Shore power only charging one bank

brandonmayberry

My 2000 fiesta vee has two battery banks. Each bank has two batteries. Last season the charger seemed to charge both sets of batteries fine. Went to run the boat in the drive on the hose today and noticed bank 2 was dead. It's the bank I left the switch on over the winter to maintain my fridge and such and I know it was working fine a few weeks ago. Moved the boat to a new house and it doesn't seem to be charging now. The other bank appears to be charging just fine. Any thoughts? Are there fuses that run between the charger and each bank individually? Any help is super appreciated!

randy56

@brandon did you leave it pluged in all winter? swap leads to see if your charger works on other bank of battries, if battries are still good you will find out if it is one side of the charger. Don't believe there is a fuse. Lose conection? somewhere ? test leads with dc tester with out battrie hooked up.

brandonmayberry

Yes it was hooked up all winter. I replaced one set of batteries last summer and that side is the good side. I'm thinking the batteries have just gone bad. I'm going to get a replacement set tomorrow and hopefully that fixes it. Unfortunately it was a set of 31series blue tops that's went bad so time to break out the $$&

randy56

those battries should not be bad in 8-9 months. have them tested

brandonmayberry

Sorry for the misunderstanding. The blue tops which I suspect are bad are a few years old. The ones 8or 9 months old are still good. 

Michael T

If your charger will handle more than one chemistry of battery maybe thing replacing those blue tops with Series 31 AGMs?

MarkB

Either batteries are shot due to over draining them or age, or the charger has defaulted to only charging bank 1. Do you have an LCD screen on your charger? If so, it will cycle through the batteries it's charging. 

youstolemybeer

My 265 did that last year, boat ran great the weekend before, then the next weekend the boat would not start due to dead batteries (house and start) Took alternator off and had it checked, it was good. Checked battery charger, it was good. I replaced the batteries and everything ran fine again. Im guessing that the batteries just had enough and quit on me all of a sudden.  Have the batteries checked and replace as needed.

Michael T

BTW if the batteries have dropped below 10v the boat's charger might not 'recognize" them and fail to charge. IF you think the batteries are still good give them a boost to over 10v and see if the boat charger will "recognize" them.

brandonmayberry

Put them on a trickle charger and they charged back up to normal. I have them in the boat again on the normal charger with the fridge running. We will see if they stay charged up or die out again. Guess that will determine if the charger is working or the batteries are crud.

@MarkB, I do not have an LCD screen.

Michael T

@brandonmayberry, fingers crossed! If they fail putting a meter and a load on them will tell if they can hold a charge.

brandonmayberry

Well they died out again. I switched to my other bank and I think I was wrong. It appears neither bank is charging up. I'm leaning towards the charger being bad. Any thoughts? I hooked a meter to the battery and turned the charger on and off and it didn't change at all switching the charger on and off so I assume it's shot. The red light on it says it's on however. 

MarkB

If you measure voltage on the charger on and off, and nothing changed, I think you have your answer.  I assume you have power to the charger (is the breaker on, is the breaker working, did you check you have 110V at the charger feed?).

brandonmayberry

The boat is hooked to shore power. Breaker is on, light is on at breaker and light is on at charger...will a normal marine on-board battery charger replace this or do i need a special on that hard wires in? its currently a Guest Charge Pro model 2615 15 amp charger. 

Thanks for all of your help. Seems like every year when its time to get on the water things start to go wrong.

MarkB

Not an expert there. I'd go to a local marine shop or West Marine and give them the batteries you have and current charger. Hopefully they would know enough about it.

Before you do that, are you sure all 4 batteries aren't shot? It's a possibility you should elliminate. If they are all shot, none of them would hold charge.  I think the fact that the trickle charge was able to do the trick is a clue. I'd be tempted to trickle charge them up, and leave them unconnected for a day and then test voltage to make sure they are holding charge, that way you know it has to be the charger.

brandonmayberry

Im sure the batteries on the one bank are good. the other two take and hold a charge when not in use. Im at the point now where im pretty certain its the battery charger. Im having issues trying to find a direct replacment. All chargers seem to have an AC plug and mine is currently hard wired. Can i just cut the plug and hard wire it to the pre existing wires or do i have to install an AC plug into my boat for the sole purpose of installing a different charger?

randy56

You choose, but most all replacements have a plug now days, so next time, if put a receptical you will be ready. That boat does not look that old. chargers don't last as long as we would like them to. 

MarkB

When you say AC plug, it is not a transformer is it, as in it converts to something like DC at a different voltage? I wouldn't think so, I'm assuming you are talking about a normal, plain plug, right?

If so, I can't think of a reason why you couldn't splice the 110V feed line.  Cableguy Greg is probably the best guy to ask, but if it were my boat (don't take my advice, lol), I'd be tempted to do it with safe, to code splicing/connection.  One thing you have to watch is connection that don't meet code = no insurance if something happens.

brandonmayberry

@MarkB, yes they appear to be just normal wall outlet style plugs. I have plugs in the cabin that run from shore power i assume i could run the cable to so the charger is powerd but i really wanted something clean and easy to replace.

@randy56 its a 2000 model so 16 years is probably a good life span for a charger i would assume.

brandonmayberry

Well I replaced the charger today and everything's looking good! 

jme097

Good!

MarkB

Great stuff.  Does the new charger have anot LCD display?

brandonmayberry

No lcd screen. Went with this model

http://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GEN2-Waterproof-Battery-Charger/dp/B003JSJS5I  

I like it it better than the original so far. 

MarkB

Alright. The LCD just helps with fault monitoring and correction.

brandonmayberry

thanks to all of you for all the help with this issue!