Battery and charger problems in my Ice Castle

[BLACKJACK]

When I bought my IC I put two of the biggest batteries (group 31) that would fit in the rear storage compartment and a Minnkota MK315D 3 bank/15 amp/5 amp per bank charger alongside, the charger is hooked up to the two batteries (and a smaller third spare battery) all the time, when I get home from fishing, I plug it, easy duty, they're charged the next time I go out.

One battery is hooked up the the furnace and the other battery is hooked up to the 12 volt lights.

My problems:

1) One battery is going bad, the charger if blinking at me, manual says low voltage. Sure enough, put a voltage tester on it, under load it goes way down. How long should a battery last? Date says I bought them 12/2011. Will the battery place stand behind it, at least give me partial credit? Or am i SOL?

2) When charging, it takes a couple of days for all the lights on the charger to turn green. A couple days!! Which is fine now, I only do one day/night trips at this point, never have run out of juice, but someday I'd like to start doing two night trips. My thought was that I'd run a generator -- I have a Yamaha EF2000 -- for 6-7 hours during the day, which would get me thru the second night. I'd rather not have to run a generator all the time. My concern if it takes two days plugged into a land line, 6-7 hours on a generator is not going to be enough. Would a bigger charger help?? Any recommendations? Any other ideas??

Thanks!!

[Dozer]

I bet your SOL on the battery warranty. Even if they give you something it will be pro rated and your batteries are 4 years old so they wont give you much. I think you need a bigger charger 5amps per bank isnt much, I would bet you drawing pretty close to that when your using the house.

[aanderud]

Marine batteries generally come with a 1 year warranty, so you're not going to get help from the battery store or manufacturer on that. Heck, even a car starting battery these days has at most a 36 month replacement warranty, and usually only 18 to 24 months.... after which they do some prorated thing and would give you like between 20% and 50% of the value. The reason marine and deep cycle batteries come with such a low warranty is that they're usually neglected half the year when the boat is in storage. I keep my batteries in the basement during the off season hooked to a battery tender, and they seem to do well, but still they will need to be replaced within 5 years usually.

Your 2 days to a full charge sounds a bit excessive, but probably not TOO far off if you're coming back with a fully drained battery. Your batteries might have upwards of 120 to 150 amp hours of capacity (you said you bought the biggest you could get). With a 5 amp charger, a 100 amp hour battery would take 20 hours to charge, and a 150 amp hour battery would be 30 hours. A 10 or even 20 amp charger would be more ideal for such a large battery, as it'll charge 2x or 4x as fast.

[B-man715]

These guys are spot on.

If the battery is bad, you have a core to bring in.

Your charger is more or less a glorified battery maintainer.

I only have one battery to run the lights and furnace, hooked to a 15 amp Schumacher automatic charger (the old school metal kind, but it is new, $40 on sale).

I run the genny a few hours a day to top the battery off. When I see the 12 volt lights surge a little bit I know the battery is charged and it's time to kill the generator for the day.

[BLACKJACK]

I bet your SOL on the battery warranty. Even if they give you something it will be pro rated and your batteries are 4 years old so they wont give you much. I think you need a bigger charger 5amps per bank isnt much, I would bet you drawing pretty close to that when your using the house.

You guys were right, took the battery back to the battery place, he confirmed that it was bad, then told me to go pound sand, the warranty is only good one year.

I was hoping it would be like tires, you buy a 60,000 mile tire and when you have to replace at 45,000 they pro-rate it. Told the guy that I was going elsewhere to buy the new battery. For now, I'll just use the deep cycle out of my boat. Probably what I should have been doing before, swapping it back and forth.

[BLACKJACK]

but still they will need to be replaced within 5 years usually.

I always figure when a battery hits 5 years its about due for replacement, thats why I was disapointed with a 3 year life span.

[BLACKJACK]

With a 5 amp charger, a 100 amp hour battery would take 20 hours to charge, and a 150 amp hour battery would be 30 hours. A 10 or even 20 amp charger would be more ideal for such a large battery, as it'll charge 2x or 4x as fast.

The Minnkota site says 3-5 hours for a 15 amp bank, 4-6 hours for a 10 amp bank, 10-12 hours for a 5 amp bank.

