AC Converter Constantly on?

U

Uplate

New Member
Oct 13, 2008
977
Nashville, TN. Percy Priest Lake
Boat Info
1998 Sea Ray Sundancer 310
Westebeke 4KW Generator
Engines
Twin 5.7 Mercruiser Carbuerated.
Alpha 1 Drives
As a new Searay owner I am looking for some experiences with this subject.

Previous owner said never leave the AC Converter on for more than two hours or it will burn up batteries..regardless of what the manual says. Said this is common to all Searay boats.

Dock Neighboors say they leave theirs on always while on shore power while another neighboor agrees with previous owner as she burned up all batteries leaving it on.

Manual states the three different levels of the AC converter unit which makes perfect sense. Seems like you can leave it on always.

Comments and experiences very welcome to help save current or reduce future purchases of batteries.
 
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I've always leeft my boats plugged in with the battery chargers on. You WILL fry batteries if you never check the water level, otherwise you should be fine.
 
Didn't you already ask this question and Todd answered it?

This question comes up all the time. This is my take on it. You can't listen to your dock neighbors unless you know what kind of converter/charger they have as well as the batteries they have as well as what setting the converter/charger is set to. At the end of the day, a properly working AC converter with a built in smart charger and set to the type of batteries you have should be left on. When the batteries are charged, the thing will go to a float mode.

What you need to do is find out what brand and model AC converter you have, look at the settings (i.e. RTFM) and look at the battery model. Go to the battery manufacturer's web site and download the spec sheet for it and it will give you the information on voltage settings for charging and floating. Double check those values against the converter's spec for the settings you have.

Things that go wrong with converters and batteries burning up are lack of water, wrong type of setting for the type of battery, or a bad converter. For example, if you set the converter to "wet cell lead acid" and stick it on a marine gel battery (not an AGM), it'll kill the battery. In fact, if you set it to AGM and stick it on a marine gel battery, you'll kill the battery. And... set a converter to "AGM" and blindly trust the setting without knowing what the AGM battery may need as far as voltage? You can fry the battery. That's why you can't listen to your dock neighbors. They may be like Kearney.

If you need help, post your converter make/model and battery make/model here and we'll help you out. This is not a "Sea Ray" thing but when you buy replacement batteries for your boat, you need to know the specs of everything and how the new stuff will work with the old stuff.. it's not like a car.

Oh yeah... the reason you leave it on is in case you spring a leak and the bilge pumps don't drain the battery and sink your boat.

My 2 cents.
 
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Four Suns said:
Didn't you already ask this question and Todd answered it?

This question comes up all the time. This is my take on it. You can't listen to your dock neighbors unless you know what kind of converter/charger they have as well as the batteries they have as well as what setting the converter/charger is set to. At the end of the day, a properly working AC converter with a built in smart charger and set to the type of batteries you have should be left on. When the batteries are charged, the thing will go to a float mode.

What you need to do is find out what brand and model AC converter you have, look at the settings (i.e. RTFM) and look at the battery model. Go to the battery manufacturer's web site and download the spec sheet for it and it will give you the information on voltage settings for charging and floating. Double check those values against the converter's spec for the settings you have.

Things that go wrong with converters and batteries burning up are lack of water, wrong type of setting for the type of battery, or a bad converter. For example, if you set the converter to "wet cell lead acid" and stick it on a marine gel battery (not an AGM), it'll kill the battery. In fact, if you set it to AGM and stick it on a marine gel battery, you'll kill the battery. That's why you can't listen to your dock neighbors. They may be like Kearney.

If you need help, post your converter make/model and battery make/model here and we'll help you out. This is not a "Sea Ray" thing but when you buy replacement batteries for your boat, you need to know the specs of everything and how the new stuff will work with the old stuff.. it's not like a car.

My 2 cents.
Click to expand...

2 cents? A good marine mechanic charges $95 an hour for advice like that. Nicely done!
 
Oh... but you missed the embedded sarcasm in there that will get reported to the moderator by someone.
 
4 Suns-

Thanks to you and the other quick replies. Not sure if Todd answered a previous qustion. Still learning to navigate these forums.

I am sure that the converter is stock for the 98 310. I will check it out next time at the dock in a few days. I doubt is is a non OEM aftermarket, but will check.

Now about checking water... this looks like it could be a little difficult without pulling out each battery and doing the hydrometer reading and visual check of levels. there is just not enough overhead room above the batteries on the starboard side of my engine room to peek in. Might be able to Hydrometer though.

What do the rest of you do to check battery water levels? Pull and Meter, or is there some sort of slick apparatus available?

Again, Thanks to all of you who responded. I really appreciate it and hope to give something back to this forum in the future when I get past the "New guy" Scenario.

After I get the charger specs, I promise to RTFM, if I can find it online.
 
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Four Suns said:
Depends. Who did you vote for?

(If you are smart, you won't go there)
Click to expand...

HaHa- certainly will not go there or the religion thing.

I just saw lots of chatter elsewhere on this board about election day and there is plenty of other places on the internet to discuss that! Hope we can keep it to boating.

I also see this kind of stuff pollute the Mercedes Benz and BMW forums that I belong to...sheesh..
 
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Uplate,

This may sound silly, but the admiral fits nicely in our 310-2001 for the check the batteries duty. A small flashlight, something to pop up the caps, if the water level is below the line, add distiled water. We do this in the spring, and once in the summer. I was told by the dealer, the warmer the weather, better to check them more often.

R.Blatter
310 Sundancer 2001
5.7L Bravo III
 
Or you could do like Frank W. does and just drop in some AGM batteries and not worry about it.... but what fun is that.
 
