Shore power question:

[Twist]

New Grady White owner here with the first of the many questions I'll have mastering my 2024 Freedom 275. Given that there are some drains on the batteries when everything is shutdown and the battery switches are off, I'm thinking it's important to plug the boat in to my dock power whenever it's on the lift.

Is there any visual indication that the shore power is connected and supplying power to the battery charger and DC system on the boat?

I would assume that battery charge has some indicator light showing the presence of shore power. Where do I find the battery charger on my boat?

I did spend a few hours with a knowledgable captain going over the boat. These are questions I've thought of after letting him go. Maybe this is answered in my Captain Grady documentation and I'll be headed there once downloaded.

 

[Sardinia306Canyon]

Given that there are some drains on the batteries when everything is shutdown and the battery switches are off, I'm thinking it's important to plug the boat in to my dock power whenever it's on the lift.

No, it is not important and overrated,
the most important is to figure immediately out what is draining your battery as this should not happen except there is a problem.

I all my life boating i never had shore power and i never had a weak or dead battery during summer when i use the boat frequently.
It happened in winter time when someone at storage left the battery switch on or on older batteries after 6 month in storage without recharging.

With the battery selector switches in off position the only thing what has power should be the bilge pump and the bilge pump should not run so much time to drain considerable a battery within two weeks. If you have some security gear like alarms and/or cameras those may drain the battery and in this case you may need shore power.

Yes, a battery charger show what he is doing and there will be also devices who show on the dash or wherever if shore power is attached, also thru cell net to send you a alarm if shore power is off.

Chris

 

[wspitler]

New Grady White owner here with the first of the many questions I'll have mastering my 2024 Freedom 275. Given that there are some drains on the batteries when everything is shutdown and the battery switches are off, I'm thinking it's important to plug the boat in to my dock power whenever it's on the lift.

Is there any visual indication that the shore power is connected and supplying power to the battery charger and DC system on the boat?

I would assume that battery charge has some indicator light showing the presence of shore power. Where do I find the battery charger on my boat?

I did spend a few hours with a knowledgable captain going over the boat. These are questions I've thought of after letting him go. Maybe this is answered in my Captain Grady documentation and I'll be headed there once downloaded.

The shore power plug at the transom will have a little red light that will be illuminated if there is power available at that plug. You will also see AC Power indicated on your AC/DC switch panel. Your battery charger is designed to maintain the batteries and charge them if they are discharged. It’s recommended you leave your battery charger on 24/7 when your boat is on the lift. Your owners manual will provide the location of your charger, typically in the transom the vicinity of the batteries. It will also have a indicator light indicating charging or maintaining.

 

[SkunkBoat]

I would expect that your boat has an AC breaker panel, posibly a combo AC/DC breaker panel.

There should be an indicator for shore power present and one for Reveresed Polarity warning.

The charge will have indicators also.

 

[Twist]

No AC breaker panel as the only AC device on the boat is the battery charger. I found the charger in the bilge but I'm going to need a long retractible mirror thingy to see the lights on it. I'd have to pull up the sealed deck plates to really get to it.

 

[seasick]

You ca probably tell if the charger is powered up by looking at the system voltage on the multi function display. You would have to turn on the power to power up the display. My guess is that the voltage displayed will be higher when the charger is on than when it it's off. That would be simple to check, read the voltage and turn off and on the shore power to see how much the system voltage changes. After a few tests, you probably will be able to tell quickly if the charger is operating.

I forgot to ask; You do have the shore power option don't you?

 

[SkunkBoat]

No AC breaker panel as the only AC device on the boat is the battery charger. I found the charger in the bilge but I'm going to need a long retractible mirror thingy to see the lights on it. I'd have to pull up the sealed deck plates to really get to it.

I just angers me that they are still building boats with piehole size access to important things like bilge pumps, thruhull valves, and chargers and batteries.


Does the boat have a 30A Shore power receptacle and Galvanic Isolator and breaker? Or is it just a 15A extension cord receptacle?

 

[Twist]

30A shore power NEMA receptical with breaker.

Sitting at my dock on shore power with engines off and everything turned on the batteries are reading 12.8V and 12.4V.

 

[Legend]

Does your boat have a refrigerator?

 

[Twist]

Does your boat have a refrigerator?

Nope.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Doesn't your Owner's manual tell you anything?
Didn't you get a package with a Grady OM and a bunch of manuals from things like trim tabs and steering and head and charger?

 

[Twist]

Doesn't your Owner's manual tell you anything?
Didn't you get a package with a Grady OM and a bunch of manuals from things like trim tabs and steering and head and charger?

Yep, got all that and have reviewed. There’s nothing in there that I can find about an indication that shore power is present. There’s an indicator for reverse polarity but that’s it - unless I’m just missing it which is entirely possible.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Try kicking the breaker and see if it changes your battery voltage.
Other than that I would say you need to get a look at the charger. Did they giive you the manual for the charger?

 

[Twist]

Yep, have the manual but it’s mounted in a place that I’d have to remove a sealed deck plate to see it.

I appreciate all the responses and I thought this would be an easy answer I was just missing. I’m contacting Grady for their answer.

 

[Sardinia306Canyon]

Yep, have the manual but it’s mounted in a place that I’d have to remove a sealed deck plate to see it.

I wonder a bit about that and thats in the bilge area, not the place where i would install a 110V device.
Some chargers have a remote pin to switch the charger remotely on and off, does your charger have that?

I’m contacting Grady for their answer.

Yes, ask the dealer who sold you the boat, he should know how it works and check if there is something wrong,
particularly what is draining your batteries with the Battery switches in OFF position.

Chris

 

[glacierbaze]

You probably have a stereo, which has a wire providing 24/7 power to the memory circuit, but that should be very low draw. Not sure if other modern electronics require constant power for their memory.
Was the 30 amp receptacle that you referred to where you plug in the shore power cord, or is it available as a receptacle somewhere in the interior of the boat. If you don’t have at least a receptacle, I wouldn’t call that shore power, but just an onboard charger.

 

[Twist]

You probably have a stereo, which has a wire providing 24/7 power to the memory circuit, but that should be very low draw. Not sure if other modern electronics require constant power for their memory.
Was the 30 amp receptacle that you referred to where you plug in the shore power cord, or is it available as a receptacle somewhere in the interior of the boat. If you don’t have at least a receptacle, I wouldn’t call that shore power, but just an onboard charger.

It clearly states in the manual that with the battery switches off that it's still supplying power to the radio to save presets, etc. and of course the bilge pumps. To be clear, this is a brand new boat and I'm not seeing any depletion of the batteries between uses but was just advised that when the boat is on the lift at my dock it would help the health and durability of the batteries to keep it topped off on the shore power.

I should have been more clear about my curiosity. I just wanted to make sure the dockside receptacle and cable were in good working order. That's why I was looking for an indicator somewhere that the dock side power was seen by the boat/battery charger.

 

[Twist]

Update and mystery solved: according to GW, since there's no other AC on the boat other than the battery charger, no provision was made to easily see an indication of shore power present. I'll probably not routinely plug it in to my shore power unless I'm leaving the boat on the lift for weeks at a time.

Thanks for all the replies to help this GW newbie get up my learning curve.

 

[seasick]

After rou display the battery voltages, turn on the ignition (do not start the motors). See what the voltages are. If nothing changes, turn off the ignition and use something that used decent power like trim tabs. Use them a few cycles and then look at the battery voltages. With an active charger, I would expect the voltages to be higher