Draining battery on a new boat

Raptor Rick

Cadet
Joined
Oct 13, 2004
Messages
6
My new Alumacraft Voyager has a main battery which also runs everything but the trolling motor. Poor design in my opinion. Two deep cycle batteries just run the trolling motor. When the boat sits for a couple weeks the main battery goes flat even though everything is turned off. The dealer said it could be the radio because it can still draw current even though it is off. That sounds fishy to me... Any ideas?
 

sam am I

Commander
Joined
Jun 26, 2013
Messages
2,169
"Could be" if its got an issue, but normally, no.

Say the radio's memory circuit draws 0.001 Amps (1 milliamp) and you have a fresh 100 Amp Hr. Battery then,

100 Amp Hr/0.001 Amp = 100000 Hrs., ("Amp" cancel)

100000 Hrs/ 24 Hrs/Day = 4166.667 Days, ("Hrs" cancel)

4166.667 Days / 365 Days/Yr = 11.4 Yrs. ("Days" cancel)

You say "everything turned off, you have a "main battery switch" then?

And there are no other wires connected to that battery before the main battery switch? If no wires before a main switch, might be a bad battery.

If perhaps there is a wire or two directly tied to the battery ( I have two), then maybe you have something like a auto bilge float wire w cracked insulation/butt splice connector/s laying in some conductive'ish bilge muck to a grounded alum hull?

At any rate, this "stray" current draw sounds low enough that it can be monitored by a inline current meter(or a clamp type if ya got one) sounds thou, insert the meter at the battery post, start disconnecting things/pulling fuses till the current goes to zero'ish.

And, don't forget to look backwards too, loads are one thing but.........Something in the charging circuit might be heading toward ground drawing current and can become a load as well.
 
Last edited:

bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,476
Some radios can have 100mA drain in standby mode. There are usually two wires, a yellow and a red. The red has to be on a switch.

Take off one of the battery leads and put a multimeter in between it and the battery. Then take a fuse out of your fuse panel one at a time to identify what is drawing current. If none of the fused circuits are causing the draw, disconnect the leads from the alternator.
 
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