Hunter 26 battery won't charge when connected to shore power

[Wind Dreamer]

Hunter owners - I'm in a bit of a pinch!
Recently launched our boat with a brand new AGM marine deep cycle battery.
Tested all 12v appliances/bilge/lights etc, everything worked perfectly.
Do not have a solar charger set up yet, but honda outboard has the 12amp alternator, figured battery would be fine running engine for a bit once a week to top it off (only drain would be occasional bilge)
HOWEVER
co owner did not run engine when visiting boat for past 4 weeks, and the battery is now completely dead.
co owner has since hooked boat to shore power for 24 hrs, but 12V appliances/bilge are still not working.
bilge area has significant water, this is my main concern, co owner will manually bilge today but need to get bilge running ASAP.

The boat is equipped with a GUEST charge pro model #2611. When I connected it to shore power prior to launch, both RED and GREEN lights were illuminated. HOWEVER, I just had co owner check, and neither the RED or GREEN are illuminated. According to the charger manual this indicates that either the charger is not getting AC power, OR that the charger has failed/crapped out.

The light on AC master breaker indicates that shore power is connected correctly. No question of that. Also tested AC outlets and they are live. Have reset the master breaker, but lights on charger are still not illuminated.

Hardest part of the equation is that I'm a couple hundred miles away for the next week and co owner has no electrical experience (can't do any multimeter testing for me).

So I guess what I'm wondering is:

- Is there something I'm missing?

- Has anyone else had problems with their GUEST battery charger eventually failing? I've never had a car battery charger stop working, but I guess a boat charger sees a lot more use. Again, battery charger was working 4 weeks ago, seems unlikely that it would crap out in that short time period, but definitely not impossible, and the boat was sitting for a couple years...

- Is the AC line from Master AC breaker to charger usually fused somewhere? manual does not show any inline fuse in wiring diagram

- Is there anything I may have done wrong that would lead to the charger failing prematurely? Any ideas why this would happen out of the blue? Anything else I should test?


Temp fix will be bringing a car trickle charger to boat and running it via AC outlet in cabin to boat battery.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Dealing with that distance, I can only suggest that you phone the co-owner and TELL them they are going to learn how to use a multi-meter OR ELSE.

Take them by the ear and tell them to set the voltmeter to AC 120V voltage range and then touch the multi-meter leads to the two bare 120V terminals on the Guest charger. If they get zapped and fall into the water, no loss. You needed a new co owner anyway.

And yes, there will definitely be a breaker in there, most likely at your main 120V panel. Unlikely it's an inline fuse.

 

[Tally Ho]

I have a Guest 2614 charger. Same indicator lights as yours it looks like.

No indicator lights is not normal, and doesn’t indicate batteries are charged.

As Ralph said, check the power panel first to find the breaker and make sure it is on…..maybe make sure shore power is on (plug something into a110 outlet and turn it on if the can’t use a multi-meter).

Maybe cycle the charger breaker off and back in and look for the indicator lights. if the breaker was tripped, this will reset it.

I think these chargers are pretty old (the tag on mine is 2003). But mine seems to work fine. The only thing I have read is not to parallel the outputs (if it is a 2-bank charger).

Good luck…is the boat in Chicago?

Greg

 

[Wind Dreamer]

Thanks for the responses Ralph& Gregg.
To answer a few of your questions:
-tried resetting main AC breaker multiple times with no change in charger led lights
-confirmed shore power AC is working by plugging phone charger into outlet. definitely on

Gregg you mentioned resetting the charger breaker. I wasn't aware of any breaker on the charger itself, does yours have one?

From my preliminary research, seems like one culprit could be super low voltage. was reading that some of the old chargers won't even turn on without a voltage of 5-7V. Would not be surprised if my battery is below that considering the bilge float switch was floating in the "on" position when the co owner checked it. Can anyone confirm this no charger power without sufficient voltage situation?

If low voltage is not the culprit - In my mind the only other 2 possibilities are:
A) bad/corroded connection of the AC input cord to the romex running to the master AC breaker (seem to remember the stock AC input wire not being long enough)
B) charger finally crapped out

Thoughts?

Assuming the charger crapped - anyone got a reasonably priced replacement suggestion? Only running 1 battery bank....

 

[Tally Ho]

Thanks for the responses Ralph& Gregg.

Gregg you mentioned resetting the charger breaker. I wasn't aware of any breaker on the charge itself, does yours have one?

Sorry Wind Dreamer, I meant the breaker on the AC panel…not on the charger itself….

Can your co-owner put another battery in the boat and hook things back up? It would tell you if the charger is toast, or if it doesn’t charge because the old battery is so low on voltage? Maybe throw a car battery in there just to test it?

Greg

 

[twalker H260]

Can you back trace the wiring from the charger to the AC panel? It may be either “plugged“ in or hardwired to an outlet with a ground fault circuit interrupt. These usually have two buttons on them - push to test and push to reset. Many have an indicator light to indicate if they are working correctly.