[C320-list] Battery Selector Switch

[Bill Culbertson]

Paul,

Right that the batteries are probably at the end of
their useful life as you've speculated and others have
mentioned.  Agreed if #1 were topped off and not used,
that it should have worked even if near end-of-life. 
One possible contributing factor is that the bilge
pump is hard-wired from the factory to the #1 battery
independent of the battery switch position.  If the
bilge pump ran periodically overnight and the battery
is near end-of-life, that could take it down.

 -bill
 Harmony #859

--- Vpweikel at aol.com wrote:

> We had what I call a strange and unexpected
> occurrence while anchored out  
> this weekend.
>  
> Before retiring for the night, I was careful to put
> the selector switch on  
> battery #2 only so that in case the battery bank was
> drawn down, I'd have  
> battery #1 for a back-up to start the engine.
>  
> As I expected, the anchor light and a few other
> small miscellaneous uses  
> drew the battery down low enough that the engine
> would not crank ( I purposely  
> turned the reefer circuit off ).  Feeling good about
> the back-up plan, I  
> switched over to battery #1 and turned the key. 
> Nothing !  Both  batteries were 
> down.
>  
> I know for a fact that the batteries are at least 5
> years old since I  have 
> not replaced them.  The boat is a 1996 and for all I
> know the  batteries could 
> be 10 years old which is well beyond the normal
> expected life  span.  But that 
> doesn't explain to me satisfactorily why both banks
> were  discharged with the 
> selector switch set to #2 only.  Surely, even a
> tired,  old battery would 
> hold charge for 14 hours - but maybe I'm wrong.
>  
> Has anyone experienced this ?
>  
> I'm beginning to think that something must be wired
> wrong or the selector  
> switch failed.  This was the first real "test" of
> the system that we  have done. 
>  Any suggestions on how to make the proper checks of
> the system  both switch 
> and house wiring ?
>  
> I am planning on replacing the batteries soon.  At
> the moment, I  just think 
> this should not have happened given the precautions
> that were  taken.
>  
>  
> The good news is that, the new portable 1200 Watt
> generator was on-board  and 
> in 30 minutes running time the batteries were topped
> up enough to start the  
> engine and get us underway. 
>  
>  
> Paul Weikel
> Second Chance
> #361
> Georgetown, MD
>  
> 
> 
> 
> ************************************** See what's
> free at http://www.aol.com.
> 



       
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