rustyduck

No wonder the country is going to the dogs Richard. It's only me and thee thats doing any work - and your reading this!

Hmmm, I think I have a problem with the idea that we have an basic instinct that can be applied to a wholly man made environment. It's akin to saying we have instincts of how to move in zero gravity. Surely instinct is the 'hard wired' reaction to certain stimulus. Ducking when something flashes by, that sort of thing. Maybe it's the word instinct that bothers me - the word intuitive would be better. Just like a well designed menu system on mobile phones, videos etc. Steering a boat is a process that must be thought about, if you had never seen a tiller, would you assume that that's what you use to make it go in the way you want? If the process requires any degree of thought before hand, no matter how small, it can't be instinctive. So I'll retract my comment, and say that I find the tiller intuitive to use. This lot may not be relevant to the original post, but boy do I love the mental exercise!

There is of course, the option to extend the tiller to allow you to crane the Ferrari on and off.

Sorry for any misunderstanding Stu, yes I realise what you intend. Correctly labelled it would be fine - it's always best to assume that the next person to be using it will be a half-wit, and so sound practise and sensible labels are a must.

My current plan would have the domestic bank that would be accessible in a utility room. I understand the need to keep the little devils in place as I don't fancy the free light show should they get shorted. But his layout would therefore entail the batteries venting into the living space. I know that hydrogen is lazy, and it would go straight up and out of the first vent it finds. I was just wondering if anyone else had a problem with this, or even considered it.

I, for one, would not be happy with the idea of even the possibility of a live plug. And on the seventh day God said "Sockets are for power to come out of, and plugs for it to go into".

Thank you Paul, we can always rely on you - for something or other.

Having stuck my nose in on several threads regarding batteries, something occurred to me. Namely, what provision do you good people have for the venting of a large bank of domestic batteries? I know that they should be in a nice tidy box, not allowed to move, good ventilation all round etc etc. But do you have a separate vent just for the batteries or just let them vent into the surrounding area and then out via any old handy opening?

Another dangerous precedent is re-reading the original question. So MrHB, I would suggest one of three courses: 1) Chuck it out, put in a similar sized one (preferably of the same make) and wait until the other two finally pack in. You would then be best off replacing them all in one go when finances allow. Cheap initially, a bit dearer in the long term. 2) Change the lot and get the full life expectancy from them all. Dearer now, but will last longer before you have to do it again. 3) Chuck it out and live with the reduced capacity until you can afford a new set. Otherwise you'll be changing batteries frequently and damaging the new ones almost the second you connect them up.

Apart from giving us an idea of what it looks like when you get it wrong.

There's a moral to that story methinks.

No, the short circuit will still remain. The heat produced through this high resistance short will boil off the electrolyte, but the connection is still there. And yes, once the single cell has been isolated from the rest of them then it will go open circuit and you are back to having a bank of 2 batteries. Edited after actually reading what I'd written ( for once ).

John O - the remaining batteries are now at a higher voltage and so will effectively try to charge the dud. However as the dud is now only a 10v battery, it will eat up as much power as the others can supply, converting most of it to heat, and dragging the good ones down. The single cells in the battery slowly create Christmas tree like structure on the surface of the plates during charging. The trees, called dendrites, eventually get to the point that they connect and produce a hot spot short circuit. Intelligent chargers try to reduce the formation of these by changes in voltage and/or current.

I think Richard is actually trying to build his own Jodrell bank.

Canals have them, I don't see why boats can't. Seems perfectly sensible to me!

It makes you wonder who they think will come off worse in an argument - a 20 ton narrowboat or a fishing rod. As my dad used to say "There's no point in being right and dead". Although he did say it about driving, but I think it still counts. And if it doesn't, I still like it.

And as a slight aside, a chain is (or at least can be made to be) one of the most efficient man made machines. Belts should only be for holding your trousers up.

I'll lend you one of mine.

What I would suggest is FIT A BILGE PUMP, And if someone says don't bother - ignore them and fit one anyway. It doesn't take much of a drip over an extended period to have your pride and joy nestling on the bottom. Once that's done, then work on finding where the water is coming from, and cure that. Then move on to the next thing to cure, and so so on ad nausea. Ain't boats great. Personally I'd get the water out of the bilge if your leaving it out of the water for the winter. Birchwood's are well built and the freezing shouldn't split anything, but it's best no to have any in there in the first place. That way you know when you have a problem when there is some in there (if that makes sense).

Thanks Gary, I can have a nice peaceful nights sleep after reading that. Build starts in about 5 weeks. No bad thoughts, tum tum te tum, everything will be fine........

A good idea Richard, but I'm going to go a step further. I think this electrolyte issue has been overlooked - so I'll be keeping my boat out of the water, and in a shed to keep the rain off, and heated to keep it nice and dry. No electrolysis or replacing anodes for me!