Slow drain on battery

[Sunsetter95]

Like they said, check the bilge pump, switch on-switch off. If it runs and shuts off, probably not it. Do the same for the blower and ballast pumps...and anything else your nice almost new boat has. I don't have most of those luxuries.

If your test light bulb blew, there is a fair amount of drainage there. If the above isn't it, I would maybe disconnect the isolater completly and see if the drain is still there. Worth the try.

When running, does the alternator put out ~13+ volts? If not, could have a diode out in the bridge causing the draw.

Ignition staying on at the module? Not sure how to check that other than the power wire.

Did you check and make sure your amps are off when the head unit is off? They would cause a sizable drain.

Besides what already been suggested, that is about all I can think of for now.

Good luck Tracie!

I finally took off the old TMC sticker and put the new one on. Much better!

[98mallybu]

I read over what people wrote breifly but here is my 2 cents.... you might have a few bucks all ready!!

The very first thing i would do before checking current draw would be to load test the battery (s) Any Les Scwab or Schucks could do this, you want to make sure your cold cranking amps is at least close to what the rating is on the battery sticker (test disconnected)

Make sure both are at reference voltage (12.44V) (test disconnected)

Reconnect terminals, clean and tight.

Running engine at idle, Normal operating no load voltage at idle should be 13.8V to 14.4V, if your below that at idle, get that alternator pulled off and rebuilt. If your fine, turn on a majority of your accessories and test the system loaded. If it goes below your reference voltage (12.44) then your down to, too small of alternator, or too much load - usually caused by too much stereo (you all ready tested the batteries)

If your still all good, break out the ohm meter, turn everything off, remove the negitive terminal, switch the meter to Ohm's and swap the wires (usually you have to move the red wire to the little ohm logo) connect the red wire off the meter to the battery terminal you have disconnected, connect the black wire from the meter to the neg battery terminal on the battery. That will show how many amps your system is drawing when it is just sitting. If is more than 1 amp, something is wrong with one of your components or switches allowing current to flow through them. You can isolate the problem by disconneting the power wire for each item at the breaker or fuse panel one by one, watching the meter. if you see it go down significantly then there is your problem. Track down the wiring or the component and make your repair...

sorry for the novel, but there is no short way of exsplaing that out..

Cheers!

[NorCaliBu]

I...love how easy and brainless it is to have an islator...

[98mallybu]

I...love how easy and brainless it is to have an islator...

double it...

A perko switch was the first thing i installed on my boat...

[WakeGirl]

I read over what people wrote breifly but here is my 2 cents.... you might have a few bucks all ready!!

The very first thing i would do before checking current draw would be to load test the battery (s) Any Les Scwab or Schucks could do this, you want to make sure your cold cranking amps is at least close to what the rating is on the battery sticker (test disconnected)

Make sure both are at reference voltage (12.44V) (test disconnected)

Reconnect terminals, clean and tight.

Running engine at idle, Normal operating no load voltage at idle should be 13.8V to 14.4V, if your below that at idle, get that alternator pulled off and rebuilt. If your fine, turn on a majority of your accessories and test the system loaded. If it goes below your reference voltage (12.44) then your down to, too small of alternator, or too much load - usually caused by too much stereo (you all ready tested the batteries)

If your still all good, break out the ohm meter, turn everything off, remove the negitive terminal, switch the meter to Ohm's and swap the wires (usually you have to move the red wire to the little ohm logo) connect the red wire off the meter to the battery terminal you have disconnected, connect the black wire from the meter to the neg battery terminal on the battery. That will show how many amps your system is drawing when it is just sitting. If is more than 1 amp, something is wrong with one of your components or switches allowing current to flow through them. You can isolate the problem by disconneting the power wire for each item at the breaker or fuse panel one by one, watching the meter. if you see it go down significantly then there is your problem. Track down the wiring or the component and make your repair...

sorry for the novel, but there is no short way of exsplaing that out..

Cheers!

Excellent instructions, thank you. I can't do much with it right now because the first thing I did on Sunday was to check the battery & it's so low that it's under 11 volts. So I'm taking it down today to the electrical shop to see if it's still good & will take/hold a charge. I'll resume testing once I get that sorted.

[WakeGirl]

Update....

I just picked up the battery, the shop had put it on their really good charger for a couple of days. It's fully charged now, & load tested it put out 898 cca - it's rated for 800. So that's good. I'll get it back in the boat & fire it up this weekend to see what we get.

[68Slalom]

Update....

I just picked up the battery, the shop had put it on their really good charger for a couple of days. It's fully charged now, & load tested it put out 898 cca - it's rated for 800. So that's good. I'll get it back in the boat & fire it up this weekend to see what we get.

I hope it works for you, it's almost time

[WakeGirl]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

[Sunsetter95]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

Need a vacation?

