[C320-list] Battery Selector Switch

[Jeffrey Hare]

Hi Paul,

   A battery that's at the end of its life will charge but have no capacity.
Ie: it'll run the radio, some instruments, and other light capacitive loads
but will just completely refuse to budge a high current device like a
starter or windlass. 

5 years old could easily be time to replace.  You'll get a couple more years
of life out of the house batteries with a dedicated starting battery since
they won't see that damaging high-current spike that the starter draws.

Cheers!
-Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: Vpweikel at aol.com [mailto:Vpweikel at aol.com] 
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 3:44 PM
To: c320-list at catalina320.com
Subject: [C320-list] Battery Selector Switch

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
 



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