Battery not charging with shore power plugged in-gctid390644

[Guest]

OK, so here's my situation. I have a '98 Bayliner Cierra 2655. I had a new engine dropped in last year, along with 2 new batteries. I recently left my fishfinder on for a week and drained both batteries. I figured I'd just plug into shore power, flip on "battery charger" switch on the cabin panel, and I'd come back to a full battery. Nope. It's been 5 days, and it's dead as doornail. I also don't have some regular stuff working like radio, hot water, and interior lights --even though I'm plugged into shore power (receptacles, microwave, and fridge work). That seems strange, as I would expect shorepower to bypass these things, despite 2 dead batteries.

So... I'm kind of at a loss here. I'm hesitant to go buy a couple new marine batteries, if there's something else going on. for example, I'm worried my charger isn't working properly because, well.. my batteries aren't being charged despite being plugged into shorepower. So far, I've checked all the fuses under the dash (OK). Are there other fuses somewhere else I should be checking? If so, I dont know where they would be. Is it normal to have no radio/interoir lights/hot water when the battery is dead, but plugged into shorepower? This was why I was suspecting a blown fuse somewhere. Lastly, I'm a bit clueless about the operating condition of the battery charger, and not sure if that's the problem, or if it's my batteries (only 1 year old). Any thoughts/tips on how I can test check both of these (charger& batteries).

I have a Statpower TrueCharge 10HW, with a yellow light one that says "Absorption". See picture below I have no idea what this means, and I couldn't find a manual on line. But given that there's a light showing tells me it's working? And shorepower should supply current to this? Also, there is a Guest switch next to it. This just turns on 1,2, or both batteries. It looks like there are some inline fuses below it. I figured I check with smarter folks than myself before I opened up the unit up searching for fuses. Any insight is much appreciated. Thanks!

[iceclimber]

I'd pull the batteries and have them tested at your local auto zone or whatever. The things should be under warranty? Now I'm going to say a few things that may not be true, but I think they are. Even when plugged in to shore power, the house battery still performs a function. I was having some electrical weirdness too (certain things not working) and viola, it was a dead house battery. That made no sense to me, but a good battery made everything magically start working. Second, an old timer told me to never ever charge batteries on the "all" setting, meaning charge one then the other. Batteries charge at different rates or some such nonsense and this can eventually ruin batteries. Again, I don't know that to be true, but I tend to listen to old timers. Third, your marina can test that charger lickity split. Sure, you can bust out testers and such but just have them look - I personally hate electricity and would rather have an expert look, imho.

[Guest]

What's the battery voltage at rest for at least 4 houra?

If I remember past older post that said some of the 3 stage chargers require a minimum voltage.

The work around is to first charge batteries with a dumb charger to get the battery voltage above that minimum.

[Guest]

Get a multi-meter. Set it to 12vdc. Test each battery pole to pole (positive with negative) with the charger on. Test each battery pole to pole with the charger off.

The state of your charger is indicating it still senses your batteries are not fully charged. It's not pumping a bulk load into them but it should have switched to 'float' a long time ago.

Testing with the charger on will probably indicate 12+v. Testing with the charger off will probably indicate 10 v +/-.

You don't say how old your batteries are but my guess is they have been discharged past the point of no return. If that's the case, it's time for new ones.

[Guest]

I had the same exact thing happen this weekend. Did you check the fuses shown in your picture?

All mine were fine too, do this weekend I'm going to put in new batteries. If that doesn't work... New charger.

[Guest]

Something to consider even with shore power.

Even though you are on shore power - the other systems you mentioned may only run on DC - pretty sure they do not have AC/DC converters in them, so they would rely on the 12 volt DC coming from the batteries. If the batteries are shot, you in essence have no 12 volt DC reference for these items to function properly.

