Chuck;
Whether he is on a mooring is sort of immaterial. David already indicated that the engine alternator had no effect on the dead battery during extended period (3 or 4 hours IIRC) of running. Below he says he used a common trick to show enough battery voltage for his smart charger to turn on and has managed to get the dead battery charged up to 10 volts after several hours on charge. I agree with your suggestion to get the battery charged up and let it rest to see if it will actually hold a charge. Others have suggested that the battery be load tested after charging, which is also a very good idea – and something just about any auto parts store will do at no cost. I personally think the battery is a good candidate for warranty replacement, unless David is very lucky. AGM batteries are designed to be automotive starting batteries – designed to be at 85-90% state of charge or higher at all times. They don’t last long in deep cycle use. If you run one of them dead, it is really hard to get them to ever come back. Rick Brass Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Chuck S Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:18 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Re: Stus-List Drained AGM battery Not sure I like this? You never answered if you or on a mooring? What are you charging with? The engine alternator or shorepower? Is the battery completely isolated? I think you should remove every wire from the batteries and charge individually with a good charger connected to shorepower. Then let sit overnight to be sure it holds the charge on it's own. Chuck Resolute 1990 C&C 34R Atlantic City, NJ _____ From: "David Knecht" <davidakne...@gmail.com> To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 9:22:00 AM Subject: Re: Stus-List Drained AGM battery I used a pair of jumper cables and hooked up the dead battery in parallel with an old but servicable battery I had at home and hooked up the charger to it. After an hour I had about 7 volts. Now the charger would recognize the dead AGM and is charging it. It was up to 10V overnight, so I am hoping it will finish the job. If so, then I am back to figuring out what drained it or if there is an alternator problem. I presume if I measure the voltage at each battery while the engine is running it will be the charging voltage? If I get 14.4 volts or so at both batteries, then presumably my alternator is OK? Then I would be back to the propane alarm issue as the most likely culprit. Does that plan sound reasonable? Thanks- Dave On Aug 26, 2013, at 11:08 PM, Russ & Melody <russ...@telus.net> wrote: Hi David, 1. - yes, a new battery can fail and a two month old battery is still on warranty. Give it back for a load test / replacement. 2. - The AGM will charge from an alternator if discharged but may not charge from a smart regulator as the have a dumb battery validation check. If you want to use a smart charge on a really flat battery then you need to jump start the process with a dumb charger or another battery. - you should see life in the battery after a half hour on the alternator but a few hours for a good bulk charge You may have a fried diode in the alternator which can deplete a battery when the engine is not running (and not isolated from the battery) and give insufficient charge voltage. Cheers, Russ Sweet 35 mk-1 At 07:04 AM 26/08/2013, you wrote: I am beginning to feel that I have bad karma with my new boat. First the good news: based on all the advice I received, the Universal starting issue seems definitely fixed- since I cleaned the ground connection, it has started smoothly every time. The only strange thing is that all the directions I have read say that you should continue to push the glow plug button while pushing the start button. However, on mine, the engine will not turn over unless I release the glow plug button. Also, the GPS restarts each time I start the engine, which may mean there is still some electrical issue, but neither is a serious problem at this point. Also, the black smoke etc. is largely gone since I cleaned the bottom and prop as best I could. The shaft and prop were completely crusted with barnacles, so clearly my Pettit zinc coat did not do its job. I may try Velox next spring based on the advice of a local old timer. So yesterday I go went to the boat and found that my #1 battery is completely dead. This is the battery that is wired for the auto-bilge pump switch and propane fume alarm (that is all I know of). The batteries are 2 month old Power-tech AGM group 27's. I could not get much of any charge after a day of running the engine for a few hours totals. Questions: 1. do new batteries fail at some rate? 2. Will an AGM charge from the alternator if fully discharged? If so, roughly how long would it take? I brought it home and tried to use my smart charger and that is not charging it at all (the charging light does not come on). Perhaps related- I twice was on the boat briefly during the week and found the Xintex propane fume alarm going. Both times I checked the propane system and the tank shutoff was closed and all switches were off. So I don't believe there were really propane fumes in the cabin. So could the sensor have failed? Could the alarm going for many many hours drain the battery (I don't think the bilge pump is doing it). David Knecht Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT [] _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com <http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/> CnC-List@cnc-list.com _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com David Knecht, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Microscopy Facility Department of Molecular and Cell Biology U-3125 91 N. Eagleville Rd. University of Connecticut Storrs, CT 06269 860-486-2200 860-486-4331 (fax) David Knecht Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
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