If it were me, I'd buy/beg/borrow a quality digital voltmeter and check the
voltage at the battery terminals during the charging cycles. A clamp-on
ampmeter would be useful also to check/verify current drain and charge
current. There may be a wiring foobar somewhere.
Norm B.

On Thu, 06 May 2004 08:23:17 +0200, Len wrote:

I experience a very short battery-life and I want to know the cause
before I install anything new.
The fridge / freezer and other consumers constantly draw power
(between 4 and 11 amp)
I have a 3-stage 120 amp charger (bulk at 14,4,absorption at 13,6 and
float at 13,0)
My batteries are 18 months old. 6 x 180 Ah. They were called
"Maintenance-free". As I understand now that means you can't add
destilled water later on, don't see any advantage of that.
At present my battery-capacity is very low. As I look at it now I'm
confronted with replacing my batteries after 18 months.


Anyone familiar with such problems that (maybe) arise from using the
charger as a power supply during float-charging?

Do I bourdon my batteries by creating a lot of small
discarge/charge-cycles?

Any advice is welcomed for this (surely not unique?) liveaboard-
stuation with 220AC shore-power and use of 12-v appliances.

Thanks in advance, Len.