Reversed Polarity?

[BillinPA]

No issues thru 1st 3/4 of summer, then light came on showing reversed polarity on charger and all batteries dead.
No problem, 4 years old, so I replace them all. New batteries and light still on and not charging batteries.
Do I have to track something down or does this sound like a charger issue?

Thanks all.

 

[Golfman25]

Are you plugged into the same source? Maybe change that if possible.

 

[atrick]

Check your power cord and/or the plug it plugs into, had a corroded connection on mine that did same thing

 

[boatrboy]

Probably not the same issue, but last year I had reverse polarity lights halfway through the year. Same plug, power post etc. My batteries had not died, just the lights. Searched connections for a while to no avail.

My dock neighbor saw me fiddling and said, “I saw an electrician fooling around on one of the dock lights Yesterday”.

I immediately moved my cord to another power pole and the issue was solved…. I really don’t know what the electrician could have done, but my original power pole had the reverse issue not my boat. I tested it at another marina dock to confirm.

It would only take you 1 minute to verify and may be worth a try as mentioned above.

 

[ttmott]

The only real way a reverse polarity light comes on bright is if the Hot and Neutral wires on the supply get swapped.
Dimly flashing is normal when things are running on the boat.

 

[Skybolt]

No issues thru 1st 3/4 of summer, then light came on showing reversed polarity on charger and all batteries dead.
No problem, 4 years old, so I replace them all. New batteries and light still on and not charging batteries.
Do I have to track something down or does this sound like a charger issue?

Thanks all.

If you measure the AC voltage at the charger and also between ground and neutral and it looks good, I would turn the charger off for an hour or so. Then turn back on and if it is still dead or a funky state, I would guess something electrical happened and the charger was affected by that.

I have had the 1250 for ~10 yrs and it has always been rock solid, even through questionable shore power at times. And it is always on, I never switch it off.

 

[dmorris800]

Question. Not sure of your year but newer sea ray's have a polarity alarm / check where you plug the shore power in. Might give you an indication as to what is going on.

 

[jgoedd99]

No issues thru 1st 3/4 of summer, then light came on showing reversed polarity on charger and all batteries dead.
No problem, 4 years old, so I replace them all. New batteries and light still on and not charging batteries.
Do I have to track something down or does this sound like a charger issue?

Thanks all.

I have the same charger and reviewed the manual, and it says that Reversed polarity indication on Pronautic charger indicates that Pos and Neg on a battery are reversed (i.e. 12 V) not 120 VAC power to charger.

Reversed polarity at your incoming 120 V power panel indicates reversed polarity at shore power inlet panel (on your boat) which as someone else pointed out indicates you have 120 VAC between the white (Neutral) and ground (Green) of your incoming power source.

Which reversed polarity light is lit, battery charger or incoming power?

If you have reversed polarity coming into the boat, i think your 120V panel will prevent the boat from powering up, and eventually all your batteries will die unless they are being charged by the alternators or generator. NOTE - I say that you will not power up because i plugged in at a marina this past summer with reversed polarity and my 1998 370DA would not power up on the 120V side. Went to a different pedestal and reversed polarity light went away and boat powered up.

 

[jgoedd99]

I have the same charger and reviewed the manual, and it says that Reversed polarity indication on Pronautic charger indicates that Pos and Neg on a battery are reversed (i.e. 12 V) not 120 VAC power to charger.

Reversed polarity at your incoming 120 V power panel indicates reversed polarity at shore power inlet panel (on your boat) which as someone else pointed out indicates you have 120 VAC between the white (Neutral) and ground (Green) of your incoming power source.

Which reversed polarity light is lit, battery charger or incoming power?

If you have reversed polarity coming into the boat, i think your 120V panel will prevent the boat from powering up, and eventually all your batteries will die unless they are being charged by the alternators or generator. NOTE - I say that you will not power up because i plugged in at a marina this past summer with reversed polarity and my 1998 370DA would not power up on the 120V side. Went to a different pedestal and reversed polarity light went away and boat powered up.

From your picture, I noted you are using "sealed" as your battery type. Do you really have sealed lead acid batteries? AND charger indicates you are in auto maintain mode, which only happens when the charger has successfully charged and conditioned the batteries. Not sure how it would go into that mode with the problems you describe.

I mention the sealed battery type, because they are the battery type most likely to explode. I would move to a different battery type if you need to change batteries again.