Mystery sound in boat identified!!

[sandydlc]

After we arrived in port yesterday we got settled, hooked up to shore power and shore water and went about our day. We kept hearing the sound of what appeared to be the fresh water pump repressurizing but then realized the pump was off since we were connected to shore water. Nevertheless we decided that maybe there was insufficient pressure from the shore water and disconnected but we kept hearing that weird sound.

We went out for dinner and when we got back to the marina it was really quiet and we heard this really strange sound like beeping/electronics switching on and off followed by what sounded like the fresh water pump again. We turned off the fresh water pump but the sounds persisted.

We opened the hatch and I went into the engine room and found our battery charger hot and the fan running so we turned it off. We also had one float switch stuck on (which I'm suspecting is related to our recent oil leak in the bilge). I adjusted it and got it and the bilge pump to turn off, but the weird sounds persisted.

We decided to try to isolate the issue and turned off shore power. We then turned off one battery at a time and found that whatever was making the sound was connected to the port battery. Getting closer. We looked at the DC panel and started switching things off until we got to the TV Sytems. That was it!!!

Unbelievably it had been our satellite dish/dome continually trying to find a signal, not finding one and resetting itself with a big clunk. We're in a marina where we're in a bit of a valley so I can see how we're not getting a great signal but we've never heard the dish make those crazy noises before.

I'm going to put some degreaser in the bilge to try to salvage our float switch. Hope it's not too gunked up with oil.

We'll also turn the battery charger back on and hope that's okay. That one is a bit of a mystery since I can't imagine why it was running so hot when the boat had been off for several hours at that point. Wondering it it was related to the sat dish doing it's strange dance plus float switch running continuously? Any ideas/suggestions on this one are appreciated. ???

So glad our fresh water pump is okay and hoping that when we get back to our home marina that the sat can reset itself. If it needs to be replaced I'm not sure we'll bother.

Sandy



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[JJ Chones]

You might want to check the electrolyte level in your batteries. It could be the cause of your charger constantly running .

 

[sandydlc]

You might want to check the electrolyte level in your batteries. It could be the cause of your charger constantly running .

Our electrician just checked the batteries about 3 weeks ago so I'm pretty sure they're good. I gave him a call this morning and he said that if we're running several DC items on the boat, the battery charger will run more often than if just running AC items. We did have the cockpit and hull lights on when I noticed the charger running so I'm guessing that was the cause of it.

He said I'll need to open up the float switch and clean it with degreaser. He said it likely has more buoyancy because of the recent oil leak but if we clean it, we will hopefully be able to salvage it.

Update on the sat-tv systems - all is good now. We're guessing that because we were docked next to a covered moorage slip, our sat dish was having trouble locking onto a signal and was trying over and over and over. We restarted the system once back in Seattle and now it's all good.

So - looks like other than degreasing a float switch, we're okay for now. I think that we're just on high alert because of the recent oil leaks. Not sure when we'll ever get to the point where we can relax and enjoy they boat. I guess they always kind of keep you on your toes!

Sandy