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Thread: battery issues still!

  1. #1
    jeepman
    OkÂ…I have some battery questions. Maybe I am doing something wrongÂ…hell I donÂ’t know.
    Bought the boat last august….Regal 270, seemed to always have battery issues last year, any where from dead batteries to no water, and short cycles. The boat has two batteries and one switch, reading “1” “all” and “2”. There is not a separate battery for starting…only these two batteries. Last year I wrote off the issues to bad batteries, knowing that I wanted to replace them this year with new ones.
    Well….got two new batteries, the Optima D31M. I pulled the boat from storage about three weeks ago, and installed ONE battery as that’s all the place had at the time. I had to order the other. I never measured voltage on the battery; all I used it for was to raise the drives. I then took it to the service place and it sat there for three weeks before he worked on it. I picked the boat up last night. The guy that did the work wasn’t there, but I could tell he had issues with the battery because he had the shore power cables out…obviously to charge it. Once I got the boat to the ramp and tried to start it, the single installed battery was dead (not dead, but not enough to start) So, I installed the second one, switched the switch to “all”, the boat fired up and fine and all was well.
    Cruising around last night I noticed the volt gauge never really got over 12V even when running wide open, usually its up around 14V when running, and drops to 12v when off (like normal) I just figured it was the dead battery and didn’t pay much attention, knowing that the battery would get a good charge over the night. Got in around 10 last night and plugged everything and hit the sack, and switched the battery switch to 1, knowing that it’s really not good to have them on “all”. Got up this morning and started packing everything up to head back and when turning everything off, I noticed at the switch panel in the cabin that the 12V side of things was only reading 10V’s. (switch was still on “1l”) Switched the switch to “2” and the voltage jumped to 12V like it should be. At this point I decided to check the voltage at each battery with a meter. The battery that I installed last night read 12.4 volts, and the one I installed three weeks ago read only 10V. So, after sitting all night on the charger, it got nothing. The charger is a C-Charger 9000 series. I also found out that the water pressure pump (12v) was running all night (leak somewhere).
    SoÂ…is it likely that I have a bad battery or am I doing something to take these things out? Or is the fact that the water pressure pump running all night kept the battery from getting a charge?
    I also tested the bad battery when the charger was on, and it still only read 10v. However, maybe the charger wasnÂ’t actually on, it might have been cycling, and was in the off state.
    From what I have read I should be able to keep the charger on at all times (like during the week when I am not there) and not have any issues. I am concerned that I am somehow over charging these things.
    Any advice would be appreciated!!
    Thanks!

  2. #2
    BK
    I may be wrong but if you run your switch in the both or all possition and have one low or week battery wont they even out causing the good battery to drain down a bit? I was told to only run them one at a time.

  3. #3
    Havasu Hangin'
    Whichever battery the Perko is switched to, that is the battery that is running the accessories, and getting the charge. I would make sure of a couple things:
    1. There is nothing hooked up directly to the batteries that is drawing power. A quick test is to pull the post off, and see if there is a small arc when putting it back on (do this before you charge them, to keep from getting blown up). Also try it with the Perko on...if there is an arc, you have an electrical short that is draining the batteries.
    2. Make sure your alternator is working. It sounds like it isn't. If it is, you'll see the volts rise on the gauge as the RPMs come up.
    3. Make sure the terminals are not corroded. Also check the posts on the Perko switch.
    If all this checks out, then there are a couple things you can do to lengthen the life on the Optimas:
    1.DON'T OVERCHARGE. If it heats up, it will vent the boiling water, and since it is a sealed battery, you'll never get it back in. It's a big paperweight after that.
    2. Charge them fully. You may have memory issues if you don't give them a long, slow charge (until the charger goes into "maintain" mode).
    The water pressure pump should only draw a few amps, so the charger should be able to keep up.
    Personally, I think your alternator is the first problem I'd look at.

  4. #4
    jeepman
    Got it!
    The breakers for the charger were thrown for some reason. Which explains why the first battery was still dead the next day. All is charging well now.
    Also got the water pressure problem fixed so now the pressure pump doesn't contstanty run.

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    10,871
    Also trickle chargers are one of the biggest killers of batteries known to man because they will overcharge the batteries if left connected for long term storage. Get a Battery Tender or similar maintenence charger that charges mere miliamps and is designed for storage charging.

  6. #6
    RandyH
    I may be wrong but if you run your switch in the both or all possition and have one low or week battery wont they even out causing the good battery to drain down a bit? I was told to only run them one at a time.
    BK, I have found that if you leave the switch to "all" the weaker battery will drain them both down to nothing. Took me over a season to figure that one out. I started parking my boat during the week with the switch to off. This took care of the problem. Seems like Perko and the others need to figure out some sort of diode circuit that would eliminate this all together.
    RandyH

  7. #7
    BK
    Thanks Randy, I was having problems until someone mentioned that to me. Im running a Perko switch and only run one at a time and turn it to off when not in use, havent had a problem since.

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