christophert

Morning, mross. At present finances won't stretch to good equipment as waiting a payment which will get me new batteries good monitors and solar. I'll go get a cheap Chinese one as you suggested from ebay in the mean time. I'd expected the batteries to have dropped considerably over this time but haven't, but you've explained the reason for that.

Yes it does, thank you Good morning, all. It's now been 24 hours since I disconnected the battery bank. battery 1 is registering 13.1 and battery 2 is at 12.9. haven't dropped hardly at all.

Update on batteries - Disconnected this morning at 10.00am. After overnight charge reading 13.3 and the other reading 13.2 Time now 3.30 and reading 13.2 and 13.1 I know it's still too soon as they need to settle. May leave them till tomorrow morn before re-connecting.

Can anyone recommend gauges and meters please, so I can monitor it all. Maplins and Ebay have been mentioned. Anyone suggest good makes, and what else I should get. An ammeter will be a good start for me. Thank you

thank you. Getting to grips with it now :-)

Yep. Seen me coming!! Just spoken to ShoreLine. Fridge has no DC and pulls 1 amp per hour. 3 to 3 and a half amps when working hard, according to them

Starting to understand it now ... I think.. I thought it automatically switched to mains when it it plugged into shoreline power. That's how it was sold to me. But it still needs the batterycharger to do the converting I guess. So as my batteries are presently disconnected and battery charger is obviously not charging anything, the stupid thing wont work??? So much for it works off the mains then! Yes if the battery charger is plugged into the batteries. Isn't this rather misleading?

Can you please recommend a good ammeter and other monitoring devices? Thank you

Sorry, my mistake. it is 12/24 I thought it plugged into the mains. Confused how it can work off the 240v now. Was told it did both

Please don't apologise, I really appreciate your time and help. -- Batterycharger is switched off when not on shoreline. -- Inverter put on for short time to top up charge of phones and laptop. Very aware of what to use when not connected to shoreline. -- Engine is run twice a day for two hour periods - Alternator is 2 years old and 80amp. Working fine. Just found out ShoreLine Marine fridge is not working off 240 mains. Batteries are now disconnected and fridge should auto change to mains when plugged into shoreline power. I'm going to check the obvious being the fuse in the plug, then pull fridge out and check for any fuses in the back. Just wondering, our electric bills have been high, so poss fridge constantly running off batteries and battery charger working overtime. ?

Could be getting somewhere here. Fridge should automatically switch to mains when plugged into shoreline. At the moment I have a dead fridge, been constantly running off batteries I guess.

Thank you, I have taken on board the above four points. Why do I seem fixated on the charger? Is it not wise to look at all scenarios? I said - 'not too sure if I can have my battery charger tested, but if not, a new battery charger may be a step in the right direction,' I was asked a question on what model charger and responded, also posted a pic. Someone responded - 'According to the manual it will operate on an input of 10 to 16V. This implies that you have been taking the batteries down to 10V.' Hence my reply - 'So the charger isn't doing the job needed then?' I don''t know. I'm trying to learn. When we take her out on weekends, we only use 12v lights and 12v TV for a few hours. We run the engine for few hours in morning and again in evening. Nothing heavy is used to drain batteries. This has been the case for years on old batteries which lasted eight years. These batteries are two years old. I'm doing nothing different to what I did before.

No, not short sighted .... then I do have to put my head down the toilet bowl to make sure I've been :-)

I may well be wrong here, but - I have disconnected the battery bank so I can monitor the charge they hold throughout the day. But the fridge is now off. It is a shorline which is 12/240v. Surely it should now be working off the 240 shorline now??? This has totally thrown me!

Yes, in the past, when out on the cut, I've had the inverter on, then about 6 in the evening I've ran the engine for a few hours. So everyday when out this has been the case. Just recently, the inverter has been going off after a couple of hours of running the engine. Where before I've ran the engine in the morning then again in the evening with the inverter not going off, so keeping the batteries happy and inverter happy. But recently inverter going off with warnings of low batteries within a few hours Ahhh, Please bear with me as trying to get my head around all this. So the charger isn't doing the job needed then?

No, I think what you have is really good. I don't have any way of monitoring anything! Not a dial in sight. The boat was built in 89 and a quality built boat, but I think they must have got bored when it came to the engine room as electrics are a shamble, wires everywhere. Now I know my inverter is a 3k I'm now going to get bigger batteries as the ones on are 110s - only two, as the third leisure is used as the starter battery - and I'm going to have 600w of solar. But meters are a must, have none at all.

Yes I have, but been a case of having to recently. Disconnected batteries this morning so all standing individually. I'll monitor them throughout the day

I'm wondering if it's just tired through age and not doing its job properly, even though the indicator lights are showing it is. Thank you all. Your support is fantastic and most appreciated

Sorry, pic upside down.

Just been to double check, 1512 definitely. It's called a WAECO PerfectCharge 1512. It's aprox eight years old. Sending pic

Alternator working fine I believe. Will do a parasitic draw test tomorrow - today I had it off shorline to go through electrics and to see if any electrical item was draining the batteries excessively. after a while the 12v led lights in the bedroom began to dim where the other lights throughout were fine. In the past, they have all dimmed together. I will check wiring in bedroom. I agree with what you say, the batteries have gone flat too many times too quickly and most likely kaput

New batteries may be sensible step. Just concerned if there is a fault causing damage that new batteries will meet the same fate. Also, not too sure if I can have my battery charger tested, but if not, a new battery charger may be a step in the right direction, The one I have now is eight years old.

'There's no point in saying 'I don't like electrics' and then spending no time at all in trying to learn some basics' - To answer, I have been spending a lot of time trying to learn the basics and learning I am. 'especially if you've been consistently over-discharging them (which I KNOW you have)' How do you know? No, I have not been constantly over discharging them. I do not, and never have. I am not doing or done anything different now to what I did with my old batteries which lasted eight years. The current batteries are two years old. Yes, they may be faulty, and I will explore further, and yes, my battery charger may also be faulty and I'll need to check it out, but no, it's nothing to do with my stupidity or knowledge of electrics

Cheers. That's why I'm confused. I had them deep charge tested at a marina, was told they're fine. Also the green indicators on the batteries say they are healthy. I'm thinking something is draining them, but what?