Jeanie920

I ran a busy restaurant in an earlier life ?

But you can do that with the BMV. Mine is above my cooker so it’s very accessible at all times. I now know it’s the volts I should be looking at so I can set the default mode to read volts and not SoC.

Yes I should have replaced the batteries before we set off on our journey. We could then have done the leisurely journey that we planned and not the must get there as soon as possible journey that we did. Now at least I have a better understanding that it’s the volts I should be looking at and not the SoC. I think the 7kw Travel power is not two 3.5. When we had trouble with the TP someone from Leek who specialises in TP came to look and said he couldn’t touch it as he could only do 3.5 TPs. I asked him was it not just a bigger version and he said they were completely different. I know I need new batteries but what I really would like to know is can I replace these Victron 12-200 gel batteries with a cheaper make of the same size. AGM seem to be a cheaper alternative to gel. Could I use those? There are 5 batteries all wired together

No there doesn’t seem to be an alternative way to charge the batteries. When the Travel Power had to go in for repair the only way I could charge the batteries was on shore power. I don’t think there is any space for an alternator. I think we asked advice for that a couple of years ago when the TP was broken. The bow thruster has a separate battery and I have a separate starter battery. Both I assume charged via the inverters.

The inverters act as battery chargers

Not a lot. About an hour on shore power and the % would rise from 92 to 97 and that was enough to start the TP . there are two big blue Victron boxes. The original owner of the boat left some notes. They don’t mean anything to me .He calculated how much power he would use . He says that the 2 Victron multi plus boxes are each capable of supplying 10 amps from the batteries and also act as battery chargers

The battery charger worked fine once it had the required voltage. Just that the battery voltage had dropped too low.

We were travelling every day for 7 or 8 hours so we ran it every day. But overnight if we weren’t able to run the engine late at night,the next morning it had dropped to around 8. Then when we would start off it would slowly rise to just over 10 but then we couldn’t get it to rise anymore until we got shore power

Well they were always on 100% according to the battery monitor and they were permanently on shore power. Ive got a Phoenix Multiplus 12/2500/120 The man from the Marina workshop brought something to test the batteries.the machine he had produced a printout of the state of each battery. Unfortunately he didn’t give me the printout. He tested 4 of them. I only discovered the extra battery this evening. The other 2 batteries.

Yes always. We were always on mains power in a Marina until we left three weeks ago. This was when we discovered that they weren’t holding their charge. Once the travel power was charging the batteries the bolts were over 14

Well it’s relevant insofar as the Travel power needs 12v to charge the batteries. I have no other means of charging the batteries as far as I know. Up until now everything has worked as it should. The travel power has a rocker switch. When it’s working it has a green light. If the green light isn’t lit it isnt charging. According to the manual it says if the voltage is too low the function of the travel power will not work properly and the red Light will be lit. A Good battery will have a voltage above 12v. This is increased to 24v by the converter supplying the Travel power box i think it works in conjunction with the Victron inverter. When the voltage is too low a battery low light comes on and the inverter switches off. Yes that’s what was happening. When I had the batteries tested yesterday a couple of them were reading 87% on the printout but on the others the print out was saying to buy new batteries as they were very low.

When the batteries were Ok we never needed to run the batteriesehen we stopped for the day. It’s just because the batteries are on the way out.

Would AGM batteries work Would I then need to get rid of my existing inverters and buy new ones?

Well we will be spending most of the time in the Marina but would like to go out for trips. But as things are we need to moor in isolated places to keep the battery topped up before we go to bed. It means we can’t moor up outside pubs or on visitor moorings. I was thinking about AGM batteries with 200AH. I’ve seen some advertised for £200 or so. Would they not be suitable? I don’t neccessarily need to do much cooking when away from the marina. Yeah, I realise that now. I focused on the Battery % ☹️

It’s a 7kw travel power. They normally are 3kw I think. Was Fine until the batteries went under 95% charged. We managed most of the time by mooring up in isolated places so that we could keep the batteries over that level. We switched off the fridge and freezer at night. With the batteries over that level it was fine. I could use the washing machine whilst travelling and cook the dinner as long as thevengine was running.

Sorry yes it has a Diesel engine, webasto heating and a morso squirrel. I meant all electric as in appliances.

Hi Tony, the boat is about 15 years old and we’ve had it for about 7 and most of the time on shore power. Batteries were always at 100%. When we went out which was rarely we never let the batteries fall below 80%. I have a BMV 501 Battery monitor which we look at all the time. The boat was fitted out for continuous cruising by the previous owners they also had a dishwasher and a bidet. Which were taken out by the second owners from whom we bought it.

Hi. I still haven’t sorted this yet.first electrician I had took all the sockets off and examined them manually. Didn’t find anything. Fiddled around with the box where the fuses are and it started working. Then the following week it started again. Had another electrician who thinks he’s found the problem. A junction box in the wall he thinks,between a plug and the shaver point. Still not sorted because he didn’t want to start ripping my bathroom apart. So I’ve travelled from Milton Keynes to Cheshire and the Marina electrician is going to sort it next week hopefully. In the meantime I can use the plugs on one side of the boat. Thanks everyone for your help.

That’s what I thought too.

My Batteries are on the way out.Voltage drops rapidly as we found on our recent trip from Milton Keynes to Cheshire. My travel power needs 12v to enable it to charge the batteries and once the battery % on the monitor dropped below 95% the batteries wouldn’t go over 10v until we went into a Marina and charged them back to 97% then they would go to over 14 %. We are in a marina so we don’t have a problem atm but I got them tested and two are no use and two are OK. I’ve just discovered that there are 5 batteries. I think these are the original batteries and they are around 15 years old. They are Victron 12v 200Ah gel I asked the electrictian if I could get smaller batteries but he reckoned because I have two powerful Victron inverters that I couldn’t but he did say that they didn’t need to be Victron. He came back to me with a price of £600 each. I wasn’t expecting them to be so expensive. I’ve just been looking at the difference between gel and AGM and AGM seem much cheaper even with `Victron. I’ve also seen some that are £200-300 and wonder if these would be suitable. I should add that’s it’s an all electric boat. With a fridge, freezer, electric cooker, microwave and washing machine Thanks Jean

It’s the mains breaker. It’s in a cupboard similar to one that you have in a house. With different breakers for different things and a `main switch. It’s the one marked sockets that is tripping the main switch. Only problem is that all the sockets are on one fuse. So no mains electricity at all.

I’ve tried it with the cable disconnected from shore power and it still trips. I have an immersion heater but it has its own switch which is switched off. I was cooking porridge in the microwave this morning when it tripped but I’ve got nothing plugged in now. The electricity from shore is charging the battery. The monitor is staying on 100% and we have lights on and water pump been running and shower pump. I’ve taken a picture but how do I post it here ?

Sorry, should have made clear that I don’t think it’s a bollard problem. There is electricity coming on to the boat because the battery is still charging and the mains power light is on on the Vitron. We tried another shore to boat cable just to make sure and it was no different. Can’t try it disconnected from the shore power because at the moment the travel power is not connected. We had a problem and had to take it to Cox’s at Atherstone and now waiting for the engineer to refit it. Thanks for all your suggestions. Called a marine electrician who’s coming in the morning thankfully. Last time I wanted an Electrician he couldn’t come for 2 weeks.

I’m on a Marina and plugged in to shore power. This morning the fuse box on the boat tripped. Reset it but it keeps tripping. Have unplugged everything and switched off all the sockets but it still trips. All the sockets are on one switch. Can anyone help please?

Hi Adam, I've looked but can't seem to see 'other routes' button