F36 SENTRY system

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Wed May 23, 2012 9:18 pm

Ok so heres the problem, ive had my boat for about a year now and so far electrically shes been sound however my bat charger has went on the fritz, it overcharged my port bat to the point where it started boiling and then blew a fuse, which is VERY weird as i haven't overloaded it nor changed any of the settings on it or did anything out of the ordinary to the setup at all, my question is A. What the hek do you guys think happened? B. what fusees do these chargers use as the one that i had is unmarked and it looks like an AGW however they dont make a 125v 30a fuse like what the input on the faceplate of the charger says and i just dont know what to replace it to see if it was the charger or jut the battery on its finall breath and C. if i were to replace the charger to something "newer" what would you guys recommend as a good substitute?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Wed May 23, 2012 9:55 pm

I suspect it may just be the battery that is done. You should check all connections as well. Bad connections will cause an overcharge condition. Don't know the charger you have but I suspect you meant 30 amp output not "input". The fuse may not be rated the same as charger output, depends on the charger. May be a 30 amp charger but 10 amp max output per bank on a 3 bank unit, many output configurations out there. Get a smart charger if you're replacing the current one. If it's the battery and you're going higher quality, I would move up to a new charger anyway to protect your investment, especially if you have an older ferroresonant charger (they hum). By their very nature, overcharging is usually the norm. There are several good smart chargers out there, here are a couple:

http://www.pmariner.com/productFeature. ... tNum=63140
http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/b ... e-2-2.aspx

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Thu May 24, 2012 5:28 am

Thanks for the advice on the chargers and i think im just going to upgrade the system to something newer, and yes it was a 20 AMP output that i meant to type however i would still like to get the fuse to make sure that it was in fact the battery and not the charger itself (pure curiosity

random question thou, i need a 3 bank 20 amp charger? since there are 3 standalone batteries onboard

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Thu May 24, 2012 6:57 am

Remember a bad charger can ruin a good battery and a bad battery can ruin a good charger .

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Thu May 24, 2012 10:33 pm

Vitaliy wrote:.... i need a 3 bank 20 amp charger? since there are 3 standalone batteries onboard

Really depends on what you have. Can't go by the number of batteries, you need to go by the number of battery banks. You may have two or more batteries in the same bank; depends on how they are hooked up. As for charger output, if you go with anything higher in a new unit, you will likely have to increase the size of the existing charging wires to handle the additional output. Personally, 20 amps though is not very much for 2 or 3 banks. Remember, with most units, the charger output rating is a total at any one time between all banks. I have a 40 amp 3 bank which is a faster charge when on the hook and generator is running the charger. Would take much longer with a 20 or 30 amp unit. But if charging is only done at the slip during the week, then 20 amps is fine. Having said that, the sky is not the limit here and you need to match the charger with the bank capacity, in other words, I don't recommend putting a 100 amp charger on a 24 series battery! The literature on a manufacturer's site should have recommendations for this.

+1 on Paul's statement.

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Mon May 28, 2012 2:54 pm

After much thought i decided to replace the whole system and run new wiring

purchased a Mastervolt Powercharger, 3 bank 40 amp and 3 new Diehard 675 CCA Bateries and started digging in.... several hours later everything was working just fine

the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s..... any ideas? havent started her yet

Torcan · Post by **Torcan** » Mon May 28, 2012 3:27 pm

Vitaliy wrote:After much thought i decided to replace the whole system and run new wiring

purchased a Mastervolt Powercharger, 3 bank 40 amp and 3 new Diehard 675 CCA Bateries and started digging in.... several hours later everything was working just fine

the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s..... any ideas? havent started her yet

Curious:
Why would you buy 3 car batteries for a boat instead of Marine Deep Cycle batteries?

alexander38 · Post by **alexander38** » Mon May 28, 2012 4:55 pm

Torcan wrote:
Vitaliy wrote:After much thought i decided to replace the whole system and run new wiring

purchased a Mastervolt Powercharger, 3 bank 40 amp and 3 new Diehard 675 CCA Bateries and started digging in.... several hours later everything was working just fine

the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s..... any ideas? havent started her yet
Curious:
Why would you buy 3 car batteries for a boat instead of Marine Deep Cycle batteries?

