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Old 02-05-2020, 20:22   #1
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Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

I went to the boat today and switch or house batteries are not working correctly. Help me understand what is wrong.

I have a starting battery and a house battery. Both are wired into a 1+2 switch. 1 is house and 2 is starter. When the switch is in 2, 1+2 (both) the house lights work. When the battery stitch is switch to 1 no lights, and of course when switch is in the off position no lights.

I checked the voltage at the house battery at the battery terminals using volt meter in each position of the battery switch with the following results:

Off - 12+ volts at house battery terminals.
2 - 12+ volts at house battery terminals
1+2 - 12+ volts house battery terminal.
1 - little or no voltage

Also tested the house battery with the battery terminals off, and it has 12+ volts at the house battery terminals. Have to wonder what is down stream of the #1 position on the battery switch that might cause no voltage at the actual battery when the switch is turned on.

When I say I tested at the battery terminals I mean I held one end of the multi-meter on the + and the other on the - post.


My question is what could be causing the battery to read very little voltage at the actual terminals when the battery switch is turned to the house batteries (position 1), but when I put the battery switch in off position it reads normal voltage? Any ideas???
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Old 02-05-2020, 20:35   #2
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

I'm not sure you understand how yuor switches are wired but in any case 12v is pretty much dead.
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Old 02-05-2020, 20:49   #3
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

When I say 12+ that really means it is more like close to 13 volts. The battery is at it normal voltage, but yet when I turn the switch to 1 the voltage drops to almost zero. it reads in the mVs. If you need exact voltages I can get that.
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Old 02-05-2020, 21:06   #4
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

If the battery is dropping from 12v to 0v Directly at the battery terminals when a load is added. The battery is toast. Go buy a new one.
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Old 02-05-2020, 21:44   #5
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Is there a good test or tests I can run to verify that the battery is dead?
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Old 02-05-2020, 22:39   #6
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Yah. Hook up a load (Light) and watch the voltage drop to 0...
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Old 03-05-2020, 09:02   #7
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Quote:
Originally Posted by TrailerCruiser View Post
Is there a good test or tests I can run to verify that the battery is dead?
Buy a battery load tester--they aren't expensive.
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Old 03-05-2020, 09:30   #8
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Quote:
Originally Posted by TrailerCruiser View Post
I went to the boat today and switch or house batteries are not working correctly. Help me understand what is wrong.

I have a starting battery and a house battery. Both are wired into a 1+2 switch. 1 is house and 2 is starter. When the switch is in 2, 1+2 (both) the house lights work. When the battery stitch is switch to 1 no lights, and of course when switch is in the off position no lights.

I checked the voltage at the house battery at the battery terminals using volt meter in each position of the battery switch with the following results:

Off - 12+ volts at house battery terminals.
2 - 12+ volts at house battery terminals
1+2 - 12+ volts house battery terminal.
1 - little or no voltage

Also tested the house battery with the battery terminals off, and it has 12+ volts at the house battery terminals. Have to wonder what is down stream of the #1 position on the battery switch that might cause no voltage at the actual battery when the switch is turned on.

When I say I tested at the battery terminals I mean I held one end of the multi-meter on the + and the other on the - post.


My question is what could be causing the battery to read very little voltage at the actual terminals when the battery switch is turned to the house batteries (position 1), but when I put the battery switch in off position it reads normal voltage? Any ideas???
Remove the neg cables from both batteries and check not only voltage but capacity, load test, each battery.
You may have a shorted battery.
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Old 03-05-2020, 09:43   #9
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Yoi can verify the switch by swapping the battery terminals on the switch, if the switch is bad the problem won’t move, good or will.
Or an easier check is, on the back of the switch there are three terminals, one for each bank and of course one out, measure voltage at both banks at the terminals, if you have bank voltage going in but not coming out, it’s the switch, switches do go bad, often it’s the ones that are never switched that go bad.
A bad bank will of course lose voltage going in and out when a load is applied. Bad bank will lose voltage everywhere.
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Old 03-05-2020, 10:12   #10
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

I'm assuming from your post that you measured battery voltage at the battery posts and that when you arrived at the boat, the battery switch was in the OFF position. If not, and the switch was ON, then whatever electrical load is there has sucked that battery dry. In this case, it 'may be' able to be recharged, 'maybe' being the operative term. If the switch was in the OFF position and there were no loads, then I'm with smac999. The battery is toast and has to be replaced.
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Old 03-05-2020, 10:19   #11
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

House battery is either heavily sulphated (probably not) or one cell has a high resistance open. Enough current to read on a voltmeter (microamps), but can't take a load. If you're reading directly on the battery posts, then the battery is toast, if reading on the clamps, clean the posts and clamps and try again.
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Old 03-05-2020, 14:55   #12
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Maybe you have wired them in opposition?
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Old 03-05-2020, 15:04   #13
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

TrailerCruiser, From your description you don't really have a start and house battery system. Your have a two battery bank system. That was the old school method of battery management that was debunked decades ago.

You do not say your boat age/make/model/size or how you use you boat. I wish everyone would put this in their profile so more appropriate answers are given.

If you are going to keep your boat for a long time I suggest that you look into doing a proper engine start/house bank battery configuration. There are probably dozens of threads on this topic on this forum.
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Old 03-05-2020, 18:11   #14
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

Thanks a lot guys for help here. Here is what I found out today

I did the load test as suggested. With my 8d AGM battery totally disconnected I measure the voltage with a voltmetter from the + (plus) to the - (Minus) post on the battery. The voltage read 12.85 with nothing attached. I then hooked a LED flood light to directly to the battery. The LED light eliminated. With the LED light running I read the voltage again with my voltmeter. Now it reads 6.92 volts with the flood light running. Based on earlier discussion someone said this meant the battery was dead. But is it really dead, or does it need a good charge? I hooked up my battery charger to the battery and put it in AGM mode. I then turned on the charger. The charger ran for a little while and then shutoff. I assume this means the battery is too low to take a charge. Is there any way to bring this AGM battery back to life or is it really dead and needs to be replace. Thoughts?
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Old 03-05-2020, 18:23   #15
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Re: Battery Switch, battery or something is wronf

My boat is a Hylas 44, 1985 model. Yes it is true the boat came with different 2 battery banks. One bank has just a group 27 lead acid battery that I use as a backup or starting battery. I have another bank, that I call house that has 2 AGM 12 volt batteries hooked in parallel. I also have a 1500 watt inverter charger that is hooked to one of my AGM batteries. The original problem that fried the AGM batteries was do to my inverter/charger charging at 16+ volts.


What is the new way to hook up two banks if a 1+2 switch is old school.
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