bluegreencanal

Yes, but they are expensive and i dont mind replacinig it when it doesnt pump anymore. Its been limping along all spring...famous last words. It does need resealing tho, i found a product called XLS or something like that ...then my dad said make a seal with cornflake box and varnish. Have yet to try this one but should be fun making a seal and punching out the holes in the right place...

I prefer not being in a marina too, but sometimes people want to I believe.

Yeah, I didnt mean 115amp batts silly, I meant the little jobbies you can buy in Argos etc.

I bought a little machine from Tesco which does basic straight stitches, maybe a zig zag and button holes and it was about 25 pounds. It is not very adjustable but hasnt really needed any adjusting. Not sure if they were just a seasonal thing tho. Mainly bought it for its smallness as it fits in a space in my cupboard. Ohm, and if needs be I think it would run off batteries...

there is a new marina up by the Navigation at Castlethorpe looks lovely, no idea if there are spaces tho...

They mystery problem reappeared as it was a couple of cables which had dropped out of the main selector switch - thank heavens for the wonderful electrician! Thanks for advice again people. Much appreciated.

My Mikuni became infinitely more reliable after a good service by the wonderful Phil, and only ever starting it up when the generator or engine had pushed the batteries up to in excess of 12v. Remains to be seen how it goes on (8 months so far) as I wont be running it throughout the summer, just now and again to warm up on very chilly evenings. I would love a silent backboiler but am quite well situated and woulnd't disturb anyone if I had to run it at midnight - although of course it would have to be an emergency to do such a naughty thing as that It does have a silencer, which works as i discovered when it fell off once and I became temporarily deaf as I was working next to it !!

I reckon I was scruffy when my electricery was half out of action. Never mind the ironing board, no washing machine! But it's all mended now, so no longer scruffy

I thought my tank was shrinking. If I water it with a pressure hose it might grow again then?

I invited an electrician to come and sort it out. Meanwhile, I installed a battery to start the main engine. cabled it all back togeterh and the mystery problem just disappeared. Assuming loose connection - still going to get electrician to tell me why he thinks it works now...

In three years I have never come across a shop which sells standard 4 ft by 6 ft 3 mattresses, where is this anywhere that you speak of? Is it far away from me? Sorry silly mood

My son's PS3 beat the poop out of our batteries... The Xbox was worse He had to come to terms with sleeping at night :-)

Thank you Yes, sorry, it is a Mase marine 5.7kW generator think it is called an IS 6.5 Sue

This is a lovely diagram and it makes me even more aware that I dont have one for my boat electrics...and my eyes just cant follow someof the wiring as it is hidden and when cable goes into a box God alone knows where the power goes and what it comes out like! How expensive would it be to go on a course?

Thanks for all the input regarding batteries, I have read a lot of it and would like to clarify 2 points about my set up. 1) I charge daily for at least 2 hours. I charge at least once a week until the batteries are charging on float. I have 3 lights on my charger, red for teh start up charge which may be as much as 40 amp, orange for the middle bit of charging usually says 15amp or thereabouts, and it usually drops to 4 amp when the green light comes on. When it reaches float it says the batts are at 14.45 or 14.6 amps and I thought that was the correct way to charge. It has never taken 8 hrs to get it up to 14.6 when the genny has been ok. Does it not mean that the batts are fullly charged when the green light comes on? 2) Also I thought it was inadvisable to charge for more than 2hrs at a time when the batts might be a bit poorer as they might create gas? There is a heat sensor on the batteries but I have never known it to intervene, but I have smelt battery gases during charging when the batts were poor before I changed the whole bank. The 25amp alternator is only used when the main engine (greaves 2ydm) is running as it costs more to run but it is good to run it from time to time. I agree it is a bit low if the genny breaks down, but I just use less power if I find myself having to run my old noisy. When i am chugging it keeps the domestic batts nicely charged up (but I dont chug much these days as I am obliged to wait for a friend to come along with me to crew). Think the wiring is ok. Think I will get a man in to install the panel and check the electrics at the same time tho. So many variables! bluegreen

