www.iFourWinns.com :: View topic - House Battery Voltage

You need at least 13.8 volts to charge a normal lead acid battery. But be carefull those meters in the boat are not very accurate.

The fridge cycling means their is not enough voltage. Mine also cycles if my voltage gets that low. I may be due to wiring issues to the fridge. I put in two deep cycle 6 volt batteries in series as my house batteries and have my two separate starter batteries. If has worked like a charm for anchoring many nights and keeps the voltage high enough to prevent the frdge from cycling. You may need a new house battery and one is not enough for anchoring. I beleive many four winns are designed for maraina docking and not anchoring.

Swap a starting battery and your house battery for an hour, if the low voltage stays with the battery then it's the problem. If it stays with the charger, then thats where to look.

Personally, I like the ProMariner chargers. BUT, take voltage reading from the charger with no battery connected. That will give you a true output. Than connect it, wait about a minute and do the same. Most chargers are a 3 stage chargers. Compare them to the specs. Do the same with the batterers, disconnect all cables. With the charger on & connected, you should be seeing 14.6 VDC absorption/full charge voltage, 13.4 VDC Float charge.

Plus, check to see that ALL of your wiring is good/no corrosion and good connections

Unless I missed it, we are talking about wetcells not AGM batteries.

Swap a starting battery and your house battery for an hour, if the low voltage stays with the battery then it's the problem. If it stays with the charger, then thats where to look.

Author:	weather [ Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:37 pm ]
Post subject:	House Battery Voltage
When the boat is plugged in, and the 120V charger is on, what should the house battery voltage show at the breaker panel? Mine shows 12.25VDC - does that mean it's charging? Seems too low, but then I'm used to an alternator charging voltage. Also when I turn off shore power, I notice that the frig cycles every 2-3 seconds and pulls the battery between 12-12.25VDC, that seems odd as well.

Author:	jrcinnh [ Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
You need at least 13.8 volts to charge a normal lead acid battery. But be carefull those meters in the boat are not very accurate.

Author:	wkearney99 [ Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:58 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
jrcinnh wrote: You need at least 13.8 volts to charge a normal lead acid battery. But be carefull those meters in the boat are not very accurate. Yup, I'd go check it at the batteries themselves. See what they read with the engines and the battery charger turned off. Then with the charger and then with the engines (charger off). You'd want to see at least 13.8 to confirm that there's enough voltage to be recharging the batteries. And by checking at the batteries themselves you're getting an accurate value. Checking out along wiring may read a lesser value due to voltage drop or devices pulling a lot of current on that circuit. And If yours are the kind of batteries that need it, be sure the water level in them is appropriate.

Author:	MikeN [ Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:48 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
The fridge cycling means their is not enough voltage. Mine also cycles if my voltage gets that low. I may be due to wiring issues to the fridge. I put in two deep cycle 6 volt batteries in series as my house batteries and have my two separate starter batteries. If has worked like a charm for anchoring many nights and keeps the voltage high enough to prevent the frdge from cycling. You may need a new house battery and one is not enough for anchoring. I beleive many four winns are designed for maraina docking and not anchoring.

Author:	weather [ Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:03 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
MikeN wrote: The fridge cycling means their is not enough voltage. Mine also cycles if my voltage gets that low. I may be due to wiring issues to the fridge. I put in two deep cycle 6 volt batteries in series as my house batteries and have my two separate starter batteries. If has worked like a charm for anchoring many nights and keeps the voltage high enough to prevent the frdge from cycling. You may need a new house battery and one is not enough for anchoring. I beleive many four winns are designed for maraina docking and not anchoring. Measured at the batteries: Starter 1: 13.3V Starter 2: 13.4V House: 12.3V The charger had green lights on both sides indicating the batteries were charged so the charger wasn't active at the time. I'll have to wait till I come back from a run and see if I can drain the batteries enough to get it to charge. Now I suspect the starting batteries are fine, obviously something is wrong with the house battery. Since the charger thinks it's charged, does this just mean that 12.3V is the max charge this battery will take because it's on it's way out? I haven't looked at water level's yet, but am guessing if they are low I can't just add water and magically improve the battery (or can I?). I would think the low water would damage the plates somehow.

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Author:	Turtle [ Sun Aug 14, 2011 2:49 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
Agree with all above but add that that the DC power cable to the fridge is a little under done and will suffer voltage drop. Easy to pull the fridge forward and measure voltage getting to the motor. If poor you can either double up another cable or pull through a new one. If it is low just carry a decent gauge wire temporarily from the DC fridge breaker directly to the fridge to see if this resolves the issue first.

Author:	M3eater [ Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:58 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
12.3 volts on the house battery is less than 50% capacity (charge). Either this battery is not being charged or it's in need of replacement.

