Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Killed the Batteries

Drift Away has a Guest battery charger, model  2610W.  One charger takes care of both of our big T108s.  According to the manual, once the batteries are charged the rate drops down to a maintenance level which will not boil off the electrolyte.   Well, guess what.  I tried to start the boat the other day and all I got was clicks.  I checked the charger and it was lit up and functioning.  I then checked the batteries and the water was so low that the plates were showing.   I had topped off the batteries just a few weeks prior.

I added gallons of water (they're big batteries) and hoped for the best, but no go.  The batteries are toast.  And they're only a year and a half old.  I replaced them just before we left on our cruise so I wouldn't have to worry about them, even though the 22+ year old batteries seemed to be fine.


Since the batteries weigh about 150 pounds apiece, and since I have back problems, I'm going to pay through the nose and have the marina remove the old ones and install the new ones.

I'm also going to get rid of the Guest charger and hook up the old Sentry.


I'm going to switch the battery charger off, and only turn it on a day or so before we plan on moving the boat.

Grrrrrrr.

3 comments:

  1. My Sentry 32v charger did the same thing to me. :((

    I had to replace 8 8v batteries so know how you feel.

    I wired up a 24 hour adjustable timer and put a start & stop pin as close together as I could.

    Worked out to be about 45 min. per day and has worked fine for the last two years.

    A new charger is $1,200.

    Bill Kelleher

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  2. Doesn't all your house lighting, pumps, etc work off the batteries? If you leave the charger off the batteries will be dead in no time.

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    Replies
    1. The only thing we run 12V are the bilge pumps and water pump. We use our regular 110V lights and not the 12 volt. All of our appliances are 110V as well.

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