+1....it's a boat...most likely you're kill those things in a short time if you set on the hook dragging them up and down, plus not much of a backup for shore loss for pumps and reefer ..impo

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Mon May 28, 2012 5:11 pm

Torcan wrote:
Vitaliy wrote:After much thought i decided to replace the whole system and run new wiring

purchased a Mastervolt Powercharger, 3 bank 40 amp and 3 new Diehard 675 CCA Bateries and started digging in.... several hours later everything was working just fine

the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s..... any ideas? havent started her yet
Curious:
Why would you buy 3 car batteries for a boat instead of Marine Deep Cycle batteries?

My question is why would you buy Deep cycle barrtery to start a engine ?And he may have used marine cranking batterys not car .

Cranking batterys for the engines and a deep cycle for the house would be the best way to go in most cases

But how the boat is used is the bigest question on what is needed

Torcan · Post by **Torcan** » Mon May 28, 2012 6:22 pm

prowlersfish wrote:
Torcan wrote:
Vitaliy wrote:After much thought i decided to replace the whole system and run new wiring

purchased a Mastervolt Powercharger, 3 bank 40 amp and 3 new Diehard 675 CCA Bateries and started digging in.... several hours later everything was working just fine

the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s..... any ideas? havent started her yet
Curious:
Why would you buy 3 car batteries for a boat instead of Marine Deep Cycle batteries?
My question is why would you buy Deep cycle barrtery to start a engine ?And he may have used marine cranking batterys not car .

Cranking batterys for the engines and a deep cycle for the house would be the best way to go in most cases

But how the boat is used is the bigest question on what is needed

Good question, but he doesn't mention other batteries, so I assume they are just the Diehard 675 CCA which are Car Batteries, not Marine

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Mon May 28, 2012 9:51 pm

It could be a marine battery

http://milo.com/diehard-marine-deep-cyc ... size-29hm-

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Tue May 29, 2012 11:32 am

They are Depp Cycle Marine batteries that are made by Diehard blue top, sorry i didnt mention that earlier, the reason i got the deep cycle is because those are the ones that were in the boat the only difference is that they were interstate

they seem to work fine so far

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Tue May 29, 2012 8:02 pm

Vitaliy wrote:....the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s.....

Merc now recommends nothing less than 800 CCA 1000 MCA. Though this is due to the newer EFI packages and the low voltage intolerant electronics while cranking, it is now the standard by which I use for all gasoline packages new or old. 675 CCA is more along the lines of what I would use for a newer gasoline generator. My older Onan generator which does not have a starter also benefits tremendously from the 800 CCA battery.

And yes, deep cycle for house bank and Cranking/Starting battery for engine. "...They seem to work fine so far...."? Won't last as long as they could if they were used for the purpose for which they were designed.

Vitaliy · Post by **Vitaliy** » Tue May 29, 2012 8:17 pm

Big D wrote:
Vitaliy wrote:....the only issue i see is that 675 might not be enough to start the 454s.....
Merc now recommends nothing less than 800 CCA 1000 MCA. Though this is due to the newer EFI packages and the low voltage intolerant electronics while cranking, it is now the standard by which I use for all gasoline packages new or old. 675 CCA is more along the lines of what I would use for a newer gasoline generator. My older Onan generator which does not have a starter also benefits tremendously from the 800 CCA battery.

And yes, deep cycle for house bank and Cranking/Starting battery for engine. "...They seem to work fine so far...."? Won't last as long as they could if they were used for the purpose for which they were designed.

The boat has 3 batteries total and it was originally wired as follows, 1 battery per engine mounted right next to the block (and no place for anything else) and one near the generator, the generator battery obviously starts the genset, also operated everything on the helm such as the windshield wipers, back light, radio etc, the stbd aft has the fresh water pump, aft bilge pump and both the heads attached to it, and then the port aft operates everything else such as the lighting and what not... so if i would want to actually use the batteries for their intended use (originally) i would have to either A. install more mounts for batteries as there's no place to place them, or B, add more batteries in another place and rewire the boat..... so either way doesn't sound like it would work to me.

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Tue May 29, 2012 9:00 pm

Though this may seem impractical, the best configuration is a separate battery for each engine including the generator (crankers), and a separate house bank (deep cycle) for all else. May seem like a complex wiring job but it's not that bad with a little research, and is the most trouble free and reliable set up, and is in keeping with what the batteries were designed for.

Now some may say that the other option is to move into Start/Deep Cycle batteries but they are at best a compromise of characteristics between the two designs.