Lake Pleasant, AZ

[98mallybu]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

i wish spring would hurry up and get on with it!

Any luck with figuring out the problems with the electrical system? You can always blame it on gremlins...

[Malibudude]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

I would have been soooooo dead is we wouold have moved there..btw it was 77 here.

[Sunsetter95]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

I would have been soooooo dead if we would have moved there..btw it was 77 here.

Better get that second cup of coffee down before you start typing!

[WakeGirl]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

i wish spring would hurry up and get on with it!

Any luck with figuring out the problems with the electrical system? You can always blame it on gremlins...

I might have to. Well, here's what I've found:

1. My battery appears to be fine. After the good charge, I let it sit for over a week without hooking it up & it's still reading 12.7 volts. So we're good there.

2. I followed 98mallybu's instructions, & with the engine idling the only time that voltage dropped below that 12.7 mark was when I had the heater, interior lights, & heated seat on with the stereo at full blast. With all of those things on except for the stereo, it doesn't go below around 13.5, and even with all of it running, as soon as I turned the stereo volume down the voltage came right back up to the mid-13's. So that tells me that I just need to watch what else I'm running when we've got the stereo cranked. I measured the resting voltage of the battery after I shut the engine off & it was up to 13 volts, so it would appear that it's getting a nice charge.

3. No progress on the drain. I'm not sure where to go with this now. I'm tempted to leave the battery hooked up for a few days to see what happens.

[Sunsetter95]

It feels like it should be, but it snowed here today & the weather report for the next week just sucks. But, it will give me a chance to get this fixed & ready to go.

i wish spring would hurry up and get on with it!

Any luck with figuring out the problems with the electrical system? You can always blame it on gremlins...

I might have to. Well, here's what I've found:

1. My battery appears to be fine. After the good charge, I let it sit for over a week without hooking it up & it's still reading 12.7 volts. So we're good there.

2. I followed 98mallybu's instructions, & with the engine idling the only time that voltage dropped below that 12.7 mark was when I had the heater, interior lights, & heated seat on with the stereo at full blast. With all of those things on except for the stereo, it doesn't go below around 13.5, and even with all of it running, as soon as I turned the stereo volume down the voltage came right back up to the mid-13's. So that tells me that I just need to watch what else I'm running when we've got the stereo cranked. I measured the resting voltage of the battery after I shut the engine off & it was up to 13 volts, so it would appear that it's getting a nice charge.

3. No progress on the drain. I'm not sure where to go with this now. I'm tempted to leave the battery hooked up for a few days to see what happens.

Better to find it in the preseason than during the summer and on the water... don't you think?

[WakeGirl]

Oh absolutely. I went ahead & left it all hooked up just to see how bad it pulls it down over, say, a 24 hour period. I did find a bad switch last night while trying to track down an intermittent problem that I was having with my interior lights last year, so I'm hoping that that could be it.

[Sunsetter95]

Oh absolutely. I went ahead & left it all hooked up just to see how bad it pulls it down over, say, a 24 hour period. I did find a bad switch last night while trying to track down an intermittent problem that I was having with my interior lights last year, so I'm hoping that that could be it.

Kinda reminds me of the old cartoon where the character keeps opening the frig door to see if the light is on or off. Not quite sure why... Intermittent electrical problems are the hardest to find.

Could be... It would be nice to be sure.

Edited March 31, 2008 by Sunsetter95

[WakeGirl]

Now that's funny. The lighting problem was one that would only happen when I really needed the light. It would cut out sporadically, but work fine in the garage. Drove me nuts. I finally set out to find the problem last night & it turned out that the bottom portion of that 3-way switch was bad. I'll check it tonight & see what I get. Problem is, I'm not completely sure of what "being sure" means in this case. Other mechanical problems seem to be "well that's your problem right there" kind of thing. This, not so much.

[Bake's Marine]

Now that's funny. The lighting problem was one that would only happen when I really needed the light. It would cut out sporadically, but work fine in the garage. Drove me nuts. I finally set out to find the problem last night & it turned out that the bottom portion of that 3-way switch was bad. I'll check it tonight & see what I get. Problem is, I'm not completely sure of what "being sure" means in this case. Other mechanical problems seem to be "well that's your problem right there" kind of thing. This, not so much.

Make sure your battery terminals are tight enough where you can not move them if you grab onto the wire and pull. If you can move the terminal on the battery post, it's not tight enough. Once 2006 came around the boat system became very sensitive to low voltage issues. 90% of the time here at the dealership, we track down wierd electronic problems down to a loose terminals or connection at the battery or switch (also check the back side of the battery switch, and the 0 gauge red wire at the starter & the 0 gauge wire for the main ground)

I was just thinking, your boat is under warranty still (3 years 400 Hours) how come your not having the dealer take care of this problem for you?

