View Single Post
  #10   Report Post  
posted to rec.boats
John H.[_2_] John H.[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Dec 2007
Posts: 32
Default Battery charging problem

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:22:44 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:04:36 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:20:50 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:35:13 -0500, John H.
wrote:

I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

Couple of things come to mind. First is if the battery is indeed
"good". I've bought new batteries that weren't worth the powder to
blow to hell.

Second, read the manual for the charger. That blinking green light
doesn't sound right to me - as if it's a trouble code.

Third, is the charger good?

The chargers I have all work fine at 2 amps and have three LEDs to
indicate status - red for trouble, yellow for charging and green for
finished.


Schumaker instructions that came with the charger don't even mention the
lights! Mine has only two, green and red. The green normally blinks while
charging and glows continuously when the battery's charged.

I just checked it after having it on the motorcycle battery. The green
light blinked when I connected it, but had a steady glow when I just
checked it. The motorcycle battery wasn't in a very discharged state, so
the charger took only an hour or so to top it off.

I'll try setting the charger at the 15 amp setting and see what happens.


Hmmmm - it could be that you have a bad battery - or one that wasn't
completely charged on delivery.

I've seen that happen before.


I went to the Schumacher site and found a FAQ. One of the responses had to
do with the deep cycle battery, and it suggested setting the charger for a
regular 12 volt. I've done that, and set it at a 15 amp rate. I'll get back
and let you know what happened.

Thanks for the help!