John E3
Active Member
I've been troubleshooting battery bank issues and finally located my issue, boiled almost dry it seems, but the charger does not charge after a fill, nor respond to settings changes and the 2 Stage LED is yellow. The manual does not mention anything about any yellow indicator and all others are green. All other LEDs indicate normal operation/status (but 0% charge).
A sort of quick history of how I ended up where I am.
4 new batteries 16mo ago, shorty after purchase. The old ones were years old and 2 failed on the first outing after purchase. No issues all season, maybe 30 hours of run time.
Disconnected shore power before leaving on vacation, expecting a haulout while we were gone, but it was delayed till after we were back, 2 weeks with no shorepower. They fired it up and hauled out no issue starting (454's so they have a hefty starting load). A quick check over and then it was 3 weeks till I was back to winterize.
Upon return both banks were near dead. Nothing was turned on. Drug out 200ft of cords, plugged in and charged them up. Came back the next day, did most of the winterizing, and off again for 2 or weeks. Dead again, but not as bad ~10.5v. This time the charger (original 1999) seemed stressed out with the deadness and slapped the amp meter needle hard and back to zero, maybe a dozen times then settled in a max output. Back the next day, needle on zero, stbd bank measured OK but port was still at 10.5v.
I made an assumption that the old charger died and maybe was draining them, and installed the Trucharge unit that I happened to have. Next day both banks were (seemingly) fully charged. another 2 or 3 weeks and both are at 3v. Power on, charged up again, and 2 weeks later, 8.0v. But now they won't charge up again. Power off 8.0v, power on 8.8v but 0% charge.
I had been assuming some load was causing it, but with mains off, there's nothing but bilge pumps connected and they are not running (and never do run, except for testing).
Headed home to scratch my head for a while. Grabbed my basic charger and headed back and suddenly wondered about the water level. Bone dry. 10-12 cups to fill each one. Powered up the Trucharge again and it still sits on 0% charge. Powered off and charged each bank 12 hrs with the basic charger yesterday and overnight. There was a reference to the Trucharge not charging under 8v, but it did do it once.
So, getting to the questions, for those with a Trucharge unit, is your 2 stage LED Yellow, or do you know what this means? It supposedly can sense bad cells so maybe it thinks there is a bad cell?
If it was in 3 stage mode, and running an equalization cycle, all other actions are locked out until its done, but it's not set to 3, but I still can't change any settings such as the mode or Temp, either. Any thoughts on it?
The 20a fuse is good, and when I put it back in the LEDs light up briefly with current state (even with power off) so you can see it's alive and still monitoring the state of them. FYI bank 3, genset, was fully charged the whole time.
As far as being boiled dry, I'm at a total loss on this. The old ones I took out were full, so I don't believe that condition existed before. The previous owner did not have any issues with them (he manages the marina yard & docks we are at, so I am confident he's honest). One other point to note is that the alternator isolator was bypassed before he bought it, but if it was part of the issue, he would have had issues as well. Dash voltmeters and MFD did not suggest overcharging when running. The power has not been on more than 24 hours every 2-3 weeks since haulout, so I doubt that could have overcharged them. It was on 24/7 all season.
I did not check levels when I installed them. They are West Marine and Napa brand, and probably made in the same factory as they are 100% identical other than logos. Not likely all 24 cells were low to start.
I'm headed back tonight to see where things stand.
A sort of quick history of how I ended up where I am.
4 new batteries 16mo ago, shorty after purchase. The old ones were years old and 2 failed on the first outing after purchase. No issues all season, maybe 30 hours of run time.
Disconnected shore power before leaving on vacation, expecting a haulout while we were gone, but it was delayed till after we were back, 2 weeks with no shorepower. They fired it up and hauled out no issue starting (454's so they have a hefty starting load). A quick check over and then it was 3 weeks till I was back to winterize.
Upon return both banks were near dead. Nothing was turned on. Drug out 200ft of cords, plugged in and charged them up. Came back the next day, did most of the winterizing, and off again for 2 or weeks. Dead again, but not as bad ~10.5v. This time the charger (original 1999) seemed stressed out with the deadness and slapped the amp meter needle hard and back to zero, maybe a dozen times then settled in a max output. Back the next day, needle on zero, stbd bank measured OK but port was still at 10.5v.
I made an assumption that the old charger died and maybe was draining them, and installed the Trucharge unit that I happened to have. Next day both banks were (seemingly) fully charged. another 2 or 3 weeks and both are at 3v. Power on, charged up again, and 2 weeks later, 8.0v. But now they won't charge up again. Power off 8.0v, power on 8.8v but 0% charge.
I had been assuming some load was causing it, but with mains off, there's nothing but bilge pumps connected and they are not running (and never do run, except for testing).
Headed home to scratch my head for a while. Grabbed my basic charger and headed back and suddenly wondered about the water level. Bone dry. 10-12 cups to fill each one. Powered up the Trucharge again and it still sits on 0% charge. Powered off and charged each bank 12 hrs with the basic charger yesterday and overnight. There was a reference to the Trucharge not charging under 8v, but it did do it once.
So, getting to the questions, for those with a Trucharge unit, is your 2 stage LED Yellow, or do you know what this means? It supposedly can sense bad cells so maybe it thinks there is a bad cell?
If it was in 3 stage mode, and running an equalization cycle, all other actions are locked out until its done, but it's not set to 3, but I still can't change any settings such as the mode or Temp, either. Any thoughts on it?
The 20a fuse is good, and when I put it back in the LEDs light up briefly with current state (even with power off) so you can see it's alive and still monitoring the state of them. FYI bank 3, genset, was fully charged the whole time.
As far as being boiled dry, I'm at a total loss on this. The old ones I took out were full, so I don't believe that condition existed before. The previous owner did not have any issues with them (he manages the marina yard & docks we are at, so I am confident he's honest). One other point to note is that the alternator isolator was bypassed before he bought it, but if it was part of the issue, he would have had issues as well. Dash voltmeters and MFD did not suggest overcharging when running. The power has not been on more than 24 hours every 2-3 weeks since haulout, so I doubt that could have overcharged them. It was on 24/7 all season.
I did not check levels when I installed them. They are West Marine and Napa brand, and probably made in the same factory as they are 100% identical other than logos. Not likely all 24 cells were low to start.
I'm headed back tonight to see where things stand.