I think I ruined my batteries? 2015 R29s

[elsdrag00n]

Hello everyone! I made a few careless mistakes docking up to shore power at home port with my r29, namely that I had the AC Main switch accidentally set to Off and I neglected to tell my guest/helper there was a breaker to switch after hooking us up to the shore power before we left. Basically we were just sitting there unplugged.

I got a call from the marina about a week afterword that our boat was beeping and *probably* not sinking 😀 . On arrival, I was relieved to see it was just the Garmin complaining about not being able to find host for the autopilot or something. I stopped being relieved shortly after; my house batteries were in the 10v and 9v range, and even after correcting the breaker on shore and the AC main switch, the Inverter wouldn't start up (no lights) and I couldn't get shore power to come in. My engine battery was listed at normal 12+ voltages, but I couldn't start that either. For bonus points, my 11 year old immediately used the head and informed me he couldn't flush it. Thanks.

I was eventually able to reboot the Inverter by going into parallel mode for a bit. This let us use the lights inside again (and flush!). But I still can't start the boat and it doesn't even try to turn over, even when I'm on shore power; the digital volvo meter at the helm shows the voltage at 7.1, the morningstar remote meter for the solar panel has no read out at all for the batteries, and the volt meter below in the quarter berth is showing 9.5v 12 and 12 now. The 9.5v meter has a 'heartbeat' where the needle wiggles a bit. Is that my solar panel?

The batteries weren't super new anyway.... but these are ruined now yeah? I've done a lot of poking around youtube and this forum and I don't see anyone with anything positive to say about batteries past the 10v range; I think they've been overdischarged. I'm confused why the engine battery is not starting the engine though, is there a dependency there I'm not expecting when the house batteries are completely dead?

Thanks for any advice. I'm relatively new to boats and batteries like these (obviously!).

 

[Bruce Moore]

Bumping post delayed in moderation queue.

 

[Ralf H]

Hi there,

The big thing here is that your batteries are too low on voltage for the ACRs to turn on and allow the batteries to charge. These ACRs have a minimum voltage that they need to see before they allow voltage to pass from the charging circuit. (if memory serves, it is about 11.5 volts or more) Your best solution would be to charge the batteries with a separate charger until they are topped back up. If possible, I would recommend removing the batteries and then charging them so they can be properly tested as well. Depending on the age of the batteries, it may be time for new units. Hope this helps get you started.

Cheers,

Ralf

 

[watson1987]

If the R29 is set up anything like the R31, then there is no ACR between the shore inverter/charger and the house bank.So I'm not entirely sure why you would need to charge those separately to get the voltage up to unblock things.

The ACR between the house and engine starting battery should flip as soon as the charger is turned on as well, even if the house bank didn't hold a charge, the voltage should still be there. Do you have a sub panel between your inverter/charger?

EDIT: Page 32 on R29 owners manual confirms my suspicion, that there is no ACR between the charger and the house bank.

 

[Horigan]

I’m not familiar with how your boat is wired, but I would think your solar panels should have charged your house battery.


Rich