Re: [Cal_Boats] Battery Bank Dilema

The 6 volt batteries should be wired in series to give you 12 volts (ie. + on one battery connected to – on the other, assuming you have a 12 volt system) and the 12 volt batteries should be wired parallel (- to – and + to +) to maintain 12 volts but up you amp hour capacity. Your battery banks should be isolated from each other except when charging. Do you have a selector to choose which bank you’re using or are they all wired together? Next if the batteries are dry you might as well throw them away and start over. There is a very good section on batteries and boat electrical systems on the ample power website. http://www.amplepower.com/ Good luck, Tim From: Dan <sa… [at] yahoo.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 3:45:01 PM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Battery Bank Dilema Our newly acquired 34 has a possible battery issue that I can't resolve. I have two 12v plus two 6v golf cart batteries on board. The 6v's are wired in parallel forming one 12v and then those are wired directly to the next 12v in series creating what looks like an intended house bank. The last 12v is wired directly to the previous 12v. We have a three stage Guest charger. The charger stayed on full charge constantly and never caught up. Recently, the 6v's both turned up as dry as a popcorn fart. The 12v next to them suffered the same fate. I suspect that the 6v's should be separate and charged differently than the 12v's. Are these any electrical wizards out there with an opinion? Dan

Dan: On the batteries, the two 6 volts should be connected in series, that is the plus of one connected to the negative of the other. The remaining posts should have a diff of 12v. Then these should be connected plus to plus, and neg to neg. If one of your 6V is shorted, or dry, it may actually create a load, that will drain whatever else is conected to it. In your place, I would eliminate the 6v batteries, and if your loads require the three batteries, then replace them with one 12v. As far as charging two 6 v in series, it doesn't require a separate charging circuit. Since your charger remains at full charge, while the batteries remain dead, the load caused by the defective battery / batteries ( I am assuming you have tested your boat's circuitry to make sure there are no grounds or shorts, and that the 6v batteries were refilled) is what is probably affecting you system. Last but not least, all this is under the assumption that your batteries are connect correctly, and the terms parralel / series were just accidentally switched! If you have two 6 v's in parralel, you still have six volts, and if hooked up in series with your twelves, you have 30 volts (12 + 12 + 6). Take a look at the attached drawing, allthoug rudimentary, should give you the idea. Hope this helps. Jeff, '72 CAL 33 From: Dan <sa… [at] yahoo.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 11:45:01 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Battery Bank Dilema Our newly acquired 34 has a possible battery issue that I can't resolve. I have two 12v plus two 6v golf cart batteries on board. The 6v's are wired in parallel forming one 12v and then those are wired directly to the next 12v in series creating what looks like an intended house bank. The last 12v is wired directly to the previous 12v. We have a three stage Guest charger. The charger stayed on full charge constantly and never caught up. Recently, the 6v's both turned up as dry as a popcorn fart. The 12v next to them suffered the same fate. I suspect that the 6v's should be separate and charged differently than the 12v's. Are these any electrical wizards out there with an opinion? Dan

2 weeks ago, I had the exact same problem. I neglected to keep a close eye on the water level in my battery bank and the end result was toasted batteries. I am not sure whether one or both were fried, but my high end battery charger was getting inaccurate readings due to a bad cell(s) and kept charging at 20 volts resulting in further boiling of the batteries to the point of heavy acid vapors making breathing near them a no no. I had run the batteries somewhat dry before, and brought them back up, but this time I killed-em. Oh well, I guess I wont make that mistake again. Daniel Casey "AirTime" Cal 9.2R #75 Santa Barbara **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

Dan, My sympathies, may your fried batteries RIP. I did something similar last summer, left battery on manual charge all week, forgot to switch to auto charge before we left boat. Got a new battery now courtesy Kragen Auto Supply. At least in my case the battery was pretty old and needed to be replaced any who. --- On Sun, 8/3/08, ai… [at] aol.com <ai… [at] aol.com> wrote: From: ai… [at] aol.com <ai… [at] aol.com> Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Battery Bank Dilema To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Date: Sunday, August 3, 2008, 2:09 PM 2 weeks ago, I had the exact same problem. I neglected to keep a close eye on the water level in my battery bank and the end result was toasted batteries. I am not sure whether one or both were fried, but my high end battery charger was getting inaccurate readings due to a bad cell(s) and kept charging at 20 volts resulting in further boiling of the batteries to the point of heavy acid vapors making breathing near them a no no. I had run the batteries somewhat dry before, and brought them back up, but this time I killed-em. Oh well, I guess I wont make that mistake again. Daniel Casey "AirTime" Cal 9.2R #75 Santa Barbara Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.