Is my battery charger working???

ladolcevita · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject: Is my battery charger working???

Looking for a little help.
The green light on the main panel for the battery charger is much dimmer
than the other lights on the panel however but both lights on the battery charger are green ( Ready). I haven't used the boat in two weeks and both batteries seem to be low. When I turn the key to the on position the volt meter on the dash indicate they are low.
Is the battery charger not charging ????

Thanks
Steve

Dreamer · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:41 pm Post subject:

Steve,

Pretty easy to check. You'll need a multi-meter, a cheap one will do. Take a voltage reading across the battery terminals and record it. Plug in the shore power and activate the charger. Take another voltage reading, noting any difference from the first. Typically a battery might be around 12 volts and jump up to 12.8-13.5 or higher when being charged. You can take the same readings with the enginge running out on the water to see if the alternator (s) is charging the battery.

Good luck.

ladolcevita · Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:26 pm Post subject: battery charger

Roger
Thanks for the advice. I checked the batteries with the multi meter and got the
same readings with the charger on or off. Battery #1 was 12.5 and battery number two was 13.5. Also why is the light on the breaker panel dimmer than
the other lights

Thanks again
Steve

thataway · Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:48 pm Post subject:

It is very possiable that both batteries are not attatched to your battery charger.

A fully charged lead acid flooded battery at "rest" (not charged or discharged for a number of hours should read 12.6 volts). It will "Float" on a battery charger at about 13.1 volts (give or take). Fully charging a battery will be at 14.4 volts (again give or take a little).

Since one battery is leading slightly low (12.5 volts) and the other is reading 13.5, it means that the second battery is being charged, the first is not. There may be a fuse between the battery charger and the battery (at the battery) which has blown, or that battery may not even be attatched--as it was on my boat.

marvin4239 · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:06 am Post subject:

I had a similiar problem with my boat. After not being used for a while with the battery charger on I would find that the start battery would be low. When I finally checked it out I found the leads from the battery charger connected to the battery selector switch rather than the batteries. One lead wasn't connected at all. The position of the selector switch determined which battery recieved a charge from the charger. If the selector switch was in the off position neither battery received a charge. I reconnected the leads to the batteries which solved my problem. Our boats are the same year so perhaps the same factory guy wired both boats.

ladolcevita · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject: Battery charger --again

Thanks guys.
I'm not the most mechanical guy in the world so I struggle through these problems so here is a dumb question. How is the charger connected to the
batteries. The port side battery in addition to the two battery cables there is only
one wire connected to the positive terminal and that looks like it goes the the bilge pump. On the starboard battery there are two which I assumed went to the other two bilge pumps. Could it be neither one is connected to the charger.
Also the green light on the breaker panel is getting dimmer I can barely see it
Thanks again
Steve

marvin4239 · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:38 pm Post subject:

If the smaller wires connected to your batteries are brown they are most likely bilge pump feeds. The Charging wires from the battery charger should be red and black and probably #12 wire larger than the bilge pump wires. Assuming you have the same charger as I have a Guest 2621A it has three output charging circuits. Facing the charger on the bottom terminal you should see red black red black red black wires. These are the output charging circuits. The two red black pairs to the port side are a 5 amp charging circuit per pair and the pair to the starboard is a 10 amp charging circuit. I have three batteries so my set up is a little different than yours. The Two pairs to the port side should go directly to your house battery and tied together at the battery post providing a 10 amp charing circuit for that battery. The pair to the starboard should go directly to your start battery providing a 10 amp charing circuit for that battery. These circuits could be tied to the back of the selector switch on the battery side also. Only thing I can suggest is to trace the charging circuits out to confirm they are in fact connected properly. If so you could have a bad charger or perhaps a bad battery. Good Luck.

ladolcevita · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:18 pm Post subject: Dim light on the panel

Can anybody guess why the green light on the breaker panel has been getting
dimmer and dimmer. I can barely see it anymore
Thanks again

thataway · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:52 pm Post subject:

No idea about why the light is dim. Check to see if there is a wire going to the switch as suggested by Marvin4239. There should be a fuse in the line--the other side of the line is "fused" by a breaker on the charger.

What charger do you have? Give us the model number--there were some which were two 5 amp output, some which had two 5 and one 10 output, and probably some others...

Sea Wolf · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:52 am Post subject: Re: Dim light on the panel

drjohn71a · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

Steve,

As Dr. Bob of Thataway mentioned, some chargers have a 10 amp and one or two 5 amp circuits. The fuses are on the lines just off the charger and my 5 amp kept blowing, losing the charge to one battery.

Also, perhaps it is an amateurish way the be able to follow these things, but I had some 12 V receptacles places around the boat with some from each of the engines and house batteries. I bought a cheap $30 LED and LCD Volt readout thing that just plugs into the 12 V lighter sockets. It has a red, yellow, and green LED as well as the LCD readout of the Voltage. With that, I can glance out of the bunk at nite, or the cockpit while fishing and tell at a glance the state of the battery on that leg. It also reflects the engine or 110 V charger's action on that battery. I know you can wire guages and switches, etc., but this is a great, easy way to tell what is going on without the need to run a multi-tester while out on the water.

Of course, you need clean contacts. Do the 12 V circuits coming thru that dimming board read out OK?

Good Luck,
John

Sea Wolf · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:24 am Post subject: