Have owned a Hunter 466 since 2002 and have had two sets of House batteries overheat whenever on shore power and as a result have had damage to each set of batteries. The xantrex 200R is working and shows the condition of charging to be floating and yet the batteries are excessively hot and the water is bubbling. The xantrex is set for wetcell. The starter battery is gel. Mike
Battery overheating
- Thread starter MRFegen
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voltage through batt isolator
Mike Depending upon how the charger is connected, it may be an apparent undervoltage reading to the charger causing the charger to sense the wrong battery state. If the link is reading through a battery isolator, it will sense incorrectly reading approx 0.7 V less than the actual battery voltage thereby cooking the bank. Easiest way to tell is to verify voltage readings of the bank with an external voltmeter after it has been discharged for a while so the charger will kick in to bulk charge mode. Or, it could be as simple as a coincidence if you were lucky enough to buy batteries with bad cells both times.
Mike Depending upon how the charger is connected, it may be an apparent undervoltage reading to the charger causing the charger to sense the wrong battery state. If the link is reading through a battery isolator, it will sense incorrectly reading approx 0.7 V less than the actual battery voltage thereby cooking the bank. Easiest way to tell is to verify voltage readings of the bank with an external voltmeter after it has been discharged for a while so the charger will kick in to bulk charge mode. Or, it could be as simple as a coincidence if you were lucky enough to buy batteries with bad cells both times.
You either have a bad battery or need...
a new charger. Try switching the sensing wire on the charger to the other battery. If this doesn't correct the problem, test the batteries for voltage after they haver set uncharged for 24 hours. They should read 12.6 volts. Then check whem with a specific gravity gauge. If the batteries are good it's the charger. If one battery is bad it's causing the charger to overcharge. Are you leaving something electrical on in the boat? This would also cause this problem.
a new charger. Try switching the sensing wire on the charger to the other battery. If this doesn't correct the problem, test the batteries for voltage after they haver set uncharged for 24 hours. They should read 12.6 volts. Then check whem with a specific gravity gauge. If the batteries are good it's the charger. If one battery is bad it's causing the charger to overcharge. Are you leaving something electrical on in the boat? This would also cause this problem.
Dito Don's comments
and you might have resistance at any of the connections between the battery charger and the battery terminals. The best way to trace one of these down is doing a voltage drop test. With the charger on, start at the battery charger positive and measure the voltage drop across each connection. You should get no more than 0.2 volts per connection. Particularly check all the battery terminals and battery posts. Acid plays heck with these.
and you might have resistance at any of the connections between the battery charger and the battery terminals. The best way to trace one of these down is doing a voltage drop test. With the charger on, start at the battery charger positive and measure the voltage drop across each connection. You should get no more than 0.2 volts per connection. Particularly check all the battery terminals and battery posts. Acid plays heck with these.
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