Is it time to change Truecharge2 20A battery charger?

[mark_53]

I have been having refrigerator, battery, battery charger and CO alarm issues for the last couple of weeks.  The question now is do I need more troubleshooting procedures, or is it time to replace the battery charger?

The answer to your original question is you need more troubleshooting. You mention your frig has a Freon leak.  If that's the case, your frig would never get cold enough to shut off and would quickly drain your batteries.  You need to fix that or don't use the frig.  You also mention you installed 2 new T105s in place of 1 4D 2 years ago.  New batteries should not be mixed with old batteries if they are run in parallel.  Your old 4D could have been a drain on the new T105s.  Then you added 2 more T105s which also may have been stressed by the older T105s.  I wouldn't be buying a new charger until I understood how the boat is wired, fixed the frig issue and capacity tested the batteries.  I have the original 15amp charger that came with the boat in 1989 and it works fine for my type of use.

[SV Pretty Lady]

I just installed one of these to charge 3 100 AH gel batteries. It charges every day from 4 pm all night then goes back to stand-by until around 4 pm the next day. I hope I didn't make a mistake buying this brand after reading some of the posts.

[KWKloeber]

It depends on your battery use/sailing profile.
Talk about that.

Unless you drain the house every day, your charger shouldn't be bulk charging every day. And the time to recharge depends on what you have running while it's trying to charge. eg, 5 amps  running, you then have a 15a charger.

ken

[Rortega46]

Mark_53, your are correct... I need more troubleshooting. Especially for the inoperable refrigerator.  Problem is I got sidetracked by a battery with a bad cell, concerns about a battery charger, and finally CO alarms while trying to sleep last weekend.  For now the refrigerator is off until it's problems are diagnosed and resolved.  The existing 20A battery charger has been in float mode on and off this week after short recovery times following a couple of outings.  The CO alarms while sleeping last week are still a concern, but have not recurred for a week. 

I plan to get a tech to look at the fridge for a diagnosis this coming week.   I recognize the 20A battery charger is undersized for the existing batteries and will probably replace it after the refrigerator issue is resolved.  If CO alarms come back, I'll need to figure out why and how to eliminate them. 

The Yat is wired like the owner's manual shows, except I now have two 6V batteries replacing each of the original 4Ds and there are 30A breakers between the battery charger and each battery bank.  I attach the diagraham in case someone wants to comment or suggest an alternative.

Oh, the joys of boat ownership and the never ending quest to learn new things.

[mark_53]

Mark_53, your are correct... I need more troubleshooting. Especially for the inoperable refrigerator.  Problem is I got sidetracked by a battery with a bad cell, concerns about a battery charger, and finally CO alarms while trying to sleep last weekend.  For now the refrigerator is off until it's problems are diagnosed and resolved.  The existing 20A battery charger has been in float mode on and off this week after short recovery times following a couple of outings.  The CO alarms while sleeping last week are still a concern, but have not recurred for a week. 

I plan to get a tech to look at the fridge for a diagnosis this coming week.   I recognize the 20A battery charger is undersized for the existing batteries and will probably replace it after the refrigerator issue is resolved.  If CO alarms come back, I'll need to figure out why and how to eliminate them. 

The Yat is wired like the owner's manual shows, except I now have two 6V batteries replacing each of the original 4Ds and there are 30A breakers between the battery charger and each battery bank.  I attach the diagraham in case someone wants to comment or suggest an alternative.

Oh, the joys of boat ownership and the never ending quest to learn new things.

So it sounds like your charger is working as expected.  As far as wiring goes, I added a dedicated start battery and combined in parallel the batteries in the salon battery box into one house bank. Added an ACR in the battery box to isolate the start and house banks.  I would recommend the same.
Here's what I did.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,8790.msg63977.html#msg63977