battery problem

[mbranton]

Battery Problem is as follows:
3 batteries on boat are identical: Everstart Marine deep cycle battery from Wal Mart
none of the batteries are connected in series or parallel
all three batteries have a strict dedicated purpose
All three batteries are charged with the same marine grade automatic charger separately one at a time.
All batteries EXCEPT the trolling motor battery charge wonderfully.

History with trolling motor battery:
been thru 3 batteries in 6 months; battery will not charge in or out of boat.
when I return battery to store to have checked: Dead cell found on analyzer on all 3.
all 3 batteries were checked with machine prior to purchase and found to be in excellent working condition.
Trolling motor works fine when battery is charged
fuse to + terminal good
trolling motor wire, plug , and socket do not get hot.

When battery is removed from compartment for charging or whether it is left in compartment.............does not matter, the charging wires from the charger become alarmingly hot after the initial 5 minutes of charging and of course I disconnect for fear of "explosion" or "whatever" catastrophe could possibly happen.


6 months ago, I did replace the male plug on trolling motor with identical plug and this is the plug that plugs into the console socket on the bow of the boat.................again trolling motor works fine when battery is charged and neither, plug, socket, or wires at bow end where trolling motor is get hot.

Again, the charger works great on the other 2 identical batteries dedicated to other electronics on the boat.

Numerous phone calls to various mechanics (auto and boat) can?t figure this out?????..of course, none were paying close attention to the details of the issue because confusion was evident in their responses????????for example: ?check the fuse????????? wouldn?t the trolling motor not work if it were the fuse? ?Bad charger??????? wouldn?t the charger not charge the other 2 identical batteries in the boat if the charger were no good.

Personally, I feel based on much pondering: reverse polarity of battery may be happening associated with a possible ?mis-wiring? problem ?some-where? . Yes, I definitely need to check the battery but it is dead. Should have checked before got to low; no, I never allow deep cycle to get this low?????.this battery was ruined way before it ran out of juice and I was going to fish.

Anybody out there got a clue what could be the problem?
Problem is as follows:
3 batteries on boat are identical: Everstart Marine deep cycle battery from Wal Mart
none of the batteries are connected in series or parallel
all three batteries have a strict dedicated purpose
All three batteries are charged with the same marine grade automatic charger
All batteries EXCEPT the trolling motor battery charge wonderfully.

History with trolling motor battery:
been thru 3 batteries in 6 months; battery will not charge in or out of boat.
when I return battery to store to have checked: Dead cell found on analyzer on all 3.
all 3 batteries were checked with machine prior to purchase and found to be in excellent working condition.
Trolling motor works fine when battery is charged
fuse to + terminal good
trolling motor wires and plug do not get hot.

When battery is removed from compartment for charging or whether it is left in compartment.............does not matter, the charging wires from the charger become alarmingly hot after the initial 5 minutes of charging and of course I disconnect for fear of "explosion" or "whatever" catastrophe could possibly happen.


6 months ago, I did replace the male plug on trolling motor with identical plug and this is the plug that plugs into the console socket on the bow of the boat.................again trolling motor works fine when battery is charged and neither, plug, socket, or wires at bow end where trolling motor is get hot.

Again, the charger works great on the other 2 identical batteries dedicated to other electronics on the boat.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: battery problem

The trolling motor battery very likely gets more deeply discharged than the other. Therefore they should be charged "immediately" after use -- not just before you go out the next time. Leaving batteries in a discharged state will ruin them in short order. Discharging them too deeply will also ruin them. You cannot run any battery stone dead and have it live very long. Your charger leads getting hot on only on the deep cycle tells you that this battery is indeed very deeply discharged as it is sucking very high current from the charger. The other batteries are not deeply discharged so the leads don't get hot. You are doing something different with the troller battery and I suspect it is as simple as when you charge it and how deeply you discharge it. The charge rate on your charger may also be such that you are boiling the water out of the battery.

 

[mbranton]

Re: battery problem

Silvertip, I appreciate your response............I never allow any of my batteries to get below 40% and all are charged within 24 hours of trip; however, in this case, the charger to the trolling motor battery will not charge at all and all the charger needle does is vibrate above the 12 volt charging mark position on the charger gauge. Battery taken to Napa before completely drained and their tester indicated the battery read 12.5 volts before I ran down because I could not charge it due to situation describe in initial discussion. I ran it down because I live 40 miles from the nearest battery store and I love to fish and it had a warranty; no matter what, the charger wires would heat up if it were above 40% or below 20%. The other exact same batteries would charge nicely with this charger...........

