[Amel Yacht Owners] Battery questions


Bill & Judy Rouse <yahoogroups@...>
 

Duane,

Since you do not know how old they are, Yes, replace all of them. If they were less than 2 years old, you might consider just replacing the failed ones. I strongly believe that you should replace them with lead or calcium Freedom style GP31 batteries...be careful of all of the dimensions, including the 2" rail under the lid, when buying new batteries. I viewed your uploaded file and I suggest that you've had some bad batteries for possibly months, and could have cooked your bank...luckily that did not happen.

The bad batteries could have internal shorts which will cause any charger, including the 175 amp Leece-Neville with an internal charging regulator, to overcharge and cook the batteries.

I do not have the same model of your Dolphin battery chargers, but have read that there is a very small screw selector switch that is sometimes hidden by a wire. Unfortunately the people who know this have not uploaded a photo, so that is all I can give you.

Best,

Bill
BeBe 387
Trinidad

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 8:34 PM, sailor63109@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

I just load tested the batteries and found Mastervolt Gel Cell batteries.  4 out of the 12 in the house bank have failed (see the link below).  There was one pair that failed together, the other two are linked to good batteries.  There wasn't a date on the batteries, so I have no idea how old they are, but I assume they are not original.


I also have the Leece-Neville 175 amp alternator on the engine and there is no external regulator, so it's undercharging the batteries, but at least that's better than overcharging them.  Maybe down the road I will install the external regulator.  


I also have the Dolphin 30A and 100A "Power First" chargers.  The 7 page brochure I have notes Gel charging at 28.4V (boost) and 27.2V float and for wet batteries (i.e. "free") at 27.7V (boost) and 26.5V (float).  However I don't see how you would switch the chargers from gel to wet or vice versa.  The Xantrex Battery monitor shows the float voltage to be 27.19V.  I have the charger turned off now, so later I'll check the boost voltage.


Two questions for the group:

1.  Would you replace all twelve when four have failed?

2.  Is there more information on the Dolphin "Power First" 30A and 100A chargers?  I can't find where you would select the type of battery being charged.


Duane

Wanderer SM #477


https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/amelyachtowners/files/SV%20Wanderer/BatteryLoadTest.pdf

 



Alexandre Uster von Baar <uster@...>
 

Good afternoon Duane,

I am not qualified to reply about how many batteries to changed (all or 4), and I am in the same situation (1 bad battery), I have heard both solutions, but on some partial changed I also heard of “explosion”.

But regarding the setting on the Dolphin, I don’t have the documentation of the “Power First” in front of me, but on mine and on other, the “selector” (some round thing to turn) had to be on Position “7” for Gel batteries.
Your owner manual should tell you which number.

Sincerely, Alexandre
SM2K #289 NIKIMAT
Club Nautico de San Juan, Puerto Rico




--------------------------------------------

On Wed, 7/20/16, sailor63109@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

Subject: [Amel Yacht Owners] Battery questions
To: amelyachtowners@...
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2016, 3:34 PM


 









I just load tested the batteries and
found Mastervolt Gel Cell batteries.  4 out of the 12 in
the house bank have failed (see the link below).  There was
one pair that failed together, the other two are linked to
good batteries.  There wasn't a date on the batteries,
so I have no idea how old they are, but I assume they are
not original.
I also have the
Leece-Neville 175 amp alternator on the engine and there is
no external regulator, so it's undercharging the
batteries, but at least that's better than overcharging
them.  Maybe down the road I will install the external
regulator.  
I also have the Dolphin 30A
and 100A "Power First" chargers.  The 7 page
brochure I have notes Gel charging at 28.4V (boost) and
27.2V float and for wet batteries (i.e. "free") at
27.7V (boost) and 26.5V (float).  However I don't see
how you would switch the chargers from gel to wet or vice
versa.  The Xantrex Battery monitor shows the float voltage
to be 27.19V.  I have the charger turned off now, so later
I'll check the boost voltage.
Two questions for the
group:1.  Would you replace all twelve
when four have failed?2.  Is there more
information on the Dolphin "Power First" 30A and
100A chargers?  I can't find where you would select the
type of battery being charged.
DuaneWanderer
SM #477
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/amelyachtowners/files/SV%20Wanderer/BatteryLoadTest.pdf
 









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