Hey Maine Sail,
I have been having some issues with my electrical system. I have search the forums and the web, thought I had it figured out, only to have the problem come back up. So, here I am, begging for your wisdom again. I am going to give the whole history of the issue, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. So some of this may seem basic but electrical stuff really isn't my thing.
First, my boat is a 2001 Catalina 310 that was basically stock without much changes when I bought it last year. (My wife and I met you at the Boston Boat Show and talked to you for awhile about the C310). The battery system consists of two banks. Each bank is a single 12v deep cycle, flooded battery. Supposedly they were both replaced in 2009 with the same units as where factory installed.
Up until now, I did not have any specific order or starting procedure for getting ready for departure. Sometimes I started the engine with shore power connected and the charger on; sometimes I disconnected it first. We also would typically switch the battery selector switch almost at whim with load from things like the refer, radar, vhf, etc. Our typical mode was to use bank 1 on odd number days and bank 2 on even number days. When were plugged into shore power, we would have the selector on all. (I now realize some of these things may not be correct, but wanted to give all the info.)
Thanks for reading this and any suggestions you may have.
Jesse
I have been having some issues with my electrical system. I have search the forums and the web, thought I had it figured out, only to have the problem come back up. So, here I am, begging for your wisdom again. I am going to give the whole history of the issue, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. So some of this may seem basic but electrical stuff really isn't my thing.
First, my boat is a 2001 Catalina 310 that was basically stock without much changes when I bought it last year. (My wife and I met you at the Boston Boat Show and talked to you for awhile about the C310). The battery system consists of two banks. Each bank is a single 12v deep cycle, flooded battery. Supposedly they were both replaced in 2009 with the same units as where factory installed.
Up until now, I did not have any specific order or starting procedure for getting ready for departure. Sometimes I started the engine with shore power connected and the charger on; sometimes I disconnected it first. We also would typically switch the battery selector switch almost at whim with load from things like the refer, radar, vhf, etc. Our typical mode was to use bank 1 on odd number days and bank 2 on even number days. When were plugged into shore power, we would have the selector on all. (I now realize some of these things may not be correct, but wanted to give all the info.)
- About a month ago, I plugged in and powered up the shore power on a Sunday afternoon after a weekend of sailing. I smelt an electrical burning smell for a brief few seconds. I searched all over the boat for about 2 hours and never found the source. When I returned to the boat the during the week to check on it, I found my batteries were not charging. I looked at the battery charger, a Flyback 20-3 unit, and no LEDs and no increased volts at the batteries. I did a little research and based on that figured that the internal fuse was blown. That research also showed that those units can have an ongoing issue with that and that you have to take the entire unit apart to change the fuse.
- So instead of changing the fuse, I decided to upgrade to a smart charger instead. I purchased and installed a Xantrex Truecharge 2 40A, 3 bank charger. I went with the 40 amp over the 20 amp based on the sizing recommendations they offered for the size batteries I have. I used the existing lines as they seemed to be sized correctly by Catalina. There are 20A slow blow fuses in between the chargers DC side and the battery. When I finished the install it seemed to be working. The next day however, the batteries where not charged. I ran the diesel to charge them and that worked fine.
- After the charger didn't work, I checked the inline fuses between the charger and the batteries. Both were blown. I took them out and went to find replacements. None of the marine stores had anything that match. I ended up finding them at homedepot. Here is a link to what they are. According to the PO, these were installed by Catalina. I changed out the fuses and everything seemed to be working fine. I thought that the fuses must have blown when the original charger blew.
- This weekend I went down there on Saturday and everything seemed fine. We went out Saturday, everything was fine, had the battery selector switch set on all (forgot to change before we left the dock), used all my typical house load. Sailed for the day, started the engine to come in and everything worked great. Sunday morning I switched to bank 1 and tried to start the motor (we were at the dock and connected to shore power) and the battery was dead. I checked the shore power connection and the LED light at the shore power connection was off but we were connected to shore power and it was on at the turret and the AC panel on the boat. There was power as I had a fan plugged into an outlet that was working. So it appears that the LED on the shore power outlet has blown out. I switched to battery bank 2 and the engine fired right up. So we went out sailing I planned to look into the issue when we got back.
- When we returned from sailing I checked on the batteries and battery 1 had battery acid on the top of the battery. I would estimate the quantity spilled at less then 1/4 of a cup. I checked the batteries with my meter and battery 2 was fine at 12.4 with some house load on it and batter1 was at 10.5 (I known that the batteries had not been resting long enough to really get a good reading). I cleaned up the spilled fluid and started looking into the issue some more. (Of course I didn't bring my laptop to the boat this weekend so I was stuck searching the internet on my phone to try and find answers). I looked at the fluid level in each cell on both batteries. A few of the cells on battery 1 were a little low, so I added some DI water. Again, less then 1/4 of a cup.
- The first thing I check was the fuses and both were blown again. I replaced them and turned on the charger. The volts on battery 1 and 2 were 14.02 and 13.69, respectively. This seemed fine because the they were within the ranges listed in the charger manual and the charger manual said that it would put more to the battery that was lower. I had no house load on at this point. I let that run for about a half hour with the battery selector on all and no house load. I check the volts every 5-10 minutes and it stayed in about the same area.
- I could here some sizzling noise and could see some bubbles in a couple of the cells of battery 1 while it was charging. Some of the information I found on the net said that was normal for flooded batteries.
- I put some house load on one item at a time and saw some minor drop in the volts but nothing more then 0.5.
- I turned off the charger and shore power and started the engine. I measure the batteries and had around 13.4 to each with battery selector on all.
- At this point, everything seemed ok so I turned on the charger and let it run all night. In the morning, I checked the batteries and with the selector on all, both batteries read 12.2. I turned off all house load and turned the selector to off and checked each battery again. Battery 2 ready 12.4 and battery 1 read 11.2. I checked the fuses and both were blown, again. :cussing:
- So here I gave up on getting the battery charger to work and turned off the charger and disconnected the shore power. I turned the selector to all and started the engine. I let it run for a hour and a half while I cleaned the boat and did some other stuff. Again, the batteries read about 13.4 during this time. After running the motor I shut down and with no load, checked the batteries. Both read in the high 12s so I figured that was just residual from the alternator charge. I switch the selector to bank 1 and tried to start the engine. Nothing, not enough juice for the starter. I switch to bank 2 and the engine fired right up. I said "F" it and went sailing, worst case is I couldn't get the motor started and would have to call Towboat. Bank 2 worked fine the whole time. Even when we used the windless to retrieve the anchor after a stop to go swimming and have some lunch.
- I think battery 1 is junk. I have a Westmarine 110 15A charger that I plan to bring to boat during the week and try to do a "reconditioning charge" to see if the battery will take a charge.
- The only thing I can think to do is redo the 110 side of the connections for the charger. There are 3, (black, white and green) that I did with butt connectors and shrink wrap. I used a cheep crimper. So I was planning to buy a good one (like what you recommend on your website) but when I checked the connections then seem solid. There is a size disparity with wire. The wire coming off of the charger is 10 or 12 gauge and the wire from the 110 distribution panel is larger (maybe 6-8 gauge). (can't remember the sizes exactly but I do remember a size difference)
- The other thing I have been thinking about is weather the problem is with the shore power and I was thinking of installing a surge protector. But I didn't was to waste the money if that was not the issue. Plus there is a master 30 a breaker on the boat that should protect from major surges and no one else at the dock is having an issue.
Thanks for reading this and any suggestions you may have.
Jesse
