Battery issues

[Back In Black]

Guys, I accidentally left the "house" battery on for a few days before realising it, & the fridge runs off it. Had a bloke visit & showing me some refinements on the Furuno 585, & the whole time there was a low voltage warning on the autopilot & the Furuno, with the Furuno buzzing an alarm as well. Top right corner of the screen had what looked like an old fashioned thermometer with the letter C (celsius??) flashing. Had a bloke install a new antenna & asked him when I take the boat for a run, will the house battery top up off the others. There are 3 batteries. He said it would as it had a VSR unit(whatever that is??) & as soon as the batteries to start the motors topped up, it would trickle into the house battery. Problem solved & happy days!
But it didn't happen- hammered our way out for 1.5 hrs, turned the Furuno on & we still had the warning. Fridge worked, anchor winch pulled up but this warning light kept persisting. Had a look at where the isolators are & saw the VSR switch had a red light on it I've never seen before. Was I meant to turn the emergency parallel switch on??
As you can gather, I'm technologically challenged & need some ideas guys
Thanks,
Tony

[netmaker]

hi tony. have you tried charging your house battery with a charger? is it possible that your 1.5 hours motoring only topped up your other 2 batteries and didn't get any charge to the house battery?

[Back In Black]

Dave, we did at least 3 hours averaging over 25 knots. I would have thought that would have done it. I don"t even know what the emergency parallel switch is for. Does the winch work off the house battery or does it draw from the motor batteries? It worked great, & I assume it would draw a fair bit.
Tony

[LittleSkipper]

I'd be removing all 3 batteries & charging them accordingly!

[Boat Hog]

Sounds like your house battery needs a longer charge period (especially if you were trying to charge it whilst also running electronics a fridge etc). Best to charge it with a battery charger. You may need to take it to a reputable battery place to get it checked out.

The VSR - Voltage Sensitive Relay; I believe Sailfish use BEP VSR's, so go to the BEP website and pick out the VSR Cluster that you have, it'll be something like the 717-100A - Twin Outboards, three battery banks.

http://www.bepmarine.com/home-mainmenu-8/productcategory-205/clusters-manual

Select the cluster that is the same as the one in your boat, then follow the links to the installation and operating instructions. This will tell you how the unit works, what the red light means, troubleshooting instructions etc.

As for the winch, I don't know where that would be wired to, but it is normally reccomended that you have your motor running while using the anchor winch - so maybe the start batteries??

Emergency Parrallel is for 'emergencies', beer in fridge not cold is an emergency! But the switch is designed to link the two start batteries if one battery won't crank the motor to start.

Cheers,

[Back In Black]

Thanks Jim, Ill have a look. We always have the motors running as we motor up to the anchor line when retrieving
Thanks mate,
Tony

[Spaniard_King]

Get someone to check how the system is wired up and explain it to you... quite possible that it has been wired incorrectly.

If you are running 4 strokes they would charge up in 1/2 - 1 hour

[Back In Black]

Gary,
Thanks for the reply. I would have thought it would have charged up fairly quickly. We are running twin 150 Honda 4 strokes. I'll get my marine mechanic to drop in & have a look.
Thanks again guys,
Tony