I am really interested in this battery management as I have lived aboard for nearly three years and am on my third full set of domestic batteries. I charge twice a day (4 domestic batts) for about 2hrs and all over winter did not run the fridge, just the tv for dvds and laptop for keeping in touch. Charged mobile phones and torches. I was expecting better performance from the batts after this, but I can tell they are already deteriorating. If I choose to run the fridge via my mastervolt 2000/12 inverter they soon get low voltage. I have an alternator which I can run off the engine and it will vary from 25 amps in to as low as 5 dep on batts condition I think. I have a decent generator and a battery charger mounted on the wall which will put up to 40 amps in to start but will not keep up with any power use if I try to run the inverter at the moment. Friends have a pair of 80 w solar panels and use a 12v fridge. They reckon on 3 years out of their batts. I would like to buy the solar panels, but need to know I will save at least something as I may not stay on the boat for more than two more years. If I invest 400 squids I wonder if I could save buying another bank of batts ( I can get 4 for 200 squid at the mo but the corners are usually slightly damaged). It is such hard work for me to lift in and out 4 large batts and recable them. Would it be worthwhile to buy the panels and get someone to fit them if I end up only keeping the boat for 2 more years? Can I realistically get more life out of batteries which have been through our -12 winter by keeping them well charged? Is there a better way to top up the batteries other than distilled water? My brain feels a bit like my batteries when I try to get my head round it. I dont think I can afford a 12v fridge as well

I have something that looks like this sitting between my input and output changeover switches. How do you know if the fuses have gone? Does it simply switch off?

I have lived aboard for 3 years and have had to replace the batteries every year. Usually a bit less. I dont have a 12v fridge or a solar panel yet, so it does mean they take a bit of a beating via the inverter, but we just had a really, really cold winter and my batteries are already beginning to shiver and shake and I didnt even run the fridge this winter! Rotten no fair. They were new in September. I dont run much, just my laptop or the telly (dvd) or a radio/CD a few 1amp lights (sometimes leave 4 on at a time by mistake but it feels more homely that way). I dont think batteries last that long unless your systems are all 12v and solar panel supported. Oh, to be fair, my central heating knocks the batteries too...ran that a lot this winter

As this is a fairly recent posting and I have an inverter related problem and there are sooooooo many talented 'leccies out there I wondered if anyone would care to comment on this one... My inverter is a mastervolt 12v/2000 it is lovely, but bit pricey if it goes wrong! When I am chargin my batteries (seperate charger) I have been observing power drops. I know quite a bit about it, but not enough. They were charging at as low as .1 amps at one point then I turned off the inverter and low and behold normal charging resumed. This might sound obvious, but it is only recently that this has happened as I have charged with the inverter on in the past and had a gentle reduction from 40amps down to 5 at around float. The smart guage gets a bit out of sync so often it reads plus 20 when it is full up give or take. Thing is, there used to be a way of using the excess power from the genny while the charging was taking place and it no longer works so that is a dreadful waste and I cant work that one out at the mo... would love some advice. Happy to make this a new thread if I should?

How do you go about joining the waterways guild? I wouldnt know how to judge if I were good enough, but I have seen a lot of so called professional stuff for sale i in the canal shops and some of it really isnt very good at all. I sat last year at our waterside festival and sold 5 small items but none of the buckets and cans I had painted. Thanks very much to all of you for your input and ideas it is much appreciated. I would have replied sooner, but had no notification in my email so apols for delay.

I know I wont be the only person out here trying to begin to sell nice buckets and items of canal ware, but does anyone know where to advertise this and if you were looking where would you look? I would appreciate any advice. I don't produce much as living on a boat you dont have the storage space and I am not able to sell from the boat as I dont have a traders licence so can only do this as a small private sale at the mo. and I cant sell from my location anyway as it is against my mooring licence.

The down side to Wiltons is that they will take a 1000 deposit off you - as they did from us in 2008 - and we told them up front we had a house to sell. My partner then signed some paperwork and we paid 700 to get the boat surveyed so you will see we were serious. The owner then took the boat off the market and Wiltons kept the deposit. It was a huge loss to us at a time when we were struggling to sell in a descending market. Butwe got the house sold a few weeks later, fell in love with a boat at Braunstons and bought it there. We lost 13,000 on our house sale. Braunstons were very helpful and polite and sold us a lovely lovely second hand boat. I never regretted not having the first one. It was meant to be. So I vote Braunston Marina.

Hi boaters... I never fail to work out my problems with the wonderful help and support I get here... This one I have been scratching my head over for weeks. Living on a boat is expensive enough as it is but I am having to run my inverter to do anything major and have had to give up hoovering and ironing...I am desperate :-) My generator works. It produces enough power to run the charger and the batteries charge fine but I can only run my 230 v sockets through the inverter. I have SEARCHED for a fuse and tested all those I can see and looked inside everything to see if there are any hidden fuses. There is a bit of a leak on the water pump but who's pump doesnt leak? It produces enough water circulation to keep it cool enough to work in spite of that. Does anyone have any other ideas? I am wondering if it is the alternator but am not convinced as I have been told it must be producing enough (230) to run what is working at the mo. I used to be able to use up the excess power produced by setting the CAM switch to generator instead of inverter. This seems to be ok (it looks ok, it is a big old clunky switch no signs of burning or anything to worry about) do they break? I would be so happy if someone could point me in the right direction. Thanks folks! Sue