Mastervolt Powercharger failure

techmitch said:
Well, pull, but yes. 200 amp load.
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About to go out looking. To just confirm a 100 amp tester will not work ? YOu mention 200 amp pull so I am assuming I have to get something a little higher than a regular 100 amp tester which are all over from what I see. Then it seems to jump to 500 amp
 
Well I am finally back in town and able to work on the boat issue. At the current time the batteries have been charged up using a portable trickle charger and are both at 13 plus volts. I purchased a 500 amp load tester. Since I have never used one I am going off reading what has been posted. From what techmitch says I should unhook the battery terminals and apply a 200 amp load for 10 seconds. Howerver my CCA is 900 so I was thinking I should apply a 400 amp load which is about half of the CCA?
 
Stpetelsu64 said:
Well I am finally back in town and able to work on the boat issue. At the current time the batteries have been charged up using a portable trickle charger and are both at 13 plus volts. I purchased a 500 amp load tester. Since I have never used one I am going off reading what has been posted. From what techmitch says I should unhook the battery terminals and apply a 200 amp load for 10 seconds. Howerver my CCA is 900 so I was thinking I should apply a 400 amp load which is about half of the CCA?
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Not sure how many amps a diesel starter pulls as opposed to a gas V-8, but 200 amps for 10 seconds would be a good first test. The battery being tested should hold 10 + volts for 10 seconds while under a 200 amp draw.
 
techmitch said:
Not sure how many amps a diesel starter pulls as opposed to a gas V-8, but 200 amps for 10 seconds would be a good first test. The battery being tested should hold 10 + volts for 10 seconds while under a 200 amp draw.
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Great thanks and I will report back.
 
Stpetelsu64 said:
At the current time the batteries have been charged up using a portable trickle charger and are both at 13 plus volts.
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Like we talked about earlier, though, that is NOT battery voltage. First do what was mentioned and check for true resting battery voltage. A battery has to be fully charged to get an honest load test.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Like we talked about earlier, though, that is NOT battery voltage. First do what was mentioned and check for true resting battery voltage. A battery has to be fully charged to get an honest load test.
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When fully charged I see they are testing at 13.4-13.5 volts. So once I see them at that I can unhook the cables and let the battery sit for a few hours so the "top off" charge goes away and then hook up the load tester. That was my plan. Sorry as this is not my expertise. I can do some basic stuff but now with every boat yard and mechanic way overloaded there are things like this I need to start doing.

I am really confused tho. After charging them up to 13.5 I pull off the trickle charger and then turn back on my mastervolt. The mastervolt shows 4 green bars for about a day. Then they go down to 3 green bars. Meanwhile while this happens the voltage goes from 13.5 to 13.2 to 12.8 in a few days. And there is nothing on that I know of and the battery solenoid switches have been off. So it may be both the batteries and the charger. I dont want to buy new batteries and then it turns out to be the charger. But again when I unhook the small portable chargers and turn back on the mastervolt it slowly goes down each day.
 
That may be because your MV is smarter than the trickle charger. 12.8V is a fully charged (and essentially new) voltage reading. The MV is going to try and keep the batteries at that voltage. A cheapie trickle charger will continue to charge and eventually overcharge/kill the battery. However, you need to see if the voltage STAYS near 12.8V. This is where you can either disconnect for a few days and re-check or go ahead and load test (best way).
 
Lazy Daze said:
That may be because your MV is smarter than the trickle charger. 12.8V is a fully charged (and essentially new) voltage reading. The MV is going to try and keep the batteries at that voltage. A cheapie trickle charger will continue to charge and eventually overcharge/kill the battery. However, you need to see if the voltage STAYS near 12.8V. This is where you can either disconnect for a few days and re-check or go ahead and load test (best way).
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Great thanks. Supposedly my trickle chargers are maintainers also. They are the NOCO ones. But maybe I am wrong. I am stretching my body now to try and squeeze down there to start unhooking. They sure dont make it easy. I know last summer I finally had to get my Shaft seals replaced and the guys dreaded it because of the boat i have. I seriously have no idea how the heck they were able to do it.
 
