Battery Charger Replacement

[Capt Chad]

We woke up at 2am to the smell of boiling batteries. It has not been a good boating year so far. I turned off the DC power and the battery charger and went home.

I'm going down at some point this weekend to top off the batteries, charge the with another charger and load test them. If they need replaced so be it.

I am assuming the charger is the culprit. And even if it isn't I want to replace it out of suspicion. What is everyone using?

We have a Stbd. bank of 2 8Ds and a centerline bank of 2 8Ds in parallel. The whole boat is 12v. We don't have a separate battery for the generator.

I have never had the on/off battery disconnect switches off the bulkhead. But I assume the charging leads from the charger go there. There are no charging leads going to the batteries. Is that adequate?

Thanks

 

[Pascal]

Before assuming the charger is the culprit, you need to measure the voltage at the batteries and also see if it was one or more that were hot

How old are the batteries, what type (flooded or AGM). What kind of charger?

I really like the ProMariner Pronautics. I installed two in my 53, a 24 v for the house and a 12 v for engines and generator (3 separate batteries) Small, smart, confirgurable with a nice display.

On some boats the charging wires are connected to the always on terminals of the battery switches. It s a good setup as it limits the number of wires attached to the battery terminals

 

[Boatsb]

We woke up at 2am to the smell of boiling batteries. It has not been a good boating year so far. I turned off the DC power and the battery charger and went home.

I'm going down at some point this weekend to top off the batteries, charge the with another charger and load test them. If they need replaced so be it.

I am assuming the charger is the culprit. And even if it isn't I want to replace it out of suspicion. What is everyone using?

We have a Stbd. bank of 2 8Ds and a centerline bank of 2 8Ds in parallel. The whole boat is 12v. We don't have a separate battery for the generator.

I have never had the on/off battery disconnect switches off the bulkhead. But I assume the charging leads from the charger go there. There are no charging leads going to the batteries. Is that adequate?

Thanks

Forget the promariner. It's not a great charger to begin with and since Brunswick bought the company I don't expect service or quality to be maintained.

Look at the victron skylla ip65(3)

It's a 3 bank 70 amp smart charger. Interfaces with nmea2000 and other controls and is pretty much future proof.

I sell alot of them even with the covid backorders.

Pm me if you need price and availability.

I can provide all the breakers and cables too if you need.

 

[Capt Chad]

They are flooded. 8D Interstates.

So I was wrong. They didn't boil, one exploded. It still had 11.2 volts when I pulled it so I'm guessing there was no internal short. I powered that bank back up with the remaining 8D and I am charging it so I can test it and try and figure out what happened.

As of now all I know to do is replace the 2 batteries in that bank and start over. I kept an eye on the charge rate on the remaining battery in that bank. It got to 14.4 at one point but the battery was cool to the touch.

Any suggestions?

 

[Pascal]

What kind of charger do you have? Old ferro resonant or newer smart charger?

Sounds like bad battery to mr but who knows.

That s why I m a big fan of visible digital meters. From where I sit I can see my 24 house bank holding steady at 27.05 along with my shore power volts and amps. Easy upgrade on most boats.

 

[wallison]

If in fact you decide to replace your charger I got some help from Scott Bickwid (Boatsb on this forum). Upgraded my OEM charger with a Victron Skylla. Extremely happy with the good price and support from Scott as well as the performance of the Victron. Now I get rock solid intelligent battery management as well as seamless integration with my Raymarine hardware (Victron talks on a NMEA 2000 network)

 

[Capt Chad]

Pascal, it's an older smart charger.

When I actually crawled back there I found the back 8d had exploded. What a mess. Cleaned it up with baking soda and pulled the battery. I powered that bank back up on the remaining 8d. The charger never went over 14.4 and the battery never got warm to the touch. That battery never did come up over 11.5v and within an hour of pulling the charger it was down to 10v. It may have went bad and killed the one behind it that blew up.

I replaced both 8Ds in that bank today and have the charger back on. We'll see what happens. I think I just had a bad battery.

 

[Pascal]

Are they flooded or AGM? If flooded how often do you have to add water ?

 

[Capt Chad]

Flooded. I'm topping off 2-3 times a year.

And yes, after observing the charging rate and answering your question I don't really think I will replace the charger.

 

[Captain Ralph]

Could older smart charger have a brand name & model?
I'm still using Raritan converters so don't be embarrassed if Fred Flintstone installed yours.

 

[Capt Chad]

I think it's a Promariner.

 

[Pascal]

I think it's a Promariner.

They ve been around for 50 years... which one do you “think” you have ?

 

[Capt Chad]

I was way off! I've got a Promariner on the Whaler...Statpower Truecharge 40. Looks like a Promariner over there outboard of that Detroit. Never heard of it.Anyway, the new 8Ds in that bank are hanging at 12.7. I think I just had a bad battery and it killed its mate.