Author:	weather [ Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:53 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
A bit more information - I turned on every light on the boat and forced the frig to 12V in hopes of forcing the charger into charge mode so I could see if the output of the charger was 13.8V. It worked and the charger entered the 'Finishing' charging state with both red and green light on, at this point according to the manual of a similar but newer model the voltage should be 14.3V. With load, charger off - 12.06V With load, charger on - 12.30V No load, charger on - 12.90V Any idea what this means? Could it not be coming up to 13.8V because there is an issue with the battery and it's dragging the voltage down? Or should I be suspecting the charger? I also checked the water level in the battery and it's quite high, at least above all the plates and just below the bottom of the holes in the case. The charger is a Guest Charge Pro 2632. Thanks for any insight!

Author:	Paul I. [ Mon Aug 15, 2011 11:48 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
Personally, I like the ProMariner chargers. BUT, take voltage reading from the charger with no battery connected. That will give you a true output. Than connect it, wait about a minute and do the same. Most chargers are a 3 stage chargers. Compare them to the specs. Do the same with the batterers, disconnect all cables. With the charger on & connected, you should be seeing 14.6 VDC absorption/full charge voltage, 13.4 VDC Float charge. Plus, check to see that ALL of your wiring is good/no corrosion and good connections Unless I missed it, we are talking about wetcells not AGM batteries.

Author:	jrcinnh [ Tue Aug 16, 2011 10:19 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
Swap a starting battery and your house battery for an hour, if the low voltage stays with the battery then it's the problem. If it stays with the charger, then thats where to look.

Author:	Paul I. [ Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:42 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
jrcinnh wrote: Swap a starting battery and your house battery for an hour, if the low voltage stays with the battery then it's the problem. If it stays with the charger, then thats where to look. That could work too!!

Author:	weather [ Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:57 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
Paul I. wrote: Personally, I like the ProMariner chargers. BUT, take voltage reading from the charger with no battery connected. That will give you a true output. Than connect it, wait about a minute and do the same. Most chargers are a 3 stage chargers. Compare them to the specs. Do the same with the batterers, disconnect all cables. With the charger on & connected, you should be seeing 14.6 VDC absorption/full charge voltage, 13.4 VDC Float charge. Plus, check to see that ALL of your wiring is good/no corrosion and good connections Unless I missed it, we are talking about wetcells not AGM batteries. 'Float' is just when no battery is connected, right? Mine measured 12.6V, seems low.

Author:	weather [ Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:02 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
jrcinnh wrote: Swap a starting battery and your house battery for an hour, if the low voltage stays with the battery then it's the problem. If it stays with the charger, then thats where to look. When I did this - the charger started to charge the starting battery's, one at 14.0V (the battery that I did not change) and 12.8V (the house that I put into starting). This seemed to me that the issue moved with the battery. So I bought a new battery and everything stayed the same in all cases (swapped and non swapped). When I put the starting battery (disconnected voltage of 13.3V) in the house battery circuit, the charger green LED was glowing very dim. I didn't leave it like this for any amount of time since it didn't look healthy. I'm suspecting the charger now, and will try that today. Any advice would be great.

Author:	noexcuses [ Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:44 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
"Float" charge is the maintenance stage of a battery charger cycle. For example a three stage charger like my Promariner you will have Fast Charge, Adsorption and Float. This stage is similiar to a trickle charge. Its a low level voltage that keeps the battery topped off. A voltage of 12.6v for a fully charged disconnected battery is normal. Have you tried checking the output voltage of the charger for each terminal with a DMM? Your batteries must be disconnected and you need to know the proper output voltage. Your manual should have this troubleshooting procedure.

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Author:	noexcuses [ Thu Aug 18, 2011 8:19 am ]
Post subject:	Re: House Battery Voltage
I stand corrected, after reviewing your charger manual there is no procedure for checking outptut voltage, however it is very simple. Here is a link to your manual: http://www.marinco.com/files/support/pr ... /2632A.pdf Have you checked the circuit breaker? You probably have the same setup as the 2004 Vista 328 with three push button circuit breakers that are located near the battery switches. If it is your circuit breaker and you continue to have to reset , your problem may be the size of circuit breaker. Your Guest charger is setup for 3 banks at 5/5/20 Amps. The installed circuit breaker for the 20 amp bank is most likely 20 amps, this is too small. You will continually get nuisance circuit breaker pops due to spiking over 20 amps. The Guest manual suggests 15/15/25 amp circuit breaker / fuses. Also check the gauge of wire that was used, do not assume the factory used the correct gauge of wire or circuit breaker amperage anywhere on the boat, this includes your refrigerator problem. My fridge wire and circuit breaker were undersized.