Hi David,
1. - yes, a new battery can fail and a two month old battery is still
on warranty. Give it back for a load test / replacement.
2. - The AGM will charge from an alternator if discharged but may not
charge from a smart regulator as the have a dumb battery validation
check. If you want to use a smart charge on a really flat battery
then you need to jump start the process with a dumb charger or another battery.
- you should see life in the battery after a half hour on the
alternator but a few hours for a good bulk charge
You may have a fried diode in the alternator which can deplete a
battery when the engine is not running (and not isolated from the
battery) and give insufficient charge voltage.
Cheers, Russ
Sweet 35 mk-1
At 07:04 AM 26/08/2013, you wrote:
I am beginning to feel that I have bad karma with my new
boat. First the good news: based on all the advice I received, the
Universal starting issue seems definitely fixed- since I cleaned the
ground connection, it has started smoothly every time. The only
strange thing is that all the directions I have read say that you
should continue to push the glow plug button while pushing the start
button. However, on mine, the engine will not turn over unless I
release the glow plug button. Also, the GPS restarts each time I
start the engine, which may mean there is still some electrical
issue, but neither is a serious problem at this point.
Also, the black smoke etc. is largely gone since I cleaned the
bottom and prop as best I could. The shaft and prop were completely
crusted with barnacles, so clearly my Pettit zinc coat did not do
its job. I may try Velox next spring based on the advice of a local old timer.
So yesterday I go went to the boat and found that my #1 battery is
completely dead. This is the battery that is wired for the
auto-bilge pump switch and propane fume alarm (that is all I know
of). The batteries are 2 month old Power-tech AGM group 27's. I
could not get much of any charge after a day of running the engine
for a few hours totals.
Questions:
1. do new batteries fail at some rate?
2. Will an AGM charge from the alternator if fully discharged? If
so, roughly how long would it take? I brought it home and tried to
use my smart charger and that is not charging it at all (the
charging light does not come on).
Perhaps related- I twice was on the boat briefly during the week and
found the Xintex propane fume alarm going. Both times I checked the
propane system and the tank shutoff was closed and all switches were
off. So I don't believe there were really propane fumes in the
cabin. So could the sensor have failed? Could the alarm going for
many many hours drain the battery (I don't think the bilge pump is doing it).
David Knecht
Aries
1990 C&C 34+
New London, CT
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