Shore Power Battery Charging

[Sam Ward]

We have a 2004 BAV 32 and owner's manual doesn't give much detail on using shore power to charge batteries, which don't seem to be taking on a charge.  With batteries set to on position - I've plugged in shore power, flipped main breaker up and pushed inverter button and can hear it clicking away under port berth but still no charge after two days.  I went back yesterday and reset breaker on shore power source just as a precaution, but want to make sure there isn't something else I need to do here.  2015 post on this subject suggests that I may need to switch on another one of these (unlabeled!) breakers or look at replacing fuse in the inverter.  I have just a few more days at the slip before I need to head out and want to make sure I'm not missing something else.  Can anyone tell me if there's something else I'm missing here?

[Ziffius]

No idea about this arrangement but maybe the inverter should be off to allow the charger side of it to work when on shore power. My Bav only has a mains charger and that needs  the first cb  to be engaged - the others control the immersion heater and sockets. I'm sure someone with a similar boat/electrics to you will answer soon though.
As soon as the charger starts working you should see the battery voltage go up to about 14

[Sen Mora]

I have B41(2003) a bit different set-up, but I believe you should not put invertor on when plugged into shore power. Invertor is for producing 120V from batteries, when on the shore power it is iisolated to avoid a fight between the two 120 ac powers (they are non-compatible generated differently).
You can check that shore power is getting in by flipping the main (double) breaker up and also the 3 right breakers up then you plug any appliance into any of your wall socket to see if you have power.
If yes you push "charge" on xantrex panel, if still no charging, you may have an issue with the charger.
You can check if invertor works by flipping down the main ac breaker, leaving the other breakers on, pushing the "invert" on xantrex panel. You should hear the humming and the power should be in your wall sockets.
Hope this helps a bit.
Regards

[Sam Ward]

Thanks for the help.  I turned off inverter, confirmed existence of AC shore power and in the process of checking outlets and switching on additional breakers - the charger started up.  This was a big relief.  I still need to confirm battery settings from previous owner, but now headed in the right direction.  Couple remaining questions if anyone has a moment...

Starter battery 2 seemed to charge up at a good rate, but at least when I left the boat, house battery 1 was still at about 12 o'clock - barely in the green zone.  Does the starter battery get priority and are the designed to charge in sequence or is it because the house battery is so much larger and has further to go?  Do I need to worry about leaving boat for a few days while charging?

Also wondering if anyone can tell me more about the switches underneath battery gauge / volt bank. The switch just below gauge (see attached) seems to be just a check on current charge with battery 1 on left and battery 2 on right, but still not sure about usage of the switch below that.  Does the second / lower check switch indicate progress / shortfall relative to each batteries charging capacity?  BAV icons are a mystery to me.

[Noelio Abrunhosa]

Hi Sam
on mine the second buttons check the water level in the tank

regards

Abby

[Sen Mora]

Hi,
The second switch is surely to indicate the water level in the 2 tanks (I presume you have one forward and one back). Just note that the levels indicated are not exact, on mine once they show 1/2 they are not that far from empty.
You should try to get a manuals for your Xantrex control panel and the invertor/charger to help. Mine was bigger inverter and the panel has digital readouts. It looks that your charger has a primary charging to the house batteries and secondary (echo) to the starting battery. It is normal that starting battery will get high pretty quickly. The house batteries take time to charge, also it depends how old and how big and how healthy are they. Your Xantrex panel should show you the voltage of charging which will be probably in 13.5V range during heavy charging and around 14.2V once the batteries are pretty much charged (depends on settings). An other indication is when you stop charging and wait a while and than observe the voltage. If your batteries are flooded you can test their state of charge by electrolyte tester.
Best regards.

[Sam Ward]

This response was very helpful!  What I discovered is that the charger is only charging the house battery number two but not the starter battery number one.  What was suggested to me was to put a jumper cable from battery positive terminal on battery one to charge the starter battery - or to buy an automatic charging relay.  Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm very surprised to hear that the starter battery is not being charged up.

[Symphony]

Usually a charger is multi output - that is can charge 2 or 3 banks independently. As your start is a separate bank it must have its own output from the charger. It could be your charger has only one output and it makes sense to connect it to the house bank as this is the one that normally needs charging. A start battery is almost always fully charged so not essential to have shorepower charging. If you do think you would need it, either get a multi output charger or have a separate low output charger - say 6 or 8 amps dedicated to the start bank.

[Sen Mora]

Hi again,
your battery charger should be able to charge both banks. Looking on your photo of the invertor/charger I can see on the description tag that you have main charging 50 Amp capacity (house batteries) but you also have "echo" charging (for starting battery). It would be surprising if it would not be used, unless it got some how disconected. Again the manual would be most helpful.
 Not exactly sure how you have determined that the starting battery is not charging. You can also check by messuring voltage by ampmeter on the battery terminals (while charger is on), if you mesure more than 12.8V it is being charged.

[Sam Ward]

Thank you all for your replies and guidance on this issue.  As a new owner I have to say that this forum has been incredibly helpful.  I'm surprised to hear that second meter is for water tank, because we have just one tank (under port side stern berth) and the rocker switch goes both ways.  I do have the manual for the Xantrex Freedom charger / inverter and have been going over that.  It may very well support two banks through use of the echo charging, but it doesn't look like previous owner ran the wiring or did the set-up needed to charge starter battery.  He also installed the Xantrex facing port so harder to see controls on box (probably so cooling fan would vent into cabin).  I may tackle additional wiring and set-up next year as I'm running out of dock time just now.  In the meantime I've tested the starter battery which registered "good / recharge" and then used jumper cables to charge it from house battery which is still on shore power.  I may rig an automatic charging relay so that I can recharge more easily from house battery.  I'm also feeling more comfortable in the knowledge that starter battery should be in good shape with continued use of the engine.  Thanks again for your replies...

[Moodymike]

I thought that the rocker second position was for the holding tank.

[Fenders]

Sam

I also have a 2004 Bav32.
Regarding the meter for the water tank(s), I only have one tank which as you say is underneath the aft cabin. The meter has a 2 way switch beneath the battery switch. This I believe is because the same panel may be used on a variety of boats some with 2 tanks. So by pushing the switch to the left has no reading, but pushing to the right will show the water level in the aft tank.

Regarding your electrics panels, your left hand panel is the same as mine, however the shore power panel is different and I don't have the Xantrex panel.
My shore power panel has only 2 circuit breakers.

I have 2 batteries. One starter and one domestic. Next to my starter battery I have a Sterling smart charger.

Fenders

[Lyra]

I do not really know the setup on these models/years, however on my boat the charger charges only the house battery and not the starter battery.
The starter battery does not really need to be connected to the charger. Same as in a car -  the battery gets discharged very briefly when you start the engine and the alternator charges it back while motoring. As long as the starter battery is isolated from the house circuitry this is good enough. Only case when it might be discharged is if the boat is left unattended for a very long time (self discharge) - my experience is that even after 2 months there is no problem with starting the engine (and my starter battery is about 7 years old).
Bottom line - the shoreline charger can be connected to the house batteries only. No need for elaborate circuits to have it serve the starter battery as well. If it gets to the point that the starter battery fails just use jumper wire from the house battery.

[Symphony]

See post #7. Most decent battery chargers have two or even three programmable outputs so not difficult to connect one to the start battery if you need to. Agree it is of less value than the house bank, but if you have the facility why not use it as there is no downside.