Rblatter: funny about the admiral. Mine is about 5'6 and weighs about 100#. Now if I can just talk her into this sort of "techy" thing.

4 suns: I have been checking out the AGM solution. A friend who is a long time houseboater tells me never to spend stupid money on batteries as they all have to be replaced at about the same time, so sans the water checking, he suggests never to spend a lot on them. after all, they are disposable.

Just want to save some $$ to put it into the gas tanks.
 
Go back and re-read what Gary told you about listening to people down the dock. Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about if he was addressing battery type.

I keep my boat at a marina owned by a Sea Ray dealer in Florida. I've been there 20 years and am friends with the mechanics and service manager. We use my boat as a guinea pig for new ideas and I was the first to change to AGM batteries.

I was using high-end lead acid group 31 marine or deep cycle batteries. I am a stickler for maintenance and checked and refilled the water level religiously. The best I ever did on wet batteries was 19 months. My boat has a total of 5 batteries, so short battery life is expensive.

The boat is a stock 1996 model and has the original converter/charger. We also use the generator for heat/air and the refrigerator, the freezer and the ice maker which are all 120VAC only appliances. For this reason we changed to starting batteries (since we use the generator enough to top off the battery levels with the converter) at the same time we changed to AGMs which was in 1999.

While the batteries were 33% more expensive, the 4 on the main engines lasted a total of 44 months, more than twice the life of regular lead acid batteries.....I changed the generator battery at 80 months, just because I found a deal on batteries. The second set of AGMs I had lasted 46 months; I'm still on the second AGM in the generator.

AGM's significantly reduced both the maintenance and the cost of boat ownership for me. Some smaller boats pose a real challenge for battery access.......that alone may be a good enough reason to change to AGM's.

A final point is that the converter Sea Ray now uses on most boats has a selector switch on them to allow you to select charging conditions tailored to your battery type. Mine does not.......I just changed the batteries and kept going.

That's my story ...............
 
Excellant advice given.. I learn something new every day here. After reading this I decided to take a closer look at my charger. Here is a picture of the charger on my 2006 320.

I don't see any switches for the different battery types mentioned. I searched on the internet and found the owners manual. It doesnt appear to have that functionality. It appear that it is only for lead acid batteries. So I guess if I ever want to switch to gel batteries, I will need to change my charger.

The manual says if has 3 modes of operations (and then goes on to list 4 modes) . I found this unit on

[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]PROPER OPERATION[/FONT]​

When properly installed and connected, the
[FONT=TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic]INTELI-POWER[/FONT]

[FONT=TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic]MARINE [/FONT]converter/charger will monitor the battery condition then
automatically select one of it’s three operating modes to provide the
correct charging level.
[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]NORMAL MODE:[/FONT]
In the normal mode the output voltage is set at 13.6 volts DC. This
voltage provides good charging rates and low water usage.
[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]BOOST MODE:[/FONT]
If the ​


[FONT=TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic]INTELI-POWER MARINE [/FONT]converter/charger senses the

battery voltage has dropped below a preset level, the system
automatically switches into the Boost Mode. In this mode the charge
voltage is increased to 14.4 volts for a period of approximately 4
hours.
[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]TRICKLE MODE:[/FONT]
When the ​


[FONT=TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic]INTELI-POWER MARINE [/FONT]converter/charger senses that

there has been no significant battery usage for a period of
approximately 30 hours the charge voltage is automatically reduced
to 13.2 volts DC for minimal water usage until the unit senses usage
of the electrical system.
[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]EQUALIZATION MODE:[/FONT]
When the charger is in the Storage Mode, the microprocessor
automatically equalizes the battery by increasing the charging
voltage to 14.4 volts for 15 minutes every 21 hours. This causes the
battery to gas for a short time and re-mixes the electrolyte to prevent
the buildup of sulfation on the battery plates.​



Charger.jpg
 
That is basically the same converter I have except I have the PD 2050 insteand of the 2030. My point was that if you look at the charging profile of the charger, which is for "wet cell lead acid", it matches the charging profile of my Deka AGM 8D batteries. Remember, AGM and Gel batteries are not the same even though neither has wet acid sloshing around. I don't know who uses Gel batteries in a power boat... that's a sailboat thing (run the things dead every night).

If you go read that other thread I referred you to, the newer PD 2100 series has settings for "wet cell, AGM, and gel" but if you dig deeper, the "AGM" setting is NOT the charging profile that battery manufacturer (in my case) says to use on the battery even though they are AGM. You just have to read the charging profile of each setting in the manual and match with the battery manufacturers recommended charging profile and the "stupid person who doesn't read or understand setting" may not work.... So for those high school students who complain they'll never use this "understand a line graph stuff" in real life? Here's that real world example.... Oh wait... it's not fair... if I'm stupid and burn up my batteries, it's not my fault and someone else should spread the wealth and give me more... I digress.

AGM charging profiles are closer to wet cell lead acid batteries than gel batteries in general... from what I've seen.

As I said... it ain't a car.
 
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Four Suns said:
....... You just have to read the charging profile of each setting in the manual and match with the battery manufacturers recommended charging profile and the "stupid person who doesn't read or understand setting" may not work.... So for those high school students who complain they'll never use this "understand a line graph stuff" in real life? Here's that real world example.... Oh wait... it's not fair... if I'm stupid and burn up my batteries, it's not my fault and someone else should spread the wealth and give me more... I digress...........
Click to expand...

Did you just change the password to the G-Dock????
 
Ya think I use that word too much? Maybe I'll just start using person's name instead of the word stupid.
 
On my 2000 - 260 charger - the switch was behind the cover. I had to pull the cover off the charger to change the settings. The instructions with the charger are quite thorough.
 
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