[BLACKJACK]

Your charger is more or less a glorified battery maintainer.

[B-man715]

BlackJack, if your other battery is good and fully charged, there is no reason it shouldn't run your furnace overnight and the whole next day. Obviously turn off any 12 volt lights when not necessary, hole lights are battery killers (especially if you have 5-7 of them on)

For me, I find the best time to charge is once a day in the evening. I can run every light in the shack (hole lights, 12 volt overheads, and 120v), radio and the furnace while topping off the battery. I also have a second battery to run the camera, tv's and dvd player that is charged with a new style "smart charger" (which I really don't care for, because I have to push buttons on it every time I power it up) (battery type/charge rate). The only reason this is seperate with a different charger is because I added into a pre-finished shack. It is up in the front, vs the main battery in the back. I didn't want to run wires all over the outside of the cedar.

Before I hit the sack I kill the generator and lock the tailgate/tonneau. Then I can be rest assured knowing some jack wagon won't steal my generator again

[BLACKJACK]

BlackJack, if your other battery is good and fully charged, there is no reason it shouldn't run your furnace overnight and the whole next day. Obviously turn off any 12 volt lights when not necessary, hole lights are battery killers (especially if you have 5-7 of them on)

For me, I find the best time to charge is once a day in the evening. I can run every light in the shack (hole lights, 12 volt overheads, and 120v), radio and the furnace while topping off the battery. I also have a second battery to run the camera, tv's and dvd player that is charged with a new style "smart charger" (which I really don't care for, because I have to push buttons on it every time I power it up) (battery type/charge rate). The only reason this is seperate with a different charger is because I added into a pre-finished shack. It is up in the front, vs the main battery in the back. I didn't want to run wires all over the outside of the cedar.

Before I hit the sack I kill the generator and lock the tailgate/tonneau. Then I can be rest assured knowing some jack wagon won't steal my generator again

So you DO have a second battery to run some of the other stuff!!

What kind of charger is on that second battery?? Been reading up on the new 'precision' chargers but I'd like to avoid the resetting of it every time you plug it in. My current MK315 is just plug and go, I like that.

Thanks for the info. Looking at the price of new bigger chargers, I may go your route and just bring my 10 amp (older) Shumacher charger from home when I start running the generator.

[aanderud]

With a 5 amp charger, a 100 amp hour battery would take 20 hours to charge

[BLACKJACK]

Not arguing with you aanderrud, just trying to sort thru all the info I can find on the net.

I'm still bummed about having to buy a new, higher capacity EXPENSIVE charger to duplicate the easy plug in system I have but until then the portable 10 amp will work.

[B-man715]

Blackjack, the "smart charger" on my tv battery is a Schumacher 3/15 amp as well (smaller, lighter, plastic, and blue in color), but as mentioned I don't like it because I need to dial it in every time I start the generator. To me this makes it a DUMB charger

I much prefer the old school automatic metal charger on the other battery. As mentioned, when I'm pulling a load and the battery is charged, the 15 amps kicks on and off making the 12 volt lights surge a little bit. Then I know I can kill the genny without having to guess or look at a gauge etc.

If I ever built a shack, I would have two seperate batteries and all of my wiring in the same spot with a two bank boat charger (20-30 amp). With one battery dedicated for the furnace, and the other for everything else. I would also run gauges to an easily visible spot so the generator wouldn't be running unnecessarily.

[BLACKJACK]

If I ever built a shack, I would have two seperate batteries and all of my wiring in the same spot with a two bank boat charger (20-30 amp). With one battery dedicated for the furnace, and the other for everything else.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Will one battery run your furnace all night without having to get up and charge it?? Thats kind of why I went two batteries, I wanted to make sure the furnace would work at all times.

I have a Schumacher charger that I could use but thought the on-board charger would be the way to go, I'm finding out that I didn't buy a big enough one. The new one from Minnkota that they recommend (MK345PC), a 3 bank 15 amp each bank charger, sells for $449!!! Yikes!!

I was able to find that charger for right around $200. It took some digging, but there are deals to be had.

