Battery Charging, Volvo MD7

Jan 15, 2011
44
Newport 30MKII Bayview ID
I have a 78 Newport 30 with an MD7 diesel. After I shut off the engine and the boat is docked with shore power, how do the batteries stay charged? In the past couple of weeks, I have lost the charge in both batteries while the selector switch is in the off position...purchased a new selector switch and the same thing happened after putting a charge on the battery...when the engine is running, I am charging at about 13.5 to 14 amps on both batteries.
Thanks
 
May 17, 2004
5,694
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
There are sometimes loads that are connected even when the selector switch is off. Bilge pumps and stereo radios are the most common of those, but there may be others depending on how your boat is wired and what previous owners may have done.

To keep the battery charged you could consider either a shore powered charger or a solar panel. There are many discussions in the forums about those.
 

NYSail

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Jan 6, 2006
3,145
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Is this boat new to you? Did you wire shore charger or know how it's wired. Maybe when you are switching off the batteries are not charging due to way it was wired. Use a meter and check.......
 
Jan 7, 2011
5,625
Oday 322 East Chicago, IN
Try putting the battery selector to ALL.

The PO of my boat did not wire the charger to the batteries, instead going to the battery switch (I am assuming....I haven't really figured it out yet).

The charger has 2 outputs, but only one goes anywhere, and there are no charger leads on the batteries, so it tired into the battery switch.

But using a volt meter would help you (and me) diagnose it.

Greg