Went out on my boat this weekend for the first time -- a Hunter 27. At the dock before leaving, I hooked the battery (12V deep cycle) up to the charger. When I started charging it it read 35% and then pretty quickly got up to 45% but then stopped. I left it connected while we got the boat ready, but then decided to head out. It's not a huge lake, and the weather was calm so I wasn't worried about the prospect of losing power while on the lake.
During the sail, I had the cabin lights (panel only -- lights themselves were off), the depth finder, and the VHF turned on but nothing else. Before two hours of sailing, we lost all power.
Back at the dock, plugged the battery back into the charger and it immediately read 35% again (I expected it to be lower), and I was able to get it up to 47% this time before we had to leave. Disconnected the charger and all lights/power were working before I turned off the switches on the panel and locked it up.
Does it sound like the battery itself is bad? Does it just need a much longer time to charge? Total noob to all this, so I'm not sure what I should be expecting. Thanks!
One more question:
I've read different info on whether I should remove the battery while charging it. I did not remove/disconnect the battery while charging. I'm using a Schumacher SC-1200 to charge it, and I just hooked black to black and red to red. Anything wrong there?
During the sail, I had the cabin lights (panel only -- lights themselves were off), the depth finder, and the VHF turned on but nothing else. Before two hours of sailing, we lost all power.
Back at the dock, plugged the battery back into the charger and it immediately read 35% again (I expected it to be lower), and I was able to get it up to 47% this time before we had to leave. Disconnected the charger and all lights/power were working before I turned off the switches on the panel and locked it up.
Does it sound like the battery itself is bad? Does it just need a much longer time to charge? Total noob to all this, so I'm not sure what I should be expecting. Thanks!
One more question:
I've read different info on whether I should remove the battery while charging it. I did not remove/disconnect the battery while charging. I'm using a Schumacher SC-1200 to charge it, and I just hooked black to black and red to red. Anything wrong there?