Sudden Battery Loss - Non-starting issue

I checked my batteries today using the floating 4-colored-ball device. Every cell I tested caused all 4 balls to float, indicating full charge state.

After talking with Andrew today it was decided while the boat is docked I should disconnect the shore power and turn off any 12v draining device and leave it this way overnight to let the batteries rest.

Tomorrow I will return to the boat and using the battery voltmeter located alongside the helm I will check the voltage for all three banks using the toggle switch adjacent to the voltmeter. This will/should provide me with a reliable voltage readout for the batteries.

Prior to disconnecting the shore power and turning off two devices; the 12v refrigerator and a 120v dehumidifier the voltmeter for all 3 banks registered 13.5 volts. The battery charger was also engaged prior to disconnecting the shore power and recall that it wasn't charging at the time.

When all power draw in the boat was removed the voltmeter on all 3 banks slowly sank to just over 13 volts. This was maybe over a period of 10 minutes after removing all the power draw.

I'm hoping that tomorrow after the batteries have been allowed to rest, assuming the batteries were fully charged prior to removing all the power draw and the battery charger, the voltmeter on each of the 3 banks will register around 12.7 volts.

During my chat with Andrew I mentioned I had not needed to add any water to any of the battery cells over some 3 and a bit years. He was impressed but not concerned... and said I must have had good batteries delivered from the factory when it was delivered in Aug 2009. 😀

One last note... When checking the batteries with the 4-colored-ball hydrometer device I noted that none of the batteries had their month and year dots removed. 😱
 
Electrical issues can be frustrating and take time to figure out. A systematic plan of attack by eliminating possibilities is the way to go. Now that you have determined the batteries are good, you will have to determine if you have something drawing down the batteries. I assume you checked all of your terminals and connections as Howard suggested?
 
baz":2ot1gcfo said:
I checked my batteries today using the floating 4-colored-ball device. Every cell I tested caused all 4 balls to float, indicating full charge state.

After talking with Andrew today it was decided while the boat is docked I should disconnect the shore power and turn off any 12v draining device and leave it this way overnight to let the batteries rest.

Tomorrow I will return to the boat and using the battery voltmeter located alongside the helm I will check the voltage for all three banks using the toggle switch adjacent to the voltmeter. This will/should provide me with a reliable voltage readout for the batteries.

Prior to disconnecting the shore power and turning off two devices; the 12v refrigerator and a 120v dehumidifier the voltmeter for all 3 banks registered 13.5 volts. The battery charger was also engaged prior to disconnecting the shore power and recall that it wasn't charging at the time.

When all power draw in the boat was removed the voltmeter on all 3 banks slowly sank to just over 13 volts. This was maybe over a period of 10 minutes after removing all the power draw.

I'm hoping that tomorrow after the batteries have been allowed to rest, assuming the batteries were fully charged prior to removing all the power draw and the battery charger, the voltmeter on each of the 3 banks will register around 12.7 volts.

During my chat with Andrew I mentioned I had not needed to add any water to any of the battery cells over some 3 and a bit years. He was impressed but not concerned... and said I must have had good batteries delivered from the factory when it was delivered in Aug 2009. 😀

One last note... When checking the batteries with the 4-colored-ball hydrometer device I noted that none of the batteries had their month and year dots removed. 😱
Click to expand...

So this morning after some 14 hrs allowing the batteries to 'rest' I observed the voltages on all three banks to be...

Bank 1 at 12.82v
Bank 2 at 12.8v
Bank 3 at 12.8v

I now turned on the shore power and took voltage readings again

Bank 1 at 14.2v
Bank 2 at 14.2v
Bank 3 at 14.2v

I now turned on the 12v Refrigerator and the 110v Humidifier and observed the voltages again -- all Banks registered 14.45v.

I did not hear the battery charger kick-in.

From this I'm concluding my batteries are in very good shape.

I believe there are 2 house batteries, 1 battery for engine starting and 1 battery for thrusters. I'm not sure which Bank these three things are associated with as I don't have my R-25's Operations Manual with me. 🙂
 
I do not intend to be facetious here but does the battery charger actually make any noise?
 
The battery charger on our R27 makes a slight humming noise when it is charging the batteries up. The humming is not real noticeable except when you first plug your boat into shore power, after being away from the dock a while on the hook and or the the batteries need to be charged up more then the engine alternator has charged them. The closer the batteries get to being charged completely the quieter the charger seems to become and then it is completely quiet when batteries are fully charged.

Jim
 
Thanks for the quick reply. The suspense was killing me! Now I need to listen to mine the next time the led's indicate it is charging.
 
mspaugy":2ovmqcyu said:
I do not intend to be facetious here but does the battery charger actually make any noise?
Click to expand...

My charger makes the same kind of noise as Jim's.
 
The ProMariner ProNautic 1220P in my R27 (Jim probably has the same one) has an automatic variable speed cooling fan. The fan will run at a higher speed while charging at maximum output current and get quieter as batteries charge and the current drops. Other chargers may also have variable speed fans.

http://www.pmariner.com/productFeature. ... tNum=63120

Howard
 
The charger in my present boat may very well have one I may have just never noticed it. I look for the leds indicating it is charging and that's it. I really appreciatte you folks taking the time to reply. By the time I have a Ranger I should be like the Shell answer man!
 
My pro-mariner has several indicator lights on it and one of them lets you know when the unit is charging. It sounds to me like everything is working properly and there are no stray current issues otherwise the batteries would have read a lower voltage.
 
