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Hi Nicknorman and others kind enough to offer advice. Daft mistake wrong setting on the mega, voltages are synced, must be a sulphated battery, apologies guys

Hi 14.5v at the terminals 14.1 at the monitor, checked the shunt seems to be wired OK Hi Nickorman Sounds very sensible, will check out the V at the Victron terminals in daylight

Hi All I've got a Rolls 683ah 12v bank running into a Victron 3000 Quatro. Yesterday I checked the SG of the batteries after 5 hour genny charge all goodish, output voltage at battery terminals 13.1 steady at 20ah load while the read out on the Victron monitor was 12.4v falling to 12.3 . Problems manifest in low voltage warnings after just a few hours after charging and extended charging period as the input current falls to 10-15ah over 2-3 hours whether using the genny or 160ah alternator. Equalised the batteries on shore power recently but the problems continued. Questions are: 1. Why would the reading at the monitor be different? 2. Would this affect or fool the charger in the Vitron unit to reduce the input current? 3. Would my solar panels/morningstar MPPT rig wired directly to batteries have anything to do with it? Any help gratefully received!

Thank you chaps, pretty much what I thought/feared, I think I'll go the dedicated solar tank route, sounds the sensible way.

Just picked up a 12 tube solar panel,evacuated tube type. Have standard 80 litre indirect calorifier currently powered by Webasto and engine. What's the easiest/best way to pipe it up? Have thought about plumbing into the Webasto flow and return but all I see are potential problems, there are coils that fit in the immersion boss, hot rod? Salamander? do they work? Any thoughts welcome

The terminals jigsaw into each other, which i didn't notice until i had just slipped the third one into the case and found they wouldn't fit, so had to take them all out and start again. Thankfully no one around to hear my language though the dog disappeared under the table for the next hour. Rolls are just huge chunky plates surrounded with electrolyte, nothing fancy and no bull, I'm sure there are other batteries around which are just as robust but beter VFM? Possible and especially if you have the time and inclination to salvage FLT power packs but is £150 a year too much to pay for a power pack you can forget about? Probably no more expensive than cheapos but a lot less hastle.

Hi PFU I replaced my bank 3 months ago with 2 x Rolls 6CS21P 6v 5000 series batteries rated at 683 AH each. Early days but they produce a solid continuous voltage and so far have worked perfectly. A rule of thumb is supposed to be that the weight of the battery is a fair indicator of their longevity, if that's true at 150 kilos each they should last a very long time. If required they break down into 3 cells each which makes installing easier but slipping the last cell into the very snug plastic case is a tricky business. The full warranty covers the first few years (not sure exactly how long} and then there is a sliding scale of indemnity. I bought these batteries from Barden because I wanted peace of mind, if I get 10 years of life they will have cost me £150 a year in capital cost, more importantly I don't have to think as much about them, have I over discharged them? do I have enough power to get me through the night? do they need topping up?(they do but once every 3 months or so) and how long will I have to run my genny/engine to charge them when they get tired? If I want to run them for 2 days without charging up its not a problem and if I need to run them for longer, say if I have an engine fault I can eke them out to 4 days or so. Time will tell but they seem to be what Rolls claim "One Mean Battery".

Hi Mark It's an unusual situation a sailway, but not ballasted, foamed or battened the fitters took all that on. The shell builder who also supplied the engine and BT etc has been fine and I have nothing but praise for the quality of the fit in general. The main problem lies with the sparks contracted to the fitters, he did a great job wiring the boat but has been almost comically averse to answering the phone or emails and the fitters seem to have no control over him. But! An email has just arrived to say he's coming to fix the BT wiring, just doesn't say when. I would say that if you are having a boat built make sure that you retain a small but tempting amount until the warranty period is up.

Thanks Blackrose, I'm going to do the same thing, at the moment my learning curve feels like a cliff face but this forum certainly helps.

Thanks Gibbo, clear now. Certainly didn't mean the main BT neg to the buzzer, neg to the buzzer was a small wire probably a control one, leaving it to the experts to sort that out. Thanks to everyone for the input

Thanks Gibbo Pretty much what I expected, no idea whether a relay or diode was used but I'll investigate. ref the buzzer, all I know is that in the original wiring form the only time current flowed to the BT batteries was when the buzzer on the ignition switch was on, when the neg was earthed current flowed when the engine was running. One last thing, why would the fuse blow when the BT was operated if the fuse is on the charging cables?

Hi techs. A litttle advice from those that know please. I have a 95 k Vetus on board my 3 month old boat, during fit out the sparks called me to say that he considered the 16mm charging cables to the thruster batteries as being inadequate and recommended an upgrade to 40mm as the length of the run was a good 55 ft. Installed as recommended, however we dont use the thruster much and didn't notice a problem until it suddenly died. Testing the voltage showed no power going into the batteries even with fully charged domestics and the engine on. Sparks not interested in desnagging (anything actually) so got a local marine engineer to check. This guy is an excellent all rounder but I have no experience of his sparkie skills. He found that the neg had been wired to the ignition buzzer in such a way that it could only charge while the buzzer was sounding, a quick check after a temporary mod on the neg (to earth) showed good current flowing to the thruster. However after 20 secs or so the 70 amp blade fuse popped, the engineer after checking the fuse told me that was to be expected as the fuse was suitable for a 15mm cable but was well below spec for a 40mm. Also recommended that the neg be wired back to the buzz bar as a permanent fix. 1. Does this sound right? 2. Original sparks doesn't seem to have an aftersales life so before I put in a big fuse (ceramic slow burn?) am I risking damage to the thruster batteries or worse? 3. Is warranty work always such a pain in the rear to get done?

Thanks Gibbo that is just what I needed and I have used it over the past few days. Have a 525 watt solar array operating in good weather now and producing up to 32 amps. This falls to 3 -4 amps on the display after a few hours with voltage up to 14+ when there is still good sunshine. If I put a load on the system the amps fall briefly then rise to the previous reading (in good sunshine), I take it that that demonstrates that the batteries are full. Very cloudy day today so have now just done the same with the engine which has a 160 amp alternator. The reading was around 12 volts when I started up, after 1 1/2 hours amps have dropped to 15 with a voltage reading of 14.1. That seems to fit in with an estimated use of 120 amps in a 4 hour evening from a full bank of 750 amps. The SOC reading is obviously wrong as it shows 100% long long before this has been achieved. Seems that you were absolutely right and we were not charging the batteries enough. Disappointed that we had to turn to the forum to get the matter sorted, our electrician almost totally unhelpful and Victron not much better.

Wife uses a machine I bought for her from Liddle. Computerised £150 and it does just about anything. Pulls about 2.5 amps when running if the display is to be believed + the inverter of course, considering a lot of time is spent measuring, cutting and pinning cost is negligible.