.

[Dave-Zim]

I would start using them. Best way to tell if they work or not.
As you say, if they flunk out, your beer goes warm.
Although that's pretty bloody bad, it's not life threatening.
I assume you're not buying the boat and buggering off across an ocean straight away so you can replace them at any time if they don't hold up.
If you get a years use out of them, sweet, it's a year you haven't had to run the new replacements.

[Simi 60]

OK, laymans inspection yesterday indicates they are shot.
I flicked off shore power, turned some knobs at the board, turned on inverter down near the battery bank and the car stereo and led lights all worked but 240v was dead.
Not sure if there was another mystery switch I should have flicked somewhere, it wouldn't surprise me if there was.

Battery indicator in the switch-panel at the helm showed volts in the green, but amps barely registered. flicking between the 1,2,3 positions did nothing
Amps on the big switch panel below also registered nothing worth noting.

System currently has 6 x 200ah 12vagm's hooked up to make a 600ah 24v bank being charged by a Victron Skylla 24v/50a via an 8kva genset - the picture below is with shore power turned on.

That was supposedly able to run a near 550litre (19.5cf)samsung 240v fridge freezer/icemaker, a separate small bar/bait fridge (there are an additional bar fridge and same size freezer as well currently turned off) and an 80 litre 240v HWS .

There will be a few hours a day of 40inch LED tv use and occasional pumps for taps, sani loo toilet, electric kettle twice a day and some led light usage as well as anchor light at night and a sounder.

Additional items like the 240 v washer and drier would be used when the genset is running.

I find it hard to believe that the battery bank was sized correctly for that sort of load, I may be wrong and my research indicates that the Skylla was barely capable of charging that bank and if wanting to add some more batts I would have to get another charger to compliment the one it has.

As the boat has a large flat roof I plan on dumping a pile of panels on the roof to cut back on genset usage.
I can currently get a tier 1 brand of 250a x 10 12v for $1500 so that'd probably be a nice start running through an 80a outback or similar mppt.


Any advise on bank sizing, battery brand, charger requirements would be appreciated.
Thinking I am possibly going to dropping the quick $10 k on an upgrade here.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

Our oldest bank of AGMs is in its 11th season, still seems fine.


-Chris

Had three-battery bank of Deka AGM's for twelve years. Maintained by either a three stage solar controller or a three stage battery charger. At the twelve year mark, one of the batteries would not hold charge. I replaced all three with Deja AGM's again.

[BruceS]

Simi I don't think you are finding the right switches. Your setup sounds a little like mine on a houseboat.
You really need the previous owner to run through how to use that particular setup.
Where are you located?
If the batteries are in the green you are halfway there.
There may be a 100A megafuse between the batteries & the inverter.
Is there a switch on/under the Victron?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by BruceS

Simi I don't think you are finding the right switches. Your setup sounds a little like mine on a houseboat.
You really need the previous owner to run through how to use that particular setup.
Where are you located?
If the batteries are in the green you are halfway there.
There may be a 100A megafuse between the batteries & the inverter.
Is there a switch on/under the Victron?

I was thinking a houseboat should have a similar setup.
You are right, I do need the get the previous owner involved but the owner is Sydney based and I assume working remote as he is pretty hard to get hold of.
The boat is in Brisbane so a fair distance to come.
He will come up for the slipping and sea trials, but that is a few weeks away yet.

Battery bank, Victron charger and separate inverter is in a space aft of the engine room, doorway in is made for an 8 year old child, apparently a strong one given the battery weight.
I sent my wife in with a camera but none of them show a switch underneath the charger.

Obviously when I get it , access will be improved and the position of the charger and inverter will be moved somewhere more accessible