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Newbie Needs Help understanding the electrical system in my 400 EC, Batteries dying/ignition switch
Jodijoe
Member Posts: 56 ✭
We've had our 2010 400 EC with hard top for 2 years now and we love it. However, several aspects of the electrical system do not make sense to me. My port key is incapable of being turned to "ACC." My 2 house batteries go into brownout mode after a few hours when I'm running lights, radio, pressurized water and toilet. We also have a day boat that has pressurized water and we haven't come close to killing one battery with a full day of use.
1. My port key is incapable of being turned to "ACC." Like a car key, it seems that turning the key to the left to ACC to run the radio won't kill your car battery, but my key simply can't be turned to the left even though the face plate has a position for ACC. My stereo will NOT even work unless I turn the port key to the "ON" position for the whole day. Like a car, the battery would die quickly if you did the same in your car. See photo. I'll try to upload a video.
1. My port key is incapable of being turned to "ACC." Like a car key, it seems that turning the key to the left to ACC to run the radio won't kill your car battery, but my key simply can't be turned to the left even though the face plate has a position for ACC. My stereo will NOT even work unless I turn the port key to the "ON" position for the whole day. Like a car, the battery would die quickly if you did the same in your car. See photo. I'll try to upload a video.
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2. Other items draw power even though they are not turned on. Here's a photo of my cockpit fridge light on despite all the interior power panel switches being off. Same with my TV1 satellite dome. I was laying on top of my hard top in the yard to remove shrink wrap when I heard the sat dish humming periodically, looking for a better sat signal, even though all switches were off. The ONLY way I could get it to stop drawing power was to unplug the coax cable up on the hard top immediately under the dome. Again, all interior panel switches were off. Only the battery switches were on.
My switches don't go to ACC. Only On and Start. You have to turn it to "on" to run the stereo, and you can leave it all day.
The biggest draw on batteries at anchor is refrigerators. Cabin lights can also draw a fair amount, so it's best to leave them off when not using them. If your batteries aren't lasting, you might need to replace them. They will last 3-4 years in normal use.
Line 1 is the supply for house power (battery charger, fridges, water heater, etc.). Line 2 runs the air conditioner.
The Line 1/2 toggle switch has no effect on charging. It only determines which line is shown on the volt meter at the top left. You can leave it in either position.
Do you have two sets of shore power power inlet plugs? One at the stern and one at the bow? The port/stbd switch determines which set is connected.
The two green Duracels say "cranking" so I assume they are the starter batteries. The black ones look like they are wired in parallel to each other, so that's the house bank. Make sure they are deep cycle batteries, not cranking batteries. Also check the cables to make sure there's no corrosion between the cable clamp and the battery post, and the clamps are good and tight.
Your batteries definitely should not go bad after one season. I wonder if your charger is dying. In the photo, you are plugged into shore power, and the charger is turned on, but you are only showing 11 volts in the DC volt meter at top right. The charger should be pushing 13 volts when it's charging. Chargers seem to fail after about 10-12 years, but maybe yours died early.
You should run the genny under load for at least 15 minutes at least once a month, preferably every two weeks. Let it warm up, and then turn on the AC and water heater to give it some exercise.
Do that once a week for the first couple months of the season, and see if the problems go away.
When you are using the generator, it's fine to run it with a light load. Diesel gennys don't like that, but it's fine for yours. If that's a 5-kilowatt generator, it can run the charger, fridges, AC and water heater all at the same time. Might have to turn off the water heater if you want to run the microwave.
BTW if your charger is dead, it means the only time you are charging the batteries is when the engines are running. That would explain why they don't take a charge. When you unplug shore power after running the charger overnight, the DC volt meter should read at least 12 volts.
The genny will burn gas as the demand comes to it, you will hear it when the load comes to it.
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express
The boat came with a sat dome whose technology was obsolete, so I bought the new TV1. The installer said he replaced the wiring but just used the same route as the old connections when I questioned him about the power draw. Do you happen to know if sat domes came standard on Rinker 400 ECs? I'm guessing no, and the installer may have routed the wiring less than ideal config. Do you know into which aux panel switch it SHOULD be wired?
So, can chargers slowly lose their ability to charge? Or is it alive one day, then dead the next?
Then go in the engine room and look at the current meter on the front of the charger itself. (I'm assuming you still have the original charger.) When the charger is on, it should show at least 4-5 amps, and you might hear the fan running.
Joe, Those battery terminals need cleaned up. The corrosion could cause an issue. Also, the positive terminals need to be covered. Fox Chapel should know better of they are maintaining your boat. If you were to stopped by the USCG, they would gig you for having the positives uncovered. I would consider adding a 3rd house battery. Replace all of the house batteries at the same time so you know the age of the batteries. Consider AGM batteries. @Dream_Inn , how many house batteries do you have on your 400?
Go Steelers!!!
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express
I just thought of one more thing: my cockpit ice maker has never worked, but could it still be calling for power? Do you know if it is rigged just like the fridges where the dial needs to be turned off? We don't use it since we don't replenish the house water often enough to stay fresh.
Any specifics regarding how many amps/volts/watts/dual 30 amp shore power cords I should buy to replace the old one?
Thank you all!
@aero3113 is probably right: the front switch is turned off, or the plug has come loose.
Cordsets: any marine-rated 30-amp cordset will do. A lot of forum members use the Marinco EEL. It's much easier and faster to connect/disconnect than the traditional screw-on type. Literally five seconds to connect it. For example:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/marinco--25-eel-shorepower-cordset-30a-125v-yellow--12998472
AC (alternating current, 120 volts) is shore power or generator power. DC (direct current, 12 volts) is battery power. On your breaker panel, the left side runs the AC system and the right side runs the DC system.
High-power components run only on AC power: air conditioners, ice maker, water heater, microwave, vacuum, battery chargers.
The rest of the boat runs on 12 volts DC: navigation, stereo, lights, heads, fresh water pump and so forth. The refrigerators run on DC too, but they automatically switch to AC when it's available.
When you have AC power, the voltage is always around 110 to 120 volts. It stays pretty constant.
DC power starts off around 13 volts when the battery bank is fully charged. The voltage gradually drops as the batteries discharge. When it gets below 11 volts, you'll notice it ... dim lights, stereo clipping, fridges not as cold. That's when you need to crank up the generator and run the battery charger. You should be able to go 6-8 hours at a time before running the generator.
The genny should run from a starter battery. Draining the house bank absolutely should not disable the genny. If it does, I'm guessing somebody made a mistake reconnecting cables after winter layup. Figure it out, and make labels for everything.
And before you even think about replacing the genny, prove me wrong. Run that thing a lot for a month or two, and see if she starts behaving better. If this forum has proven anything beyond question, it's that marine generators need regular exercise.