shore power question

[sickday]

I bought my Grady (300 Marlin) back in March. I was using it so often that I didn't ever feel the need to hook up the shore power cord. When I knew I was going to be off the boate34 longer then normal I decided to hook up the power cord. The first cople of trips out after went well, but after the 3rd time of going out after having it plugged in, I lost my port side engine battery. I'm pretty sure the battery was due to be replaced, which I did.

My question is, if I'm not running any accesories other than the charger, will I damage my batteries if the shore power cord is hooked up for extended times? Thanks in advance

Matt

 

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

I'm always pluged in for the last 20 plus years, no problems. I even have the other boat and wave runner on my driveway pluged in year around.

 

[Capt. B]

I just had 2 batteries destroyed because the Guest charging system overcherged my batteries. My mechanic states that if even just one cell on the battery is low the charger will keep supplying power and in this case cooked all the electrolytes. They were deep cell batteries (27 series).

 

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

Deep cycle batteries are not supposed to be charged with the Grady supplied charger, they need lower amps for charging.

 

[BobP]

No, unless charger is defective or you have aux load on and charger manuf says that's a no-no.

Guest charger did in my batts, more than once, overcharged and wrecked them. Shoudl hav eknow something was up when they were sucking back on the water.

Went to Promariner, water usage nill now.

 

[ahill]

My guest charger has had no adverse effect in 3+ years. It did lose the red LED on the charge side for house batteries but that concern didn't affect it's operation.
I have a 4 battery setup. 2 house and 2 cranking.
The cranking each have a seperate batt sw.
The house are charged thru a Perko 2 batt sw. each batt is charged individually depending on the sw location. I was advised to not charge batts on "All" position.
If the Guest dies I'll get a Promariner.
Also all batteries should be equally rated to avoid confusing the charger.

 

[sluggoe]

my grady dealer advised me to not leave it hooked up for more than a week....

i use mine for 3-4 days and it does the job fine on my 282.

contact battery mfg or charger mfg to see if deep cycles are harmed by your charger.

--sluggoe.

 

[sickday]

My batteries work great without being hooked up to the charger. At $100 per battery, I'll prob reserve shore power for when I'm doing overnighters at the dock etc

Thanks for all the responses.

Matt

 

[gradyfish22]

If you have a decent charger you should always leave the charger hooked up, it will stop charging when the batteries are topped off then trickle charge as should be done. The guest chargers are cheap though and over time have issues, but were designed to do this properly, just they tend to with age have issues maintaining there proper purpose, pro charger is a better option and a great value and seem to work right with few issues if any. On bigger boats with a fridge running at the dock, having the charger on is a good idea, why stress the battery. I've plugged the shore power in for years and never once had an issue, onlt time we had issues was before our older boat had one. We use the boat 40-50 trips from May1-last week in Oct each season so it rarely sits more then a few days if that and we have no issues. The few times my father has forgotten to put it on we've had a dead battery once and when I turned the charger on mid week after he had forgot, the charger showed they surely needed a quick charge as they were drawing down. Batteries need to be replaced every other year anyways, there is no way a charger will kill it that quickly unless the charger itself is bad or defective, or you have a battery that is not compatible with the charger itself, or the settings on the charger are not set properly to your battery style.

 

[sickday]

thanks for the tip gradyfish. As a matter of fact its on the charger now. I worked late on the boat last night and had to use my spreader lights for a while so I left it hooked up.

As for the fridge, do you have any feedback as to how much it draws from the batteries? It seems rediculous to me that there isnt an AC/DC option. It sure would be nice to draw power from shore when I'm in the dock, I would always have a nice cold fridge to come home to.

Do you keep your fridge running when you're not around?

 

[Hookup1]

Charger

I leave mine hooked up to shore power all the time. The 12 volt fridge is on all the time.

I also have a ProMariner charger installed and a Group 27 deep cycle marine battery. Check your battery levels two or three times a season and top off with distilled water.

 

[Tuna Man]

I was under the impression that almost all boat refrigerators were capable of operating with 12 VDC and 120 VAC. I thought that they automatically switched from 12 volts to 120 volt power source when plugged in at the dock or on generator power (if equipped). I may be wrong, but I have read this many times. Can any one confirm if I am correct?

 

[sickday]

my electric conrtol panel has a switc for the fridge on the battery side only

 

[Southern Hunter]

Mine is the same way......but it definitely should run off of shore power or the generator IMHO it draws the battery down wayyy to quickly!

 

[fishingFINattic]

Some of the fridges that Grady installed were 12volt only -
I had one of the 12v only fridges on my 265 - used a Protech charger that worked as a power supply and kept the boat plugged in for four years with no issues -
The fridge died this year and I upgrade since they did not offer the same fridge from Norcold - the new one is 12v/120v - basically if it has 120v going to it (Via the power cord) then it runs on 120V - if no 120V is available it defaults to 12volt-
Good luck
Tim