Nautilus 15 Amp, 3-Bank Charger

[outdoor]

I just bought a Mastercraft (Canadian Tire) Nautilus onboard 15A 3 Bank Charger in mid-late September.

It was to replace my Interacter 10amp 1 bank charger that my surveyor said was not appropriate or safe for onboard use.

So anyhow.

The charger is supposed to cycle through each bank sending up to 15A if required to charge.

the first couple of weeks everytime I was by the boat outside, I could hear the charger quite loudly.

the batteries seemed to be already fully charged, however it was still fairly loud. Compared to the Interacter that you could not even hear.

Well sure enough I've winterized the boat covered it all up and tied down tarp.

I was then walking by the boat this weekend and noticed there was no noise coming from the boat. I went by randomly a few times over the weekend.

So I'm wondering is the charger working?

Any experiences? I want my batteries to be in tact in the spring after the winter.

I was hoping to not have to undo and go in and check.

[knottybuoyz]

I've never really trusted Crappy Tire battery chargers although I can't say why. I've chosen to go with Pro-Mariner (or Iota) instead. So far (two winters) it's worked fine. I plug it in directly (bypassing the shore power connection & panel) about once a month to maintain the batteries. You could set up a remote connection to your batteries that you can put a volt meter on to make sure they're topped up. A few bucks in wire & some alligator clips and it'd give you some piece of mind over the winter. I also have 30W solar panels hooked to the system but they don't usually work too well when they're covered by 6' of fluffy white stuff.

[outdoor]

I just was going to leave the boat connected to Shore Power all winter long, 24/7 so I know the batteries are kept up.

The charger is supposed to go down to maintenance levels.

The problem is I'm wondering since the charger is not making noise now, it was before, whether it is actually working.

If nobody is familiar, I guess I will have to untie and unwrap boat and go in and see if the charger still shows power? I guess? Don't know what else to do to ensure it is working.