Tugnuts,

First, my thanks for all your comments and suggestions.

Second, even bigger thanks go to Andrew Custis and Kenney Marrs at Ranger Tugs and Marc Grove at Wefings Marine. These three guys went above-and-beyond in offering specific ideas on how I could resolve my issues.

My R-25 now appears to be functioning normally.

Here is what I think happened:

1. At some point in the last three years the red #2 battery wire which normally runs from the engine start battery to the starter got switched to the thruster battery. (Note: this is separate from a short #2 red battery cable which runs from the engine battery to a nearby bus bar.)

2. So for this period of time I have been very successfully using my thruster battery to both start the engine and run the windlass/thrusters.

3. BUT in docking my boat last week under very rough conditions, I ran the thrusters extensively --- effectively depleting the thruster battery charge.

4. Just glad to be back on land, I secured the boat and went home. (NOTE: Depleted thruster battery just sat overnight.)

5. Next morning I went to start the Yanmar main engine and got ZERO response. WHY? Because I was trying to start the main engine from the thruster battery (which was depleted from the night before).

6. To add to my problems, when I pulled the engine and thruster batteries to test them I reinstalled them incorrectly. I completely forgot to attach the #2 red starter cable and got no power at all to the Yanmar main engine.

7. After much head scratching I "discovered" the unattached #2 red cable, determined that it should really be connected to the engine battery rather than the thruster battery, and charged all three battery banks.

8. Cables correctly connected, battery banks charged, and ground connections cleaned have meant the situation has returned to normal here on the lower right coast.

Kent
Sarah Grey
2008 R-25
 
Tugnuts,

First, my thanks for all your comments and suggestions.

Second, even bigger thanks go to Andrew Custis and Kenney Marrs at Ranger Tugs and Marc Grove at Wefings Marine. These three guys went above-and-beyond in offering specific ideas on how I could resolve my issues.

My R-25 now appears to be functioning normally.

Here is what I think happened:

1. At some point in the last three years the red #2 battery wire which normally runs from the engine start battery to the starter got switched to the thruster battery. (Note: this is separate from a short #2 red battery cable which runs from the engine battery to a nearby bus bar.)

2. So for this period of time I have been very successfully using my thruster battery to both start the engine and run the windlass/thrusters.

3. BUT in docking my boat last week under very rough conditions, I ran the thrusters extensively --- effectively depleting the thruster battery charge.

4. Just glad to be back on land, I secured the boat and went home. (NOTE: Depleted thruster battery just sat overnight.)

5. Next morning I went to start the Yanmar main engine and got ZERO response. WHY? Because I was trying to start the main engine from the thruster battery (which was depleted from the night before).

6. To add to my problems, when I pulled the engine and thruster batteries to test them I reinstalled them incorrectly. I completely forgot to attach the #2 red starter cable and got no power at all to the Yanmar main engine.

7. After much head scratching I "discovered" the unattached #2 red cable, determined that it should really be connected to the engine battery rather than the thruster battery, and charged all three battery banks.

8. Cables correctly connected, battery banks charged, and ground connections cleaned have meant the situation has returned to normal here on the lower right coast.

Kent
Sarah Grey
2008 R-25
 
Kent: I'm glad you got the situation resolved. Electrical issues can be very frustrating. From reading your post I'm going to mark each battery with "House #1", "House #2", "Thruster" and "Engine Start". Currently they are marked as Bank 1, Bank 2 and Bank 3 which means nothing to me unless I recall what the Operations Manual states or refer to the Manual to find out. Marking as I mentioned will hopefully help me to not make same mistake as you encountered.
 
You could take it a step further and mark the leads as to where they go, i.e. house battery + post.
 
I have my batteries marked as Baz suggested. I also took a picture of the batteries connected and when I pull the batteries I use a tie wrap and keep each group together and tagged. So far, so good!
Now that you have the batteries hooked up properly you may have to start adding water!!! :lol:
 
My experience is same as Baz.
I have NEVER added water to the "Maintenance Free" batteries in my R-25, or in my car.
I suspect that is why they call them "Maintenance Free"
I buy them from Wal-Mart for about 70 dollars and replace them every three years, whether I need to or not.
I have been doing this ever since "Maintenance Free" batteries became available.
I have never had a battery failure.
It may be luck, but it works for me.
 
Just for the record... my batteries are the Ranger Tug stock batteries circa 2009/2010. They all have removable caps that allows the water levels for each cell to be checked and topped up as required. I've not needed to add water to any of the cells since Aug 2009 and all 4 batteries are in tip top condition at this time.

I do like the idea of recording a photograph of the batteries and cables to be sure if batteries are removed the cabling is reinstalled correctly.
 
This has been an interesting discussion given the number of views and posts. I too have the standard R29 batteries circa 2009 (purchased Ladybug, Too in 2010) and have had to add distilled water several times. I think it is related to the ProMariner charger. The "float" voltage is 13.4 so leaving the charger on has probably caused "boil off." It also cost me dearly when I forgot to unplug from shore power before a thunder storm. Now that I am being very cautious about the power, I am not seeing the drop in battery water level experienced in the past.

Pat, Ladybug, Too
 
Maybe the healthiest thing we could do for our sealed batteries is to just unplug 'em from A/C power when they've reached a 100% charge ...like when our cell-phones get to 100% ?
 
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