Handlebarz Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 Ok two or three years ago I bought a on board charger this year I bought two new batteries well they are not charging the indicator on the charger sais they are but I can not get either of them to take a charge so I am guessing that the charger is not working. I went to CTC to get a charger that was on sale the 10/2amp one but saw that they had 1amp Trickle chargers on sale also how well would a 1amp do me? and is it worth the time or should I get the bigger charger? the on board one I was using was a 3 bank 15amp each battery would charge at 5amps. How much longer will it take with the 1amp (Yes I know 5 times longer but any idea how long time wise to charge them up in hours? I have looked and must be missing something in the book that tells me this. Thanks Mike
Terry Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 if your battery is 100 amp and it's down 50% it would take 50 hours to charge and it's down 80% it would take 80 hours to charge plus a 1 amp charger will not bulk charge so it's hard on the battery
Roy Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 Have you got other batteries you can test the charger out on? It's strange that the charger would stop working all of a sudden. Are you sure they're connected properly? Those 1amp things should not be called chargers. They are battery maintainers at best. The best use I could think of for those is to have them connected to your topped up batteries during the off season to keep them from losing their charge.
scugpg Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 Like others mentioned the 1amp is useless as a charger in this setup. Did you try disconnecting everything from batteries and try charging? What do they read on the voltmeter on and off the charger?
whitbyboatguy Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 You did not say what model / type of deep cycle battery it was AGM, lead/acid or what charger. Sometimes that CTC/schumacher electronic charger (a good charger) will not charge a battery if it is too low. The batteries website or customer service should be able to tell you about this and the schumacher website probably has something too. The 1AMP thing as a trickle charge only and that depends on the type of battery too.
Garry2Rs Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 My three bank charger has a fuse. If yours does too, is it blown?
lew Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 Sometimes that CTC/schumacher electronic charger (a good charger) will not charge a battery if it is too low. My MinnKota on-board charger is the same, if the battery voltage in the deep-cycles drops below a certain level it won't kick in. Hafta use an external charger to bring them up above the level.
Garnet Posted September 5, 2011 Report Posted September 5, 2011 Take your jumper cables and hook good battery to one not charging then plug in your charger. This will get around the automatic shut off described. Let charge for half hour then remove jumper cables. To check if your charger is working get any meter that shows volts and hook to battery make note volts 12.3 then plug charger in and volts will go up to 13.5 our higher.
Handlebarz Posted September 11, 2011 Author Report Posted September 11, 2011 Sorry for not getting back to this sooner guys but things have been taking my attention away from the boat I did how ever have time last night to take the batteries out of the boat and started to charge them with a 10 amp charger. Garry your right there was a blown fuse its weird that it would blow as I have had it hooked up for the season and all of a sudden it has blown??? Well I will see how things work out after they are fully charged and I replace the fuse. Thanks for the help all.
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