Battery draining issues...?

[Barefooternewbie]

Good morning,

I'm hoping to get a little help with the battery draining issue I'm having. I just had a pair a Wetsound pro80's and a MTX 91002 (2 channel 250 watts @ 4ohms) installed and I pretty sure this is a root of the problem as I never had an issue prior. I currently have a two battery setup (not Optima gel batteries, they are on order) and I'm finding the motor is having a hard time turning over or starting at all after 5 mins of running the new tower speaker with the boat running. I know the current regular batteries I'm running aren't ideal but I didn't think they'd be drained of a charge that fast. I'm wondering if I hooked them up wrong and the new amp is drawing power even when I have the amp shut off (I have a seperate switch to turn on the tower speakers and amp off). The cab speaker and sub are running off a 5 channel Kicker 7005 but never had an issue until the new components were installed.

I welcome all opions and suggestion to fix.

Thanks,

[Bradley Thornton]

First off not a fan of Optmia. Sorry I would test batteries and load test alternator. Check all cables including all the way to the alternator.

[Earmark Marine]

It's a waste of time to leave these issues to speculation. You need a multimeter. It's only a $10 investment although it wouldn't hurt to get a better one. A meter will confirm a parasitic current draw.

A meter will give you an accurate voltage reading at various times.

As stated above, a good start would be to have the batteries load tested. However, you can still test them and arrive at a fairly accurate conclusion on the boat with a multimeter. Charge the batteries. Remove the battery leads. Give it a little time to let any surface charge from the alternator dissipate. Test each battery. With a new fully charged lead acid you will get 12.7 volts or with an aged battery you might get 12.5 to 12.6 volts. Then let the batteries sit for several days untouched and unattached. Measure the batteries again. Batteries will self-discharge a couple of percent a month but in the span of several days they should not discharge more than a tenth. If the discharge under these conditions without any load is more aggressive then the battery is bad.

You may find a dead cell right away. You may find only one bad battery is at fault.

Check the fluids.

Check for corrosion at all terminations, under the insulation sleeve, and at the engine block ground. Give all the cable terminals a strong tug to verify a good physical connection. Make sure all connections/nuts are tightened.

David