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Old     (suprafly08)      Join Date: Dec 2008       06-04-2012, 3:58 PM Reply   
Today was my first time out in the boat in the last 6 months.
After riding around for 10-15 the dash lit up with low voltage warnings. The voltmeter was reading at 11.3ish at that moment. so I picked up the RPMs to let the alternator do its thing. Within 10 mins the warnings had gone off and the voltmeter was back at 13.0! But every time I let the RPMs drop or turned on the stereo, ballast, etc the voltmeter would plummet.. This is a bit frustrating because I had the batteries on my CTEK 7002 all winter.

I went to interstate batteries to have them check the batts. All checked out okay. A little low on water in a few cell. The cranking battery was "marginal" upon checking a few of the cells water. So I bought a new one.

Does this sound like a system issue or a battery issue to you guys? Like I said the alternator seemed to be doing its job just fine by increasing to voltmeter, but I'm a dentist no electrician. So what do I know.

I also bought the cigarette lighter adapter for the CTEK can I just plug this in and forget. I have the two batteries in series, so I didn't know if this will work. I usually unplug the batts and charge them individually.

TIA
Old     (dougr)      Join Date: Dec 2009       06-04-2012, 4:21 PM Reply   
if there in series, one bad battery can pull load from the good battery and keep you under 12v. i would seperate the batteries and get a perko switch of some sort and keep them seperate so you dont strand yourself in the event. a battery for the stereo, and a boat battery. What stereo, amp stuff do you have (how much) always want to match your output and battery power so balance the amount of pull from your total system. i would replace the one battery that is marginal and check to make sure you are really putting out enough volts from your alternator. you can also get a volt meter to make sure you are charging. its a starting place.
Old     (suprafly08)      Join Date: Dec 2008       06-04-2012, 4:59 PM Reply   
Thanks! How do I check that I really am putting out enough volts from the alternator?

I do have a perko switch. So they may be parallel, not in series. Forgive me, again I'm certainly no expert. I have a wet sounds 6 ch amp driving 6 interior wet sounds speakers and a single wet sounds sub. I've had this same setup for a few years, so I can't imagine it's suddenly too much load for the two batteries. And it's not like I was idling, or stopped loading skiers/ swimmers. It was just 10-15 of driving the boat that caused the warning.

When I got it on the trailer. Battery 1 (when isolated on the perko) read at 12.5 on the voltmeter and battery 2 was at 12.1.
Old     (dougr)      Join Date: Dec 2009       06-04-2012, 5:36 PM Reply   
Best guess is bad battery. Get a load tester volt meter. Hook it up to the battery and run the boat. It will show charging volts and you then can turn off the boat and load the battery. The meter will drop if it can't sustain the needed volts. Make sure to buy from your local Patterson dental rep and that will bring good carma lol.
Old     (chpthril)      Join Date: Oct 2007       06-04-2012, 7:10 PM Reply   
If your battery switch was OFF for the winter and the C-tek was plugged into an ACC socket, theres a possibility that it was isolated from the batteries and not charging them.
Old     (suprafly08)      Join Date: Dec 2008       06-05-2012, 4:55 AM Reply   
Sorry, I just bought the ACC socket adapter for the CREK yesterday. I had the batteries unplugged and individually charged thru the winter.

I was asking if the ACC unit would work properly. But good call on having the switch to 1+2 instead of off.
Old    mojo            06-08-2012, 12:02 PM Reply   
if you try charging the batteries combined(Assuming they are the same age and model) then make sure your amp hours are not more than your ctek can handle. i have the 7002 and i don't remember the exact numbers, but i have 260 amp hours on my stereo bank and it's about 10-20 amps too much for the ctek so i have to unhook them to charge each one individually, then the cranking battery separately as well. I am pretty sure trying to charge my 3 optima's combined is what made them die prematurely. since then i have read about as much as my brain can handle on batteries, charging, and what not. getting the charging system straight will absolutely make the batteries last longer and make for worry free(almost) weekends.

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