offshoredrillin

Just had the new subs and amps put in and the guy ran the batteries down, when charging from shore power I was always told to have batteries on. Whats the delio?...thanks Rob

Wobble

Don't sound right to me, safest way for batteries is to charge them when they are not connected to anything. That way the charger will sense full charge and kick off.

Linster

The charger can not charge as fast as the amps draw. James has the same problem, only lasts about 3-4 hours before the amp start cutting out.
Sydwaz has some six pack battery that he uses that keeps it running, catch up with him.

chuckgo6

I have a charging problem also I have a perco switch for each battery? and if I have the switches on all the boat sits for a few days the motors won't start(batteries are dead?).The batteries are new.I just bought a adapter for shore power to plug in at my house when on the trailer and put switches on all to see if batteries stay charged? I think I have a bad alternator draining my batteries when setting? the one Gage stays around 10 volts when running and the other is low but around 12 volts the both should run around 12-14 volts when running I think? having a electric hatch it makes me nervous that it won't open I hope the charger is working when plugged into shore power this will be the test.I'm a tractor trailer Mechanic and not familiar with the charging system on the boat with twin motors? any info would help I'm learning as I go.
Thank's! Chuck...............

deboatmon

There's a great deal of variety in marine battery chargers available today. What does yours output ? Most performance boaters have only two batteries and only one might be deep cycle, if that. If you have a 15 amp charger it will take a long time to charge very low, run down batteries. A 15 amp charger is "OK" for maintenance charging on the trailer or at the slip on shorepower. If I was concerned about DC power out on the water I would add a couple of large deep cycle batteries and a very good charger in the 60 amp range with auto sensing and solid state charging. My favorite battery is the Interstate deep cycle Group 29 that has a lot of cranking reserve also. I have six of these onboard. That's a lot of batteries but I spend lots of nights on the water and have lots of accessories. No problems so far.

mobilecal

Did you get caps installed with your system? This would help with your batteries draining so quickly.. And you should not have your batteries on??? what does this mean?? Do you mean you should have your switch on?? This is not true.. You can not charge a battery if its source is draining the charge.

mobilecal

Also if your battery level is low NEVER refil it with house water. Always use distilled water. The reason being that your faucet water has many types of metalergy in it and this contaminates the ionization within the batteries cells. Eventually your battery would lose the cold cranking amps and the ability to recharge or hold a charge.. FYI

deboatmon

Caps are useful for transient current spikes but offer little long term current. They are useful usually only for a stereo system and not other 12VDC loads. Whether or not you can charge with a load connected depends entirely on your rate of charge.

mobilecal

Soulds like you have a source that may bypass your switches and are draining your batteries.. Although if you gauge is reading 10volts you have 1 or 2 things going on.

1. something is shorting out, causing loss of voltage and killing the batteries.

2. Your altenator could be going bad. No matter if your battery is bad or not your alternator should keep up with the voltage needed for the motor. Your alternator should put out roughly 13-13.5 volts in your system.

If you take off your pos terminal after you crank your boat you will be able to continously run without your batteries if your alt.. is working properly.

You can take a digital multimeter and check the voltage....Just in case your gauge is bad..

What may be hapenning is your charging your batteries at home and compesating for your altenator not working properly on the water. You may be looking for a tow in.

I would get it checked soon.. Hope this helps..

mobilecal

I should have clearified my statement that the caps are meant for the stero system and not the other loads in the boat..(thanks deboatman)

Also make sure that your stereo is on thier own set of batteries. You would hate to run down your cranking batteries in the middle of a Lake with no one out there...