Col_T

Just had a look at the CRT Stoppages page and found this . . . https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/01968ae3-a799-70c6-9af5-971636b3b9ef

My GJW insurance policy says ” Any lithium batteries on board must be stored and used in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations and must not be left unattended whilst charging. In addition, there must be a fully operational lithium specific handheld fire extinguisher on board. ” Does a lithium specific handheld fire extinguisher actually exist???

DShK has it right - the washing machine has been onboard for about 5 years, and has been used many, many, many times so it is a ‘new’ problem. Haven’t tried a 230v source that is not the inverter as we’re ’out and about’ at the moment, and one can’t just plug-in to a hedge!!

@DShK I don’t seem to get anything vaguely resembling a sensible reading on the multimeter and yes, I did the check the voltage of the battery in the meter!! However, there being more than one way to skin a cat, I plugged my phone into its 12v charging adapter and got a solid green symbol indicating that it was charging. I plugged in its 240v charger and the green charging symbol was flashing. The immediate (false?) conclusion is that the inverter is doing something strange - perhaps outputting some kind of half wave. I suspect that is possible if it has failed in some particular way, but happily admit that I have no real idea how inverters work or whether one could fail in such a way. Still, my finger is now pointing more firmly in the direction of the inverter as the culprit!!

Charts on t’internet suggest 12.6v correlates to 80%, which looks about right.

I’ve had the solar panels switched off and not run the engine in an attempt to gauge the capacity remaining in the batteries. 13.0, 0Ah used when I isolated the MPPT at 19:30 on the 24th 12.6, 87Ah used when I turned on the MPPT at 15:30 today 26th I still reckon that we’re light users, 12v fridge or not!!

@Ex Brummie Sorry for the delay replying. Running the engine didn’t occur to me to be honest! I looked at the battery voltage, how little capacity had been used overnight, and just assumed there would be sufficient ‘oomph’. I’ll give it a go later today - I guess that if it all works with the engine running then that points to the batteries being ‘past their best’.

@Jen-in-Wellies It’s a 1500W Sterling Pro Combi Q - sorry, would have mentioned earlier it but some folk are likely to read Sterling and immediately point to that! We’ve had the washing machine onboard for about five years now and while the spin-dry function is useless - it doesn’t dry - we’ve never had this kind of behaviour from it before!

We have 4 x 110Ah sealed lead acid batteries onboard, which were fitted in July 22, and we are light users of electricity e.g. 12v fridge, inverter only goes on to power a camping washing machine - one of those that ‘washes’ by rotating for a few seconds in one direction, pausing for a few seconds and then rotating in the other - and then do the ironing! The inverter is a quasi sine wave thing that was on the boat when we bought it in July 2015. The conundrum is that, this morning, my lady wife loaded up the washing machine, switched on the inverter, switched on the washing machine and nothing happened other than a regular ‘thunk’ noise. By way of investigation, we emptied the machine and it kind of worked (the drum rotating in one direction but not the other). We put water in and it did the same, but the addition of actual clothing reduced it to ‘thunking’ again. As it happens, I also have a couple of 240v electric sanders onboard, so we tried those. The cheap one, which is not variable speed, ‘thunks’ a couple of times and then works while the slightly more expensive one, which does have variable control, doesn’t run at all on about half power but does manage to get going on full power. I had set the Ah counter on the battery monitor to zero early yesterday evening, when the BM-1 showed batteries at 13.0v. As I type this, nearly a day later, the BM-1 reckons the batteries are at 12.8v and that we have used 38Ah since I last zeroed the monitor. My lady did some ironing after the debacle with the washing machine, and the BM-1 showed that the iron draws about 70A will heating the sole plate, and virtually nothing until it needs to heat up again. This got battery voltage down to 12.2 - 12.4 while heating up. I think this is telling me that the batteries are goosed, but the way the variable speed sander needed to be set on full power while the washing machine only kind of worked with a light (electrical) load makes me wonder whether the inverter is on the way out. The inverter sat there quietly the whole time, no alarms, nothing. Anyone got any suggestions?

@Ciara H - Just a random thought: is the wheelhouse collapsible at all??

River and Canal License gives you access to all C&RT waterways. A Gold license adds Environment Agency rivers to the River & Canal License. Note that not all navigable inland waterways are controlled by C&RT and EA; the River Wey, for instance, is controlled by the National Trust.

Kate Boats renewed our ‘duck hatch’ doors and put windows in. Really very well done.

We’ve been through Watford Locks a number of times in the last two years. The boater has to ‘register’ with CRT volunteers, so they know how many boats are waiting to go up / down and plan accordingly. My understanding is that they are all volunteers, no C&RT employees, and whilst the boater may be responding to instructions, I haven’t ever been instructed to collide with a gate - that said, I wasn’t instructed to collide with a lock entry wall, but it didn’t stop me!!!

Thanks for all the comments, but honestly, if I can’t even figure up the +ve and -ve connections for the hour counter what hope I could replace the display!! 😀