embis

As an end note: Checked the batteries yesterday after more than a week disconnected from the shoreline, they seem to have held charge well so hopefully, if I now look after them properly, I might get a bit more use out of them. Some valuable lessons learned though! ..and thanks again to everyone who chipped in with something helpful.

Thank you, I have all the information I need for now, I will come back if I need to so please dont worry!

Thanks to all who have contributed, as usual, much very helpful information and plenty of food for thought.

Please lets not mix this up with my posting in a previous thread, lets assume I have a new bank of batteries and they have not been maltreated.

A... W.... Doh!! You know what i mean!!

Thank you, I will do the sums and see what we need.

I have a bank of three leisure batteries with a total output of 400Ah. At the moment they are charged by a 20A charger and I have been advised to upgrade this to a 40A charger. It has been suggested that this might cost me about £400 for the charger and the same again for fitting. Searching online I have found a "Sterling Pro Charge Ultra " that seems to fit the bill and costing £300. I don't want to make any false economies but If I can source this more cheaply than my fitter then I will. from the website: Anyone have any views on this unit? ..apart from output I am not really sure what features are, essential, useful or spurious. ..What difference does the output of the charger really make anyway? the 20A unit seems to have given us good service so far, is it worth me spending up to £800 on this upgrade?

Schoolboy error! ....Well I started this thread by saying I knew less about boat electrics than I might... I know more now! I had understood our batteries to have been sealed units, they arent. So for the last year they haven't had the levels checked and of course were virtually empty. Anyway, 3 Litres of distilled water later and a good long charge and they are back up to 14V. Everything is now turned off, including the battery charger so this time next week I will know if we will need a new battery bank or not. Many thanks to all who contributed towards trying to solve the problem.

Thanks all. I have an electrician coming down to look at it in the week. Will report back back to you once they are done with it.

We are based in Thorne. The bollard is working, haven't tested the cable for continuity but it's brand new and doesn't appear damaged. The bollard did provide enough power to charge the batteries from 8V up to 10v overnight, I then ran the engine for an hour this morning and that took me up to 12.8 V... But since then, despite plugging back into the shoreline as soon as the engine was off the voltage has been gradually dropping. Anyway, electrician will look at it Wednesday and hopefully then we will get the answer... And a bill!

Thanks all.. Changed every fuse in sight... No difference. Unplugged the lead into the inverter and plugged in a table lamp... It Doesn't work. Does this mean there is a problem with the inverter? Despite being plugged into the shoreline the batteries are slowly losing their charge. I have called out an electrician to come and look at it. It will be later in the week before I have an answer. If we don't already need new batteries we will do by then! Battery charge is gradually dropping.. Now down to 11.9V and the only thing using power is a 12V fridge. I will let you know what the final diagnosis is after someone who knows what they are doing has looked over it. Everyone's help has been greatly appreciated. What a good community this is!

Switching between shoreline and inverter is done by unplugging a cable from one socket and plugging it into another. We cant get 240v power whichever source is selected... ..and as a footnote.. just turned the oil fueled heating on... the start up of the ebspacher drained more power from the battery so they were reading 12.1V and now the heating is off again that charge doesnt seem be being restored. We have a battery charger seperate to the inverter.

Ok maybe they are not fully charged.. but they were reading 12.8 V which i took to be fully charged. They were plugged into the shore supply from 5.00pm yesterday and charging until now.

..and we are attached to mains power again now.

Thank you. Ran the engine for an hour and the leisure batteries are now fully charged. However the 240v system seems not to be working, no power to any of the sockets. The batteries appear to be holding their charge. The consumer unit has two RCB's neither of which are tripped. Interestingly the button that is pressed to test the RCB's doesnt trip them.