Help REW and Others

[Dick Rominski]

Bought two new batteries (WalMart Extreme) for my 24 volt system. They were fine the first time out and after recharging them on my on-board charger they appeared to recharge as the green light came on -both banks. When I was out fishing on the Croix saturday, I hit the battery test function on my trolling motor shortly after launching and the indicator said recharge. The motor ran all day. At home when I recharged, one battery recharged a lot faster than the other. After a few hours the indicator on the trolling motor said recharge again. I checked the connections to the battery and noticed one (negative lead) was not tighted down all the way. Could this be drawing down the charge?

[Phil T.]

Probably not drawing anything down, but instead preventing the one battery from getting an equal charge during the recharging. One of them probably wasn't doing its share of powering the trolling motor either.

[Fin Addict]

I have had several "bad batteries." They are not all created equal. I have one battery that is now in its 9th season and just starting to peter out on me and the other side has been replaced every other year. If you think you have a bad one, bring it back now and exchange it as it will never be a decent battery. Was told by my dealer that he felt at least 1 in 4 is substandard and will not hold a charge like the rest. My experience is they seem to get better after a few charge cycles but if you are finding a significant difference between 2 batteries the same age, return the bad one.

[Hans]

Since those batteries are in series, they both source exactly the same amount of current. If one is slower to charge, it is flaky. Take it back.

Hans

--
"There is nothing; absolutely nothing; half so much worth doing,
as simply messing about in boats." :-)

[REW]

Hans may be right - when you are using the batteries - the batteries are connected in series and if you charge them the same way - you have a flaky battery and need to take it back.

You don't mention if you have a single bank or multibank on board charger. If you have a multi bank charger -- i.e. 2-12 volt chargers in one unit -- with 4 wires coming from the charger to charge and then auto connect afterward -- it is possible that a bad connection to the charger for one battery only - could be the problem.

Another thing to check -- look at the manufacturers date code. Some stores -- thend to put their fresh stock on the backs of the shelves. You might have been unfortuntate to get one fresh battery and one - stale battery. If you find that the date code of the "weaker" battery is a much older date code -- take the battery back.

If in doubt - take the battery back now- when the warrenty is fresh and exchange won't cost you anything.

Take care

REW

[eyewinder]

Is the trolling motor new, too? Does the battery test indicator on the motor go to "recharge" when the batteries are not fully charged, rather than when they approach discharge (I'm not familiar with your trolling motor)? If you're running (efficiently) all day on batteries that your trolling motor tells you need to be recharged, I would question the indicator on the trolling motor.

[TerryMac]

You have to have the trolling motor unplugged in order for the on-board charger to function. If you leave the trolling motor plugged in..the charger acts like it is working...but really is not....or at least not working correctly.
Learned this the hard way at a couple of tournaments.
This may be your problem...?