Blue Sea dual battery troubleshooting

[imhuntsm]

I recently bought a 2003 Stingray 230lx. The boat has the blue sea dual circuit switch connected to two batteries. Obviously one battery is for the starter, and the second battery is connected to a circuit that goes to two speaker amplifiers and a power inverter. I am having trouble with the power of the secondary circuit. If I turn the switch to on, the amps don’t have enough power and no sound works. If I move it over to “combine batteries” the speakers work. The secondary battery is reading 12volts. Everything else in the boat works totally fine. Thoughts?

 

[tpenfield]

My thoughts are 1 dead battery.

Are the batteries kept on a maintenance charger?

 

[imhuntsm]

Hmm, you may be right. They are not kept on a maintenance charger. I just checked the primary battery and it was only reading 1.8 volts. Interestingly, it jumped up to 5 or so when I turned the switch on, and then up to 12 when I switched to “combine.” These were all measured at the battery terminals. I find it curious that the boat would start with a bad primary battery

 

[airshot]

Measured at the terminals with a good guage...a full battery is 12.6 volts or above !! Below 12 volts is considered dead ! Below 11 volts is trash time, battery wont recover and needs replaced !!

 

[Lou C]

Something isn't right. It seems like both batteries aren't being charged when you run the boat, which that set up should do automatically. That's supposed to be the whole point of that system, that you don't have to alternate between 2 batteries like you do with the simple 1, 2, Both and Off switch.
Aha, just saw that extra Perko switch. Why is it there? With the Blue Seas add a battery system and voltage sensing relay, the charging of both batteries should be all automatic. Someone was in there doing some creative wiring it seems.

Upgrading Battery Switching and Charge Management with the ADD A BATTERY Dual Circuit System - Blue Sea Systems

Engineering high quality marine electrical components for safety, reliability and performance

www.bluesea.com

this explains the difference between a simple on-off switch, a 1, 2, 1+2 and off switch, and the add a battery system.

 

[imhuntsm]

The extra perko switch goes to the two audio amplifiers. I will replace the one questionable battery and I suspect that may fix the issue. But we will see

 

[imhuntsm]

New battery, problem solved. Love when it’s the easiest solution, hate when it seems so obvious I overlook it at first

 

[airshot]

New battery, problem solved. Love when it’s the easiest solution, hate when it seems so obvious I overlook it at first

We have all been there and done that !!