Mystery battery drain problem

[PHitchcox]

Spark shows current

I'll let Fred answer officially, but the spark indicates that something is drawing current; no spark, no current, no drain. Spark, current, drain.Paul

 

[PHitchcox]

Spark shows current

I'll let Fred answer officially, but the spark indicates that something is drawing current; no spark, no current, no drain. Spark, current, drain.Paul

 

[CalebD]

That makes snese. Spark = current draw

nm

 

[CalebD]

That makes snese. Spark = current draw

nm

 

[Stu Jackson]

Feedback from another source

This thread works both ways. Thanks to you all.See: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=3671.0 from the C34 website

 

[Stu Jackson]

Feedback from another source

This thread works both ways. Thanks to you all.See: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=3671.0 from the C34 website

 

[Fred]

You got it. No spark means

no drain. Spark means something is sucking electrons out of your battery.

 

[Fred]

You got it. No spark means

no drain. Spark means something is sucking electrons out of your battery.

 

[Fred]

Quote from Stu's

link "everything was fine except my heart monitor showed a steady 3.1 amp draw with the battery switches OFF."This is not a case where I would reccomend that you disconnect the battery, at least not if you're far from medical help.

 

[Fred]

Quote from Stu's

link "everything was fine except my heart monitor showed a steady 3.1 amp draw with the battery switches OFF."This is not a case where I would reccomend that you disconnect the battery, at least not if you're far from medical help.

 

[LloydB]

just a guess but

from volts given you have a bad cell in one of your house batts and they remain connected in parallel even when switches off.

 

[LloydB]

just a guess but

from volts given you have a bad cell in one of your house batts and they remain connected in parallel even when switches off.

 

[Stevep]

Mystery battery drain problem-- more info

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and advice. You all have helped clarify my thinking on this issue. Here is the reply to my situation that I recently received from Xantrex "Divide and conquer. Remove sections at a time. Take off all output connections from the shunt see if the draw goes away. Then remove the Link 20 to battery connections. Finally measure the batteries to see if they are self discharging. If you can watch for accumulated current draw and take voltage measurement at each step you may find out what is going on. This could be a combination of the batteries self discharging a current leak somewhere on the boat and the draw of the link 20. Non-critical except combined for an extended time. Hope this helps."So, my question now is -- Do I have a real problem that can be solved within my lifetime, or am I looking for an elusive perfect system and have little to gain even if I am successful in finding any possible current leakage? Thanks again for your consideration of this.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Steve, take a trip back to my earlier link

There's more feedback on the issue on that board. (reply #18)In summary, I'd say, read my link, then make your choice: do it or not, seems to be the only one.If it's a defective Link, you'll know. If not, how many wires are we talking about on the shunt and in your boat: a dozen or two. Could take all of an hour or two with a friendly helper, to complete. If it was my boat, I'd make the time.Reason is, I'd want to know, since everything is eventually a potential safety issue. I don't know how you use your boat, you may be plugged into shorepower all the time or marina-hop. I like to stay out unplugged, so it sure would make a difference to me.Your boat (and batteries), your choice.

 

[Fred]

Steve, the spark test bypasses all

the talk about measuring accunulated current draw.Do the spark test with everything turned off but connected and set up as they are now. If you get a spark;Try the spark test first on the hot wire to your charger/inverter. That's the suspected culprit. If you get a spark with it connected and no spark with it disconnected, you know what's happening. If that's it, you may want to put in a switch to disconnect it when you don't need it.If no spark at the inverter, disconnect things one by one and see if the hot wires spark with everything turned off.If you get no spark, disconnect the batteries at the battery terminals from EVERYTHING, bilge pump and all. Charge the batteries. Check voltage. wait 48 hrs, check voltage again. If the voltage stays up with the batteries disconnected, you probably don't have a bad cell.If you get no spark and the batteries stay around 12 volts after 48 hrs, relax and go sailing.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Oh, one other thing

if you leave your inverter on (if you have one) it has a draw, albeit small, even if you're not using any AC.