[gunner55]

There's 1 brand,Dual Pro(?), of on board charger that can be rebuilt. I would think they would be less $.

[icehole10]

When I bought my IC I put two of the biggest batteries (group 31) that would fit in the rear storage compartment,Thanks!!

Just curious if they were they deep cycle batteries, or a severe service type battery? The reason I ask this is if they are stored in the rear compartment going down the road, they are located in the roughest riding, bounciest part of the house, and that can be very hard on your regular truck type battery. Also if they were stamped 2011, you definitely got your money out of them.

[BLACKJACK]

Just curious if they were they deep cycle batteries, or a severe service type battery?

They were deep cycle.

[BLACKJACK]

I was able to find that charger for right around $200. It took some digging, but there are deals to be had.

C'mon lipripper, you can't throw that out there without giving me a hint where to go look!!! Was that a new or rebuilt price??

[BLACKJACK]

One thing I'm concerned about, and B-man mentioned it in his post, I don't want to have to select battery type everytime I plug in the charger, can anyone tell me if thats a 'one time only' selection or a everytime selection??

---------------

MK 345 PC Features:

Product # 1823451

On-board Battery Charger

45 Amps Total Output

Convenient On-board Mounting

Automatic Temperature Compensation

High Frequency Digital Design

Automatic Equalization Technology

-Cleans & Conditions Batteries w/ Each Charge Cycle

Deep Equalization Mode

-User Selectable Deep Cleansing Equalization

Low-line Voltage Compensation

Maintenance Mode Time-out

Arc protected

User Selectable Battery Type by Bank

-Gel, Flooded, AGM/HP AGM, Full Equalize

LED Indicators

-Indicates % Charged by Bank

-Connection/Charge

-Status/Power

-Status/Battery Type

[delcecchi]

I would think it is a switch on the charger for each bank that selects.

Went to minnkota web site, downloaded the fine manual... I read the fine manual, well part of it anyway.

Quote:

Selecting Battery Type:

The charger can be manually switched between 4 different modes; Gel Cell, Flooded Lead-Acid, AGM/High Performance AGM, and Equalize. In order to optimize the performance of your batteries or to prevent damage, you will need to properly set each charger bank for the correct battery type (each bank can be independently set). The factory default setting is Flooded Lead-Acid.

To set the battery type:

1) Plug the charger AC cord into an AC outlet.

2) During power up all LEDs will turn on, then the GREEN power LED and 1 YELLOW LED will temporarily remain on. This YELLOW LED will indicate the current battery type.

3) To change battery type press and hold the Battery Selection button until the YELLOW LED indicates the desired battery type, then release the button. The battery type will be saved even if the AC cord or DC output cords are disconnected.

[BLACKJACK]

Thanks Del!!! I looked at their site but didn't think to look at the actual manual. From the description it looks like once you set the battery type, it will stay, which is what I want.

Going to run a test the next time I use my IC overnight, going to time how long it actually takes to recharge when plugged into land power, then I'll have a better idea how long it would take hooked to a generator. Maybe a 5-6 hour run will give me enough charge to go a second night.

Also looking at some of the prices for the older model MK 345D, it would give me the 15 amp charge per bank and it may be cheaper then the current model.

Lip ripper, still looking for a hint!!

Thanks for the advice guys!!

[delcecchi]

6 hours at 15 amps is 90 amp hours, which is 3/4 of a charge or more on the deep cycles I have looked at. You wouldn't get the fancy parts of the cycle like "equalization" etc shown, but you would have juice.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Thanks Del!!! I looked at their site but didn't think to look at the actual manual. From the description it looks like once you set the battery type, it will stay, which is what I want.

Going to run a test the next time I use my IC overnight, going to time how long it actually takes to recharge when plugged into land power, then I'll have a better idea how long it would take hooked to a generator. Maybe a 5-6 hour run will give me enough charge to go a second night.

Also looking at some of the prices for the older model MK 345D, it would give me the 15 amp charge per bank and it may be cheaper then the current model.

Lip ripper, still looking for a hint!!

Thanks for the advice guys!!

Sorry! Forgot about this post.

Check out the auction site, or do Goggle searches for the exact model you are looking for.