Checking battery voltage

[Srah 1953]

Hi. I presume, if you want to check the voltage of an individual battery in the house bank, all that's required is to disconnect the positive lead as presumably all the negatives will be at zero volts. Yes/no?
Thanks

[john61ct]

Yes.

But only needed if checking paralleled units or you specifically want to isolate.

Serial strings, can measure each cell while still connected.

[sailorboy1]

you don't need to disconnect anything, just stick the probe of your meter onto the terminals

[sailorboy1]

btw, I never take a positive lead off a battery without taking off ground off first, otherwise you are just asking to short the battery to something

[GILow]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

btw, I never take a positive lead off a battery without taking off ground off first, otherwise you are just asking to short the battery to something

On a car, maybe. But on a boat?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by GILow

On a car, maybe. But on a boat?

still, that dangling positive terminal 90% of the time is still a hot wire

At heart I'm just a glorified knuckle dragger and try to always follow the number 1 rule of electrical safety "don't lick live wires" so try to ensure it doesn't accidently happen somehow

[john61ct]

A bank of any size should have a master isolation switch fitted.

[Srah 1953]

The bank is wired in parallel. For various reasons they were neglected for a couple of years. I'm assuming that if all the positives are attached, you would get a reading of the average voltage of all the batteries in the bank - no?
I'm aware this is not a proper load testing
Thanks for all the comments

[Srah 1953]

Originally Posted by john61ct

A bank of any size should have a master isolation switch fitted.

Presumably the master switch is separating the bank from the various loads. It won't have any impact, I assume, if you short across the battery, which I have done.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Srah 1953

The bank is wired in parallel. For various reasons they were neglected for a couple of years. I'm assuming that if all the positives are attached, you would get a reading of the average voltage of all the batteries in the bank - no?
I'm aware this is not a proper load testing
Thanks for all the comments

Yes, that's a reasonable assessment.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Srah 1953

Presumably the master switch is separating the bank from the various loads. It won't have any impact, I assume, if you short across the battery, which I have done.

Impact?

Depends on what you short with. Dad dropped a spanner on his truck battery one day. The spanner instantly welded itself to the terminals and got red hot. Before he could find something to pull it off with, the battery had destroyed itself. To this day, he refuses to buy batteries with both terminals at the same end.

The spanner looked pretty odd too.

Bit I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "short". If you mean, "measure" across the terminals, no, not if at least one end of the battery being tested has been disconnected from the main system.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Srah 1953

Hi. I presume, if you want to check the voltage of an individual battery in the house bank, all that's required is to disconnect the positive lead as presumably all the negatives will be at zero volts. Yes/no?
Thanks

To answer the original question, yes.

Getting a straight answer on CF is rare.

[Mirage35]

Originally Posted by GILow

To answer the original question, yes.

Getting a straight answer on CF is rare.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Srah 1953

Hi. I presume, if you want to check the voltage of an individual battery in the house bank, all that's required is to disconnect the positive lead as presumably all the negatives will be at zero volts. Yes/no?

Thanks

So... did you get satisfactory readings from the batteries in the end?

[Srah 1953]

Originally Posted by GILow

So... did you get satisfactory readings from the batteries in the end?

Yes, I did thank you.