Battery issue.

Mar 9, 2012
47
Beneteau 381 PVR
I have a Blue Sea 7650 Add a battery that I installed last year. Works perfect on our Catalina 30 . Have dedicated house and start. I recently got our 12 volt fridge working and have run into some issues. Fine during the day when solar charging. But during the night it will kill the house battery and the ACR will disconnect. Come daylight agin the ACR is still off and solar cant charge things. Engine will still start but house is dead. These are new batteries. So I’m thinking adding a second or 3rd house battery for the extra load thats being drawn. Have lots of amperage available. The ACR works good before and i think as i read in Blue Sea stuff that the ACR will lock out the low battery. Only you problem is now it wont allow the solar to charge.
 
Jul 23, 2009
857
Beneteau 31 Oceanis Grand Lake, Oklahoma
Sounds like you need to move the output of the charge controller from the start battery to the house battery and add a 2nd house battery.

What is the amp hour of the house battery and how old is it?

How much power do you use at night?
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,667
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
I have a Blue Sea 7650 Add a battery that I installed last year. Works perfect on our Catalina 30 . Have dedicated house and start. I recently got our 12 volt fridge working and have run into some issues. Fine during the day when solar charging. But during the night it will kill the house battery and the ACR will disconnect. Come daylight agin the ACR is still off and solar cant charge things. Engine will still start but house is dead. These are new batteries. So I’m thinking adding a second or 3rd house battery for the extra load thats being drawn. Have lots of amperage available. The ACR works good before and i think as i read in Blue Sea stuff that the ACR will lock out the low battery. Only you problem is now it wont allow the solar to charge.

This article may be of help and is one Blue Sea tech support actually refers customer to.
Making Sense of Automatic Charging Relays
Making Sense of Automatic Charging Relays

Without more information about bank capacity, average Ah consumption, alternator, solar wattage etc. etc. etc.. We would also need to see a diagram of how everything was connected and actual specifics vs. "have lots of amperage available".. Also you bank should not drop below 12.2V, even under your average house loads, before recharging it. If you've been hitting ACR lockout then the batteries have very likely lost significant capacity.
 

RoyS

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Jun 3, 2012
1,739
Hunter 33 Steamboat Wharf, Hull, MA
If you toss a six pack of warm beer into your fridge before retiring for the night, your fridge will likely run all night attempting to cool the beer. At, say, 4 Amps load, that is about 40 AH right there. Fridges are hungry beasts.
 
Jan 21, 2018
18
Catalina 30 1620 Orange Beach, AL
I have a Blue Sea 7650 Add a battery that I installed last year. Works perfect on our Catalina 30 . Have dedicated house and start. I recently got our 12 volt fridge working and have run into some issues. Fine during the day when solar charging. But during the night it will kill the house battery and the ACR will disconnect. Come daylight agin the ACR is still off and solar cant charge things. Engine will still start but house is dead. These are new batteries. So I’m thinking adding a second or 3rd house battery for the extra load thats being drawn. Have lots of amperage available. The ACR works good before and i think as i read in Blue Sea stuff that the ACR will lock out the low battery. Only you problem is now it wont allow the solar to charge.
Had a problem very similar to yours two years ago. After all the testing and head scratching finally found the problem to be a battery reverse current feeding into my solar panels at night. Bad diode in both of my 10 year old panels. It would really run down the batteries while trying to run the Frig at night. Simple test, just You Tube for test procedures and fixes. Hope this helps.