Shore Power / Battery

[surfergla]

Hey Everyone,

I have appreciated everyone's help so far and have done my best to search the threads but never seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. Anyway a newbie question. We have a 2003 280 Sundancer and the other night slept on the boat for the first time with the kids. We were hooked up to shore power all night and I had the battery switch on selected to #2 battery. Through the night we had the fridge on and A/C cabin lights as needed and a laptop plugged in to an outlet. In the morning when I was in the engine space checking fluids I looked over and saw the battery indicator light off indicating dead battery. Is there something I did wrong? am I drawing too much power with what we were using? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kay Lee]

If you have a dual voltage refrigerator, it should have been running off of shore power, A/C uses shore power, and laptop should have been using shore power. Cabin lights are probably DC and running off of battery. Your battery should not have been run down unless something is wrong. Was something else left powered on that didn't make it into your list? Was the battery charger (AC converter) turned on? If it was, then either you have a bad battery charger or a blown fuse between the charger and battery. You might just have a bad battery. How old is the battery?

Larry

 

[shdw134]

Maybe i am wrong here but when it was explained to me, when hooking up to shore power i should have the battery switch in the off position, and use the breakers in the electric panel. Maybe there is no effect on systems, i do not know that answer.

 

[Kay Lee]

Maybe i am wrong here but when it was explained to me, when hooking up to shore power i should have the battery switch in the off position, and use the breakers in the electric panel. Maybe there is no effect on systems, i do not know that answer.

My Norcold owner's manual says that if AC power is applied it will automatically switch over. I'm sure not all fridge's are the same, but surfergla should have done as you stated if they aren't sure how their fridge works.

Larry

 

[Creekwood]

If you want lights you have to leave the 12v side turned on. Most refrig that use both 110 and 12v will automatically switch to 12v if the 110 side is off. Make sure you leave the converter (charger) on all the time when on shorepower. It will keep the batteries charged and will also power the 12v systems. Most boats are wired so the batteries will still get charged if the switches are off, but you wont get 12v power through to the lights, stereo etc.

I agree with Kay Lee, sounds like a bad battery. If its a "starting" type of battery, they don't last long being run down to near dead and then recharged. If that is a twin engine 280 and the battery is the house and one engine starter, you may want to replace the one battery with two group 27 or 31 combined start/deep cycle batteries wired together. (both should be the same battery brand/type and same age if you wire them together)

 

[Jetmart]

My understanding is you need to have the A/C switch on for the fridge to have the fridge power to switch automatically. You ned to have battery switches on to get anything 12 V to work like the radio and most if the salon lights. You need to have shore power plugged in and switches on to get 120 V receptacles to work. I have a 2004 280 and spent last Friday on board for the 1st time. Had the boat for a week and all seemed to be in order. I do have 3 new batteries and a new charger.