Batteries 06' marlin

offshore

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Every time I go away for the weekend bank one goes dead. I have the charger on but still goes dead I have the bat switch on 1 the other on two. The batteries are fairly new 2 seasons. Deka bat recommended by Grady. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you.
 

DennisG01

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Something's amiss - either you're leaving items turned on, or there is an excessive draw on a circuit. While you don't need to leave your battery switches "on", even if you did (but have other items turned off) it should not kill the battery. With everything on the boat turned off, do an amp draw test - you should have less then an amp.

As far as your charger goes, something's funky there, too. Either you're not actually leaving it on, it's not connected, or there's an issue with it. Test the charger.

However, all of this could also be explained by a bum battery. If this battery continually goes dead, and the charger doesn't charge it, how have you been charging it back up? Relying on only the engine once it's started? Pull the battery, take it home and charge it completely and correctly. Then get it load tested. How's the fluid level in the battery - when's the last time you added distilled water?
 

trapper

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Offshore , not meaning to hijack your battery concern, so I won't. Will ask my question on a new post. trapper
 

seasick

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offshore said:
Every time I go away for the weekend bank one goes dead. I have the charger on but still goes dead I have the bat switch on 1 the other on two. The batteries are fairly new 2 seasons. Deka bat recommended by Grady. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you.
Charge the battery and turn the switch to OFF for a weekend. If the battery is not dead after the weekend, some accessory is being left on. That could be anything form a cabin light to a stuck pump (water, washdown), radio, dc fridge etc. It will be a pain to track down the load but it can be done.
If the battery is dead after leaving the switch OFF, then several causes are possible: A bad battery ( to check swap it with the other and see if the problem follows the battery), a bad charger ( to test, disconnect the charger for a weekend and see what happens. Something that is connected even when the switch is off. This could be a bilge pump or another load that was directly wired to the battery.

If you have one of those electronic bilge pumps, I would look there first.

Good luck with the search
 

offshore

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Thanks for the input.
Will get started tomorrow troubleshooting the battery issue.
 

devildogdad

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Two years is not that unusual for the life of a battery. Yes I know they should last longer. All it takes is one bad cell and it can cause you problems. I have had similar issues and it always came down to a bad battery. It may be a pain but take them out, take them to autozone or equivalent and they will load test them.