As you might have heard, I hate spending money! Well, it looks like I'll need another battery or two again next year. What I don't understand is WHY the ~*@# do what they do to me. To wit:

1. Electrolyte levels: I have to put LOTS of distilled water in SOME of them over the season. (We're talking quarts here.) The chargers (three of them doing 5 batteries) are supposed to be sophisticated charger/ maintainers, but...

2. Left the boat--twice--for two weeks with the chargers OFF. A pair of deep discharge batts that ran the bilge pumps mainly were dead flat on me both times when I returned. NO lights or anything else were left on, but the bilges pumps, the GPS, clock and Flo Scan memories, plus a CO monitor. The house water pump and fume detector was OFF. No freakin' way the batts should have run down like that, but... (Note: We had some powerful rain each time, but the boat does not take in rain water excessively.)

3. Batts are within 3 years old or newer.

4. And this one really ticks me off: My auxiliary batt. This is used only during overnights. It too was low on electrolyte and now it won't hold a charge overnight without the (dedicated to it alone) charger is left on.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jeff

Stop buying your batteries at Walmart ;)

I am new to M ownership but not new to boating, currently I have five power boats and two jet skis, having had as many as 6 boats and 3 jet skis at one time over the last ten years. As you can guess batteries, chargers and battery care has been a big thing at my house. I live on the lake and rescue, jump off, and or tow several boats each year with various battery problems. The boats that I have had and traded for over the years had a wide verity of batteries and they were good and bad. If I bought a boat and maintained the batter well, (checked water and kept them full along with keeping them charged) all the brands of batteries seemed much the same. I have always installed an on board charger on my boats that I expected to keep for some time. This has made life a lot better. What has made my love hate relationship with batteries way better was when I found out about "sulphated" batteries! I purchased a Battery MINDer Plus about four years ago. It conditions "sulphated" batteries as well as automatically charging any type 12 volt storage battery without ever over-charging. Dubbed the charger with a "brain," it is believed to be the first charger of its kind to reverse the primary cause of early battery failure known as "sulphation". "Sulphation" batteries that were once considered beyond recovery can now be brought back to long-term useful condition. I now have six of these chargers and move them around to all my batteries. On the boats with on board chargers that do not desulphate I disconnect the batteries from the on board charger every other month and use the Battery MINDer Plus for a week. I have not replaced a battery since learning about "sulphation" four years. I also use this on all my batteries, trucks, cars lawn tractor and ATV. The next time I purchase new batteries I will try INOX MX2.

Check out
http://www.pacificbattery.com/batteryminder.html

http://www.inoxlube.com/...s/2010/02/INOX-MX2.pdf,

http://www.inoxbattery.com/Welcome.html ,

Jeff

...."maybe the float switch stuck open then released while you were gone."

I like that! A passing wake, or some rough weather, could then drop the float (and trick me).

Thanks to all,

Jeff

PS: Looking into that special charger. They're "sold out" at the moment, but I'll put one on my Xmass list.

Since we're hauling out this week, I'll have to wait until next year to see if I can solve that mystery. But I thank all of you for your suggestions.

Jeff

Jeff, A 12 hr meter like used on tractor etc. would tell you how long pump ran. Say if switch stuck, it would show long time till battery drained. Cheap say $20. Might even have one around shop somewhere if you want to try that. Wayne

"Added gallons of water" is what may be the problem. This indicates something is drawing a lot of current from the batterys. You could see what circuits are using a lot of current when you are not runnung the boat.

I use Optima batteries, expensive but last a long time. The pair of house batteries that I put into the boat in 2001 are still OK, they run with a float charge when at the dock, 13.6 V. They get a full charge when the engines run, about 14.6 V I have replaced the two starting batteries, not because they didn't work but because they didn't "snap" like they used to, and diesels like a lot of "snap". I gave them away to guys who are still using them in their cars.

I trickle charge mystarting batteries with solar cells, about an amp each. This keeps them up even if dock power is lost.

I use both of these on my and it gives me piece of mind , great while you are on the hook. I also check the volt meter while I'm running sometimes. Have them on in the cabin. Wayne

Really, all I want from the voltmeter is to tell me whether or not the battery is getting charged. I would think that the little light that changes color would be fine.

The voltmeter that came with the boat reads too low. I suspect that this is because its positive is connected to IGN its ground is at the panel, not at the battery, and so the voltage it sees is less. It would take two more wires to the engine from the engine panel to hook directly to the battery. This is a bad idea anyway: the automotive-style voltmeters draw a fair amount of current (perhaps 0.1A) and so you want them to be switched, not on all the time.

The little digital voltmeter is nice, I have used many like these and they work well. To get a digital ammeter, use a +/-200mV digital voltmeter connected to a 50A shunt. It will read 1 Amp per count, or +/- 200A. I don't think that a 30A meter is useful on a Marinette.

For Volts, I prefer to read two decimal places, which takes a "3 1/2 digit" voltmeter. If anyone is interested, I will post the parts list and sources....