Housekeeping battery issues: 1 overcharged.

Sgrochow said:
Is that ProCharger 120 mounted in the engine room? If it is, it needs to be rated ignition protected. Automotive chargers are generally not rated as such.
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It is. "Ignition protected?" Is that to avoid the possibility of sparks?
 
Well, fairly important item. Buck up and give the 6vs to RV/solar power nuts. I'm happy with my big 1st Interstate deep discharge 12 v. I put a Blue Seas cut-off switch on the one high amp draw (audio amp) and it works great. The switch also powers a reliable low voltage alarm which I set at the default of 12.7 volts. Rsch indicated that you start to loose permanent capacity when you go below that voltage. OK, I'm off subject but I used to have 2 12 volts and the single float would burn up one of them over the winter and I just decided 2 batteries equals double trouble and expense. And uncertainty.
 
KJ Hinton said:
It is. "Ignition protected?" Is that to avoid the possibility of sparks?
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Here is the definition of Ignition Protected.

In short there are diodes in place to stop that device from being a current source and also stop sparking in switches/relays etc. Also marine rated electronics have circuit boards that are conformal coated to help with corrosion and component failure. I did not see any of those ratings on that charger (PDF link was dead - so maybe it is listed in the manual?). While a great price for such a charger, there is a reason marine chargers are the price they are, not to mention the ability to have remote panels etc.
 
KJ Hinton said:
OK. Seems reasonable. The problem is this: I get that the connections to the posts each would go to a separate battery. The question I have is what do I wire that unit into to get it to run?
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So to answer your question, they just connect together. But I am not sure that device is marine rated, I referenced it so you would see what we are talking about. Victron makes a 12v balancer for the 24v systems found on a lot of the newer vessels.

I sort of painted myself into a corner regarding the balancer and why I didn't mention it until @ttmott did. I actually can't find any marine rated 6v balancers as 6v batteries on boats are not that common despite what is mentioned in this thread. I emailed Victron and will post there answer here for you.

Here is victron's link for how they are connected, https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/...launched-not-all-batteries-are-created-equal/

The fact that 6v balancers aren't easy to find doesn't mean you don't need one to fix the issue you are having. Google 6 volt battery balancer and you will find a lot of good articles on why it is needed and see your exact issue. At the end of the day I still will refer to my first post in this thread.
 
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What low voltage alarm did you go with?

Arminius said:
Well, fairly important item. Buck up and give the 6vs to RV/solar power nuts. I'm happy with my big 1st Interstate deep discharge 12 v. I put a Blue Seas cut-off switch on the one high amp draw (audio amp) and it works great. The switch also powers a reliable low voltage alarm which I set at the default of 12.7 volts. Rsch indicated that you start to loose permanent capacity when you go below that voltage. OK, I'm off subject but I used to have 2 12 volts and the single float would burn up one of them over the winter and I just decided 2 batteries equals double trouble and expense. And uncertainty.
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I think the charger is a main issue, plus the 2-6v isn’t a good idea either. The max output of 120amps concerns me in the charger….

I went with group 31 AGM a couple months ago, cost a ton, but with the pronautic 1230 charger, it’s been literally set it and forget it

KJ Hinton said:
Newbie owner with a boat that needs work but was very cheap. It's an ongoing project that I'm clearly over my head with.

One of the things we needed to do was to replace the batteries, which I did using NAPA deep cycle Marine 6 volts (X2) about a month ago. One of the replaced batteries appeared to have boiled at some point; the case was obviously pushed out, though not cracked.

I wired them in series per the charts I've seen, and until today, there wasn't any problem. Outside temperature is about 85.

But while I was doing some work with the engine access hatch open, I noticed one of the 2 6 volts had fluid on the top... and there was some soft buzzing noise going on. (For safety reasons, I've kept the engine hatch fully open or off altogether during this time to avoid any build up of any fumes) This hot battery came from the same position as the battery replaced which appeared to have boiled.

I immediately killed the master switch on the panel and disconnected the 110 current.

Of the two batteries, the one with the fluid on top (electrolyte, no doubt) was very warm; not what you would call hot. The other 6 volt is completely cool to the touch, no fluid showing.

The hot 6 volt showed 6.97 volts when I checked it, the cool one is at 6.20.

All systems seem to be working OK. As I said, both batteries have been in there for a month, and the battery tender/charger is a ProCharger 120 which, allegedly, is supposed to avoid overcharging batteries.

https://www.tarampstore.com/power-supply-battery-charger-taramps-procharger-120a/p

The connections all are tight. And... I'm out of ideas.
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SKybolt said:
... I emailed Victron and will post there answer here for you. ...
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They got back to me in a one line email and said the balancer is only "fir" 12v. I asked about other products and recommendations for the 6v and nothing was said on that.
 
Like I said earlier, balancers are not necessary. They probably help with balancing the charge/discharge between physical batteries, but do absolutely nothing on "inter cell" imbalance among the 6 cells within a 12v battery, which is just as likely to occur as the imbalance across an interconnected (serial or parallel) battery bank. There are literally millions of boats with battery banks across North America and around the world, including the majority of Sea Ray owners, that do not have a balancer between batteries on their house bank. They may be a technical advantage but its absolutely not a necessity.

The key issue is to ensure that all batteries on a single bank are bought at the same time and are exactly the same model battery. Then they start out as balanced as they can be. And then use a good modern multi-stage charger that will minimize the risk of overall overcharge on that bank. If a battery fails in a bank (or some cells in a battery I guess I should say), even with a balancer, it won't fix that battery. It will prevent overcharging of the other one to a degree, but that is a risk even if you had a single 12v battery with a bad cell. The charger will think its low and pound the amps to the battery, overcharging the good cells and probably never fixing the bad one. There is no way to put a balancer on a single battery to balance inter-cell. And I am not aware of any battery manufacturer that builds batteries with intercell balancing. It would be prohibitively expensive.
 
Chris-380 said:
What low voltage alarm did you go with?
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This Blue Seas low voltage switch has a built in alarm circuit and I added the old Radio Shack beeper:
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...&ved=0ahUKEwjzjuCD0IjyAhXGGzQIHZVyAOUQ9pwGCAk
When it beeps, this old man always thinks, "what the hell is that now?" Eventually I remember and explain how clever I am.
index.php

Is that electrolyte level low? I never check it anymore and the battery was new when photo taken. Never noticed the 3" dark band?
Dark band is not a problem, however the battery shop says should check acid level every month. Plates were not exposed but I put about 1/6th gallon of distilled water in. Lucky I found out it was not maintenance free.
 
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Re above image, I better check it. Battery shop says it still needs to be checked once a month!
 
This is interesting, one of my house banks has more load than the other…. What do you have your low voltage alarm set at?

I just went to agm (couple months ago), pretty happy so far, and no more checking levels, which I was horrible at

Arminius said:
This Blue Seas low voltage switch has a built in alarm circuit and I added the old Radio Shack beeper:
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...&ved=0ahUKEwjzjuCD0IjyAhXGGzQIHZVyAOUQ9pwGCAk
When it beeps, this old man always thinks, "what the hell is that now?" Eventually I remember and explain how clever I am.
index.php

Is that electrolyte level low? I never check it anymore and the battery was new when photo taken. Never noticed the 3" dark band?
Click to expand...
 
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