Ok so I finally was able to load test the batteries. I did mess up by unhooking the positive terminal first and had a little spark. I did have the solenoid battery switches off. So after unhooking all batteries I waited a half hour then pulled a 200 amp load. All but one held nicely. So I am not sure if the one battery I messed up on because i was having an issue getting the amp meter to move. But now I have another issue. After hooking the batteries back up I put the hatch down since it was gonna rain. I then turned off the solenoid switches down on the panel in the salon cabin. Today for the first time ever I cant get the switches to turn back on. Not sure if I blew something? So I could not get hatch up. But I was able to reach from the battery compartment part with a long stick and press the switches on the main board and I was able to open up the hatch. But down under the switches are dead or just wont come on. And the battery meter down there had been showing good but it wont turn on either. After all these years with no issues and regular maintenance my boat got covid I guess. Any feedback on the switches not working on the panel in the cabin?

One other thing. the port engine would not start but the starboard did but was weak. Maybe something was running last night draining them as I unhooked the portable charger I have been using on it
 
There are slow blow fuses in the main panel in the engine room behind your switches that still work. They control the front panel switches. I know this because I went through this headache myself. Fuses are a special slow blow type and we’re hard to find locally. I got a pack on eBay
 
Well finally switched out batteries which in itself is a job if you are not a small person. I got them load tested and 3 of them were right on the line of pass fail. The 4th was bad. So I purchased 4 new ones and boat started right up. I did hook back up the mastervolt charger but still fear it may be the problem. Especially since he said they were right on the pass fail line

So should I just keep this charger hooked up or go ahead and keep using my small portable trickle chargers. I do not want this older charger to burn out more batteries. I am a rookie regarding this as I said. thanks for any feedback. I am in and out of town so hard to find time to do this kind of work at the current time
 
Stpetelsu64 said:
Well finally switched out batteries which in itself is a job if you are not a small person. I got them load tested and 3 of them were right on the line of pass fail. The 4th was bad. So I purchased 4 new ones and boat started right up. I did hook back up the mastervolt charger but still fear it may be the problem. Especially since he said they were right on the pass fail line

So should I just keep this charger hooked up or go ahead and keep using my small portable trickle chargers. I do not want this older charger to burn out more batteries. I am a rookie regarding this as I said. thanks for any feedback. I am in and out of town so hard to find time to do this kind of work at the current time
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I would recommend replacing the charger, it's 15 years old.
https://www.promariner.com/products/dry-mount-marine-battery-chargers/pronauticp-series/
I would go with the 1240 and the remote monitor.
 
If it were me, I would contact MV directly and ask them for a diagnosis procedure in terms of testing the unit to be sure it's operating correctly and not cooking the batteries. I did this with an old ProMariner and they were very helpful with that - I would "assume" that MV can do the same.
 
Lazy Daze said:
If it were me, I would contact MV directly and ask them for a diagnosis procedure in terms of testing the unit to be sure it's operating correctly and not cooking the batteries. I did this with an old ProMariner and they were very helpful with that - I would "assume" that MV can do the same.
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Great idea. Thanks. I may keep them off tonight since I doubt it can hurt. And call tomorrow. Thanks
 
Unless you've got 12V accessories running, it won't hurt a thing to keep the charger disconnected for days, even weeks.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Unless you've got 12V accessories running, it won't hurt a thing to keep the charger disconnected for days, even weeks.
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got ya. Yea nothing should be running and also have the solenoid battery switches off. Thanks as that helps ease my mind.
 
b_arrington said:
You could switch to a ProMariner ProNautic 1240P 40 Amp 3 Bank Battery Charger. ProMariner has been recommended to me by several people in the yacht service and marine electronics business. BOE Marine has them in stock.

Replacing a battery charger should be fairly straight forward. You have al the connections existing - just switch them to the right places on the new unit. I did with with a recent charger on my boat - went pretty quickly.
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Replaced mine back in June/19 with the ProN 1240, easy job and has been working great.
Any updates?
 
DB360 said:
Replaced mine back in June/19 with the ProN 1240, easy job and has been working great.
Any updates?
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Well I finally found a place that can get the boat in between 30-45 days maybe. It is crazy over here in that all the boat yards are slammed for at least 30 days in advance and all are looking for mechanics. My brother is a mechanic (vehicles) and I mentioned he may move here with his family this coming year. 2 places immediately said they would pay him 30$ per hour to start and hire 10 of him. I guess it may be like that all over

But the dealership where I purchased the boat are going to recommend what they say is higher quality and longer lasting. I just got the call back. So I will report back with what they are. I am bringing the boat in anyway to get some other minor work I have been putting off. thanks for the heads up on the ProN 1240
 
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