Could it be a trolling motor problem; would an in line amp meter help determine the current the motor is pulling and possibly identify a motor problem? The trolling battery was working great before I changed the plug on the trolling motor. Could this be causing a possible reverse polarity in battery and thus the damage and in-ability to charge no matter what juice percentage it has left in it?

I know I should not have run it down; desperate to fish!!!!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: battery problem

Not knowing what type of plug/receptacle combination you have it's hard to tell if that's the issue. If it is a plain old two or three prong plug/receptacle it is almost impossible to screw that up. Red is 12 volts and black is ground. Orange on a three terminal plug is not used unless you have a combo 12/24 volt motor. If you have a four prong plug that has jumpers inside it, it is possible that is causing an issue but then again -- don't know what you have. The motor itself is probably not the issue either. But the fact you are destroying troller batteries says you have a wiring, use, or charging issue. Since the problem seems to have started with the plug replacement, double check the wiring. Also -- what type of trolling motor do you have? 12 volt only?

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: battery problem

I would borrow a charger and try it. Most will kick off long before the wires get hot. As silver says it may not have a problem on the other 2 batteries but cant recover the trolling battery.

 

[mbranton]

Re: battery problem

Thanks Silvertip, it is a 12 volt troller.
I do have the black going to ground
I have two options on plug for +; perhaps this is the problem. I will put fresh battery in and check this out...........likely, I may have the other wire on wrong + option on the plug.
Lyle: I will borrow another marine charger and see if this helps.
really think it might be wiring problem screwing up battery.
Be interesting to know the final diagnosis..........marine shop is a good hour's drive away and those guys really aren't that sharp: they had the boat a month and missed a no. 2 coil on main motor (boat stalling at 2000 RPMs) the last time it was in shop; yet they charged me $314.00 and boat did not perform any better once I got it back...........bought a book on my engine (read it twice on a Saturday) and I did a compression test :redface:followed by a spark test of which revealed no. 2 plug not firing and ohm meter revealed bad no. 2 coil. Internet coil purchase on iboat.com for $14.00 solved the problem. I'm going to work on troller problem as long as I can before I turn it over to those guys.

 

[Capt'n Chris]

Re: battery problem

Chargers are chargers and they they never know when to stop charging. Look into a Ctek and I'll bet your battery relationship will change.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: battery problem

What size of wire is going to the TM battery from the charger, is it direct from the charger to battery or length of wire added? How many amps is the charger (brand/model)? What size is your trolling motor and how long are you running it on 1 battery? Is the trolling motor power dropping off bad at the end of the trip, IE: discharging battery too much.

I have a 20 amp charger for my jon boat batteries and the charger cables get hot while charging, but I don't have battery problems.

From your posts I'd say the batteries are getting discharged too far, shouldn't go past 50%.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: battery problem

Hooking up your motor is not a big deal. The only thing you need to make sure of is that pin in the troller plug that has the red wire on it matches the terminal in the receptacle that has the red (+12 volt) wire from the battery in it. Same for the black wire. It doesn't matter one bit which pins you use so long as the plug and receptacle pins match up. The plug and receptacle MUST NOT have any jumpers inside them. This is strictly a straight through connection.

 

[mbranton]

Re: battery problem

I use an automatic charger that cuts off when the battery is charged to at least 70%. I am going to get another charger as suggested by Lyle or borrow one and see if this may be an issue.

 

[mbranton]

Re: battery problem

Plug is a 20 Amp 125V plug and it appears to have been wired correctly comparing it to the discarded one. I appears that I am going to have to install an inline amp meter to determine the issue with the battery problem.

 

[mbranton]

Re: battery problem

Commander, Charger wires appear to be at least 12 ga. coming off the charger to the battery. I'm am not big on trolling except to get into position to where I want to fish once I have shut the main motor off. I generally anchor unless I get snagged and then I will up anchor an troll to snag. I am not on lake more than 4 or 5 hours at a time and I do not troll excessively like I see other bass boats are doing. I am big on keeping the area quiet in hopes of hooking a big bass that is not spooked by troll or sonar sounds, ect.............I do catch my share this way and always hook or land a nice every weekend this time of year (HOT!!!!!) in the early-cool morning hours. When I get back, battery is hooked to charger and can't start a charge on it...............3 separate batteries have done this in the past 6 months. Battery will not charge.

 

[blue star]

Re: battery problem

Do you have any additional information re the battery problem?