2007 34 PC battery issues


P

potentialowner

Member
It had been many weeks since we had been down to our boat, which was left on shore power when we left her. We got to the boat to find our shoer power connector was unplugged, and wrapped around our front cleat. I Plugged the cord back in, and went aboard. Going down into the salon, I looked at the breaker panel, and it wasn't receiving any power, so I checked the shore power breaker in the rear under the corner seat, and sure enough it was tripped. I flipped it back on, and went back to look at the main breaker panel, and it was once again getting power. I noticed if I turned on either the water heater, or the A/C, that inline breaker int he back would trip. I talked to someone, and they said it might be the inverter gulping down power if shore power had been disconnected for a while, and to leave it and come back later and see what happens. We came back a couple of days later, and we are able to turn on the A/C or the water heater, and it no longer tripped the rear breakers, which was nice. However, when I started going through other systems, I noticed that the starter batteries are completely dead. Electrical systems are not anywhere near my strong suit, so I'm not entirely sure how the systems interact between house batteries, starter batteries, charging system, and inverter. I don't even know how that rear breaker got tripped in the first place, nor why our boat was unplugged from the shore power. I assume that even after this much time, the fact that the starter batteries are still not getting a charge, they are DOA at this point? Are these normally maintained as a part of the battery charger being fed from shore? Just trying to get a better idea of how these things are interconnected to make sure things like this don't happen again.

Thanks!
 
All batteries are charged from the charging system. Have you maintained the batteries lately? Check water level, corroded connections, etc?
Chances are that when you turned on the hot water tank and other appliances, the breaker tripped because of overcurrent. (more than 30 amp draw)
Start by checking the batteries and if in doubt, have them load tested. The age of the batteries also plays a part in their operation. Good Luck and let us know what you find.
 
It sounds like your boat had a ground fault and tripped out the post and probably a few of your neighbors as well (including your main breaker under the rear corner seat). When the marina reset the circuit breaker to the slips it tripped again until they were able to determine it was your boat causing it. That would be why your shore power cord was unplugged. I experienced something similar years ago. The seas were quite angry on our way back to home port. 5 footers crashing our starboard side caused sea water to enter up and over and down into the rear corner storage compartment which I didn't think to look that day.

I plugged into shore power all powered up and I left. The following weekend we returned to boat and my SP cord was unplugged like yours. I plugged it back in and power for a few seconds and then no power. I took out a few other neighboring posts as well. Marina reset the breaker and I began testing my hot water heater which is usually the first piece to have insulation failure. It was fine. I then noticed one of my main breakers under the corner seat was tripped. I removed the plate and saw that the salt water got in (bad gasket) and quite a bit of corrosion on the breaker. I removed it, tested, and sure enough it was bridged and was the problem.

Replaced with new breaker and gasket and all was well.

Good luck with your troubleshooting. I hope you find this helpful.
 
Did you upgrade the galvanic isolator to the FS series? That could also be another reason the shore power tripped a breaker and was then disconnected.

As far as batteries go, they may be recoverable if they were in good shape before this. It may be beneficial to pull them out and get them on a good charger individually. Look on youtube for battery reconditioning.
 
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