[Guest]

Have you checked to make sure your terminal connections are tight? are they lead acid? and has the water been topped off regularly? I know simple questions and you have probably done all of them but I have learned over the years check the simple things before I tear the entire system apart. Last but not least are you sure the shore power breaker is turned on and the panel breakers on the boat are turned on? Your DC lights etc will not run unless they have DC power so yes a dead battery will stop all of them from operating.

[Guest]

NWCruiser wrote:
Have you checked to make sure your terminal connections are tight? are they lead acid? and has the water been topped off regularly? I know simple questions and you have probably done all of them but I have learned over the years check the simple things before I tear the entire system apart. Last but not least are you sure the shore power breaker is turned on and the panel breakers on the boat are turned on? Your DC lights etc will not run unless they have DC power so yes a dead battery will stop all of them from operating.

i agree your shore power breaker could be blown at its source. you should check your breaker panel to see if it is on. it should have a guage on it . my boat has a main breaker under a seat that can shut all poiwer off. first thing i would check would be power source on shore then my cord and my plugin on boat. follow the power

[iceclimber]

I guess the other thing that I wanted to ask the OP - do you turn your batteries off when you leave the boat? I mean, obviously not the last time - but I always do. I don't like leaving my charger on for extended periods.

[Guest]

the battery switch needs to be set to 1 or 2 I dont think the charger will work properly with the battery switch set to both? at least thats what my charger says in the book.

[Guest]

The pic shows the charger on and reporting that it's delivering amps to the batts. It would appear that the AC side is OK.

[Guest]

telebob wrote:
The pic shows the charger on and reporting that it's delivering amps to the batts. It would appear that the AC side is OK.

As well as the OP stated "(receptacles, microwave, and fridge work)" - also leading me to believe it's not an issue with shore power.

[2850Bounty]

There may be some info in this thread that will help explain battery connections and O/B Charger interfacing.

.

[Guest]

I agree with cpubud. I had the same problem with the same type of charger a couple of years ago.

The charger is somehow not powerfull enough to charge both batteries. when they are completely dry.

I disconected both batteries and brought my external car charger to the boat, and recharged the batteries one by one.

Since then, no problems, as long as they dont run dry.

[msd58]

ramanonos wrote:
OK, so here's my situation. I have a '98 Bayliner Cierra 2655. I had a new engine dropped in last year, along with 2 new batteries. I recently left my fishfinder on for a week and drained both batteries. I figured I'd just plug into shore power, flip on "battery charger" switch on the cabin panel, and I'd come back to a full battery. Nope. It's been 5 days, and it's dead as doornail. I also don't have some regular stuff working like radio, hot water, and interior lights --even though I'm plugged into shore power (receptacles, microwave, and fridge work). That seems strange, as I would expect shorepower to bypass these things, despite 2 dead batteries.

So... I'm kind of at a loss here. I'm hesitant to go buy a couple new marine batteries, if there's something else going on. for example, I'm worried my charger isn't working properly because, well.. my batteries aren't being charged despite being plugged into shorepower. So far, I've checked all the fuses under the dash (OK). Are there other fuses somewhere else I should be checking? If so, I dont know where they would be. Is it normal to have no radio/interoir lights/hot water when the battery is dead, but plugged into shorepower? This was why I was suspecting a blown fuse somewhere. Lastly, I'm a bit clueless about the operating condition of the battery charger, and not sure if that's the problem, or if it's my batteries (only 1 year old). Any thoughts/tips on how I can test check both of these (charger& batteries).

I have a Statpower TrueCharge 10HW, with a yellow light one that says "Absorption". See picture below I have no idea what this means, and I couldn't find a manual on line. But given that there's a light showing tells me it's working? And shorepower should supply current to this? Also, there is a Guest switch next to it. This just turns on 1,2, or both batteries. It looks like there are some inline fuses below it. I figured I check with smarter folks than myself before I opened up the unit up searching for fuses. Any insight is much appreciated. Thanks!

First off if you batteries were drained completely an onboard battery charger is not going to bring those back up. You need to test batteries and charge them out of the boat. If they were is good condition and kept fully charged over the winter they should come back.