Batteries go dead almost over night
#1
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Batteries go dead almost over night
I am loosing my mind. I tend to be very good at tracking this kind of stuff down being in the 12 volt industry for 10 years. I can test draw on the batteries with the battery switch in the off position and I get zero draw unless the bilge pump comes on. I have the Mercathode fuses open currently. I had the boat running three weeks ago and came up the next weekend to find dead batteries. I had a heck of a time getting them to take a charge. I finally got them to charge up using some one elses charger so I figured my charger was bad. I went down to the boat to run it this AM after using the boat all yesterday and it barely started. Ran it for a bit and it started up fine. I do not have my load tester to check the batteries (they are brand new) but does this sound like it could be a Mercathode issue? I want to leave the boat in the water but not at the risk of the batteries going down and the bilge pump not working!
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I am loosing my mind. I tend to be very good at tracking this kind of stuff down being in the 12 volt industry for 10 years. I can test draw on the batteries with the battery switch in the off position and I get zero draw unless the bilge pump comes on. I have the Mercathode fuses open currently. I had the boat running three weeks ago and came up the next weekend to find dead batteries. I had a heck of a time getting them to take a charge. I finally got them to charge up using some one elses charger so I figured my charger was bad. I went down to the boat to run it this AM after using the boat all yesterday and it barely started. Ran it for a bit and it started up fine. I do not have my load tester to check the batteries (they are brand new) but does this sound like it could be a Mercathode issue? I want to leave the boat in the water but not at the risk of the batteries going down and the bilge pump not working!
#5
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Would this still be the case wit the battery switches off? I also see no draw when I have the battery switch off. Could one bad battery draw down the other? I assume so but over night?
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If your switch has filed wire to it then I believe But I'm not 100% sure of this, But that could be part of the draw. I say that because the filed wire will let you run the engine when the switch gets turned to off with out hurting the alt, And if the switch did not have the field wire then you would back feed the power to the alt, and burn it up if the switch went to off when the engine was running. That is how I understand it to work But I could be wrong But worth looking in to.
#7
with my race car, ive had batts die over night, scratch my head, test for draw etc etc. and each time it was a bad cell.
put a new batt in and i was good. one time i put the car down from a wheelie hard next run, batt deal. it broke a cell inside, we cut it apart and found it. seems like a bad batt even tho its pretty new. allot of batts cant take much pain from wheelies, or waves, and it shocks them, brakes them etc.
put a new batt in and i was good. one time i put the car down from a wheelie hard next run, batt deal. it broke a cell inside, we cut it apart and found it. seems like a bad batt even tho its pretty new. allot of batts cant take much pain from wheelies, or waves, and it shocks them, brakes them etc.
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Also I read some where on a fourm site the optiam rep guy said if the batt will not take a charge after sitting then while holding it just let it drop to the ground from your waist high and that will reset the cells to let it take a charge. Sounds crazy But I guess it works. So I am thinking every time you come down off a big wave the only good you are doing is fixing your batteries.
#9
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I will have to see if I have two dead batteries. If the switch is off how could the one battery draw down the other? They should be isolated?
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