Does On-Dashboard Voltmeter Work Well in Cold Weather?
 

Does the meter have a calibration screw on it? If it does adjust
it so it matches the reading of the digital at the batteries.

Thanks for this tip. I didn't know that there is such a thing in a
voltmeter. I will find out when I get back home.

I could not find anything looks like something for calibration in the
voltmeter. Thanks for the tip though.

Jay Chan

Does On-Dashboard Voltmeter Work Well in Cold Weather?
 

I could not find anything looks like something for calibration in the
voltmeter. Thanks for the tip though.

Jay Chan

Jay,
I do not know about the meter you have. But most analog meters
including analog multimeters have a screw at the pivot point of the
needle.

Look at the enlarged picture of the meter.

http://www.go2marine.com/g2m/action/...1&WT.mc_id=fr1

Paul

Does On-Dashboard Voltmeter Work Well in Cold Weather?
 

I would take the batteries to a place that can do a load test on the
batteries with a real load. Autozone, Pepboys and walmart should be
able to load test.

The batteries are placed inside a compartment, and this is kind of hard
to pull them out especially in cold weather. This is the reason why I
leave them in the boat instead of moving them indoor. I will pass on
this one unless my preliminary load test indicates that the batteries
may be dying.

A starter running with no load is really no load on a battery.

If I understand this correctly, the starter still needs to move around
the "thing" inside the cylinders even when I am just doing a load test
on the batteries (by turning off the kill switch to prevent ignition).
Shouldn't this be enough as a load?

For $20.00 you can buy your own load tester.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90636

Sound great. I intend to order a 1/2" wide blade screwdriver from
Harbor Freight today anyway.

By the way, I looked around in the batteries area last night. And I
found these:

o The connection near the voltmeter is kind of rusty. I have a
feeling that this may have created enough resistance to cause the
voltmeter to show a low reading.

o The charger is setup correctly for lead acid wet batteries that I am
using.

o The charger is able to charge the batteries really good (the
batteries were up to 13.37-volt right after charging, and 12.95-volt
one hour after charging). The reason why I got a lower reading
(12.99-volt) right after charging on the day before might have
something to do with the fact that I disconnected the recharger right
after the full-charge light turns ON. Seem like the charger is still
trying to "top-off" the batteries after it has turned ON the
full-charge light. This explains the reason why I saw a lower reading
(12.99-volt) right after fully charged the batteries on the day before.
In other words, this was an "operator error", and the charger was/is
OK, and the batteries are likely to be OK also. I am happy about this.

Jay Chan

Does On-Dashboard Voltmeter Work Well in Cold Weather?
 

I could not find anything looks like something for calibration in the
voltmeter. Thanks for the tip though.

I do not know about the meter you have. But most analog meters
including analog multimeters have a screw at the pivot point of the
needle.

Look at the enlarged picture of the meter.

http://www.go2marine.com/g2m/action/...1&WT.mc_id=fr1

That looks like much more sophisticated than the simple analog
voltmeter on the dashboard of my boat. Mine is just a round thing with
a needle and a couple screws at the back with backlight. OK, I will go
looking for some thing similar to the voltmeter in my boat and see if I
can find an instruction manual and a wiring diagram for it.

Thanks for taking the time to find a sample marine voltmeter for me to
take a look.

Jay Chan

Does On-Dashboard Voltmeter Work Well in Cold Weather?
 

Pain in the ass it may be, but your batteries will be happier spending
the winter somewhere indoors where the temp stays above freezing and
where you can clean them up and top them off once a month.

No, I will leave them outside for the following reasons:

o Tough to pull them out from the tight compartment.

o Don't want to bring more mess to my house than what I have already
brought.

o Don't want to buy another charger for charging the batteries indoor
(the current one is an "onboard" charger that is supposed to be mounted
permanently on the boat).

o According to the book on 12-volt batteries, the freezing point of
the liquid inside a fully charged battery is very low (negative 72
degree F or something), that is so low that the battery will not frozen
in where I live (Northern New Jersey). The trick is to keep the
batteries fully charged to avoid the problem. This means I need to
check the batteries periodically during the winter; this is a small
price to pay as comparing to pulling the batteries out from that tight
compartment.

Jay Chan