[WakeGirl]

I have no worries that Gary would take care of this for me, but it's over an hour 1 way to drag it up there & I'd have to take the time off of work....plus I was the one that installed the dual battery system & have added some other things as well. So I'm pretty sure that it's something that I've done & I don't want to claim warranty work on something like that. I'll check all of those things though, those are good points. The connections at the battery aren't the problem, but I didn't think about the other side of things. And if the '06 is that sensitive, it could have been that switch that went bad. It just started last year & it was a situation where there's a bad connection or something inside of the switch since it cuts out by just moving it a little bit.

[dalt1]

06 warranty is unlimited hours I believe. I just had some work done on mine and it has 416 hours on it. It was covered.

Edited April 2, 2008 by dalt1

[WakeGirl]

Well, I think (hope) that the bad switch was the culprit. I'm going to really keep an eye on this though, it's a hard thing to chase down & be sure of. Thanks to all for the help.

[WakeGirl]

Update....

So after using the boat a little, testing & watching, I think that the problem was the bad switch. After I replaced it, the load on the meter has consistently been at .10 amp, so it's got very little draw on the system at rest. I'm going to continue to watch it since I've been leaving the batteries unhooked with the long layup that we've had this spring, that doesn't give us a really good idea of what will happen this summer. But I think that the problem is fixed.

[WakeGirl]

Another update....

Okay, it turns out that the isolator may have been on its way out, & now the one side that feeds the accessory battery isn't allowing a charge to get to that battery at all. And who knows, maybe that was sporadically happening earlier this year & exacerbated the situation with the slow drain (slow drain on the battery & then no charge from the alternator). When I tested it when trying to find the drain, things checked out. But I've had difficulty this year with my accessory battery draining a bit too soon so I've been slowly trying to eliminate possibilities. I bought an onboard charging system as well that I just installed last night, so that helps with making sure that the batteries have a good full charge. I had thought that maybe I had killed the accessory battery prematurely from the abuse that it's taken this year, but tonight I was able to verify for sure that the isolator is bad. I guess time will tell on the battery & whether or not I'll have to replace it.

So....I'm not sure whether to buy another isolator or to just go with a Perko, or if there are other options. The simplicity of the Perko is very tempting (not to mention the price), I have to say. I like the idea of being able to manually switch to the battery that's low & let it get a charge. And after all of this, I'm not entirely sold on the whole "automated" feature of the isolator. Thoughts?

[Bobby Light]

Another update....

Okay, it turns out that the isolator may have been on its way out, & now the one side that feeds the accessory battery isn't allowing a charge to get to that battery at all. And who knows, maybe that was sporadically happening earlier this year & exacerbated the situation with the slow drain (slow drain on the battery & then no charge from the alternator). When I tested it when trying to find the drain, things checked out. But I've had difficulty this year with my accessory battery draining a bit too soon so I've been slowly trying to eliminate possibilities. I bought an onboard charging system as well that I just installed last night, so that helps with making sure that the batteries have a good full charge. I had thought that maybe I had killed the accessory battery prematurely from the abuse that it's taken this year, but tonight I was able to verify for sure that the isolator is bad. I guess time will tell on the battery & whether or not I'll have to replace it.

So....I'm not sure whether to buy another isolator or to just go with a Perko, or if there are other options. The simplicity of the Perko is very tempting (not to mention the price), I have to say. I like the idea of being able to manually switch to the battery that's low & let it get a charge. And after all of this, I'm not entirely sold on the whole "automated" feature of the isolator. Thoughts?

Get a blue sea add a battery kit (switch and ACR) and be done with.

[woody]

Another update....

Okay, it turns out that the isolator may have been on its way out, & now the one side that feeds the accessory battery isn't allowing a charge to get to that battery at all. And who knows, maybe that was sporadically happening earlier this year & exacerbated the situation with the slow drain (slow drain on the battery & then no charge from the alternator). When I tested it when trying to find the drain, things checked out. But I've had difficulty this year with my accessory battery draining a bit too soon so I've been slowly trying to eliminate possibilities. I bought an onboard charging system as well that I just installed last night, so that helps with making sure that the batteries have a good full charge. I had thought that maybe I had killed the accessory battery prematurely from the abuse that it's taken this year, but tonight I was able to verify for sure that the isolator is bad. I guess time will tell on the battery & whether or not I'll have to replace it.

So....I'm not sure whether to buy another isolator or to just go with a Perko, or if there are other options. The simplicity of the Perko is very tempting (not to mention the price), I have to say. I like the idea of being able to manually switch to the battery that's low & let it get a charge. And after all of this, I'm not entirely sold on the whole "automated" feature of the isolator. Thoughts?

I remember about 18 months or so, many people were buying the isolators. I thought about getting one for some time but decided againist it because I couldn't find enough pro/con data about them.

I'm glad I kept my perko switch. It is simple to use, and I have complete control of my batterys.