Battery question (charging problem)

[Tim Powell]

Hope i can explain. I have a new smart charger suppose to be anyway. My boat is a 24 volt boat. There are some 12 volt items electronics,some interior lights, fusion radio 6000 wat amp and with a few other items. Here is my problem. I pull 12 volts off one 8D battery the charger is not charging that battery it is keeping the other 3 8d batteries just fine. The charger thinks the port side is charged because one is.When actually the other is showing 7 volts. Doing this the items on 12volt are not operating correctely. HELP GUYS....

 

[MadHatter53]

Sounds like that battery is isolated from the charger.

 

[rsmith]

Hope i can explain. I have a new smart charger suppose to be anyway. My boat is a 24 volt boat. There are some 12 volt items electronics,some interior lights, fusion radio 6000 wat amp and with a few other items. Here is my problem. I pull 12 volts off one 8D battery the charger is not charging that battery it is keeping the other 3 8d batteries just fine. The charger thinks the port side is charged because one is.When actually the other is showing 7 volts. Doing this the items on 12volt are not operating correctely. HELP GUYS....

It's so smart it's Stoopit!
Maybe you need to bring that batt up to a full 12v before you series it to 24. Mine are 32 which is 4 8's some years ago I got new batts and had a bunch of problems with one side turned out one of the 8 volts wasn't fully charged when installed and never caught up with the rest. Pulled the batt brought it up to full charge it was fine after that

 

[Pascal]

Some chargers sense voltage on one output, so switching the charging leads may solve the problem assuming you have two banks and a two bank charger. The down side is that the charger will probably tend to overcharge the bank which is not taped at 12v

A much better solution would be to add a battery and a 12v charger to power your 12 v stuff. Deoending on the amount of 12v stuff you may get able to use a smaller battery like a 4D or even a group 31

 

[Tim Powell]

Sounds like that battery is isolated from the charger.

I thought so also but the battery charger has two separate leads from it one going to the port and other going to the other side its crazy. Both leads are hooked to 24 volts.

 

[Tim Powell]

It's so smart it's Stoopit!
Maybe you need to bring that batt up to a full 12v before you series it to 24. Mine are 32 which is 4 8's some years ago I got new batts and had a bunch of problems with one side turned out one of the 8 volts wasn't fully charged when installed and never caught up with the rest. Pulled the batt brought it up to full charge it was fine after that

I got ticked off last weak so bad i bought 4 new 8ds you would think they were charged.Scott running the boat all is ok.

 

[Tim Powell]

Some chargers sense voltage on one output, so switching the charging leads may solve the problem assuming you have two banks and a two bank charger. The down side is that the charger will probably tend to overcharge the bank which is not taped at 12v

A much better solution would be to add a battery and a 12v charger to power your 12 v stuff. Deoending on the amount of 12v stuff you may get able to use a smaller battery like a 4D or even a group 31

that may be the long time fix. I already have a 12 volt battery for the gen. I would like to keep it neat. Thanks Paskal about to pull my hair out. yes you are correct if i change leads then it charges to much.

 

[Boatsb]

tIM you said you had a 24 volt charger. Now call me tomorrow and ill get you straightened out.

Long and shirt of it is.

2 x 12 volt batteries in series =24 volt. You cant drain one more than the other and then charge it with the 24 volt charger.

 

[krush]

What about adding an equalizer? I had one of those 12v/24 equalizers on an old city bus i had.

 

[Tim Powell]

tIM you said you had a 24 volt charger. Now call me tomorrow and ill get you straightened out.

Long and shirt of it is.

2 x 12 volt batteries in series =24 volt. You cant drain one more than the other and then charge it with the 24 volt charger.

will call tim

 

[Tim Powell]

What about adding an equalizer? I had one of those 12v/24 equalizers on an old city bus i had.

From what i know so far that may be a cure but the darm things are between 500 and 800 so i do not want to make mistake.Amps dictate price. Hate to purchase something i will have to sink.

 

[GJH]

tIM you said you had a 24 volt charger. Now call me tomorrow and ill get you straightened out.

Long and shirt of it is.

2 x 12 volt batteries in series =24 volt. You cant drain one more than the other and then charge it with the 24 volt charger.

This is the answer. Tapping 12 off a 24 bank with any sort of load will kill the bank with a 24v charger. I had this issue when the PO of my boat tapped a bunch of 12 volt stuff (such as the generator start, macerator etc) off the 24v thruster bank. The 8ds in that bank kept going bad.

I solved it by getting a dedicated 12v battery and charger for that stuff. Yes, you can get a Vanner equalizer, but they are pricey and don't feed big loads. Or you can get a multi bank 12 v charger and charge each battery separately as shown here on Page 13:

http://promariner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ProSport-Gen-3-Manual.pdf

 

[Dan Mapes]

Some of the configurations are "OEM Only" so research and caution are appropriate.

 

[GJH]

Some of the configurations are "OEM Only" so research and caution are appropriate.

Dan they are referring to a model of charger (the 15) that is OEM only, not the configuration.

 

[egaito]

Dan they are referring to a model of charger (the 15) that is OEM only, not the configuration.

Two more potential solutions, and we use both for different things. We have a 12v battery and charger in the fly-bridge for electronics, and in the generator space, to run our 12v VacuFlush systems. I didn't want to risk pulling down the generator (also 12v) battery flushing heads, so we added a 2nd and use a 2 bank charger to maintain them.

We also use voltage converters. OEM, the gauges run at 12v through two of these inside the helm. That gave me the idea to use one to run 12v electronics at the lower helm. Where possible, I like this solution better because the fewer batteries and chargers there are to screw with, the better! The converters are also smaller than batteries. Whether this works for you or not will depend on the amperage you need.

One last tip....some battery chargers are capable of being "power supplies" while others can't handle large draws while charging. This can come in handy if you need to use the battery while it's coming back up to charge. This works well in our flybridge as the KVH, GPS and even the idle SSSB radio tend to draw down that battery overnight.

 

[Tim Powell]

Thanks guys fyi, the century charger worked ok when it died is when all went south. The century just charged the new one kinda pickey...

 

[GJH]

Hey Tim if by "century" you mean "Sentry" give Bert Ferebee a call, he is an absolute expert on those things. I was getting ready to float test mine, and he got it running beautifully for years afterward. Danny Martin may know them too as most certified CruiseAir guys are.

The effects of taking off a 12volt tap may take awhile to evidence themselves. My 8Ds were charged by a fancy 24v Xantrex smart charger (yes, I know, I was a brand X hater too, terrible customer service back then, but that's what was in the boat from PO).

 

[krush]

You can just get a cheap multi bank charger that the ba$$holes use from bass pro shop or equivalent. They use them for charging their 24 V or 36 V trolling batteries.I'm going to rot my brain watching TV now.

 

[GJH]

You can just get a cheap multi bank charger that the ba$$holes use from bass pro shop or equivalent. They use them for charging their 24 V or 36 V trolling batteries.I'm going to rot my brain watching TV now.

Typically those are not designed to charge 8Ds. Note the verbiage Promariner uses on which battery sizes the chargers I posted are designed for.

 

[Rebar]

Keep us all posted on your results Tim, I also had a battery problem recently and on my 52' hat SF, 24v system, changed both bats, everything went back up and running. Sounds like you my need a wig after all this Tim?Good luck and reminder, never give up!
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