batteries totally flat in 3 weeks!

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
whether EDTA is different to EDTA+

[/ QUOTE ] EDTA is available as the free acid, the disodium salt, the tetrasodium salt and a few other salts as well. It is the disodium salt that is used as an analytical reagent as its composition is constant enough for it to be weighed out as a standard after drying at 80C. It is available as an AR grade. The tetrasodium salt is what is supplied as EDTA+ as far as I can see. It is more soluble than the disodium salt I think. That's important for battery treatment as one needs to be able to dissolve it in the minimum possible volume of distilled water to add to the battery.

 

[jimbaerselman]

My post at megapulse thread is relevant here. Gives the conservative point of view.

Still no relevant response form battery manufacturers ref EDTA, apart from Bill Darden's standard reference quoted above.

 

[ChasB]

Got to the root of it. Like Richard's boat the bilge pumps are connected directly to the batteries, so it runs even if the batteries are turned off. A sensible thing. Two pumps - each permanently wired to a battery. Fortunately with my boat there is rarely any water down there.

I have a severe problem with water leakage through a cracked window frame (there is another thread here about that). The window is directly below where rain water drains off the flybridge. In a heavy storm the flow is such that it is virtually under water. It seems there was one such storm a week or two ago. Last night I took the boat apart a bit and at least a couple of gallons of wet stuff have at some point got in. Now the way the bilge pumps are set up is less than perfect. The float switches will trigger at a level that is slightly lower than the level the pump can efficiently remove the water. The upshot is that if this area floods the pump will remove water down to a certain level and then keep running even thought it can't remove any more. In the proocess it will run the battery down. I believe this is what's happened.

Now, you folks might recall I've had problems starting up the two large Volvo Penta petrol engines. In theory the situation should now be worse. And that is the case with the older battery - it died almost instantly. However the other battery fired up both engines on the first go! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Can it be that running that battery down completely has given it fresh life? Or is something else happening? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Mrnotming]

simple innit, nothing wired the wrong side of the master switches!I've had the Navtex problem, and the PC/Hi Fi problem and now everything is off at the little red handles!Cannot leave boat attached to the shore power as it has an alloy saildrive and prop, and I did a swiss cheese job on the prop one year, due to another boat having stray current.Fortunately the saildrive leg was not affected and the anode just smiled away whilst the propellor made an exit like the cheshire cat! so now it is either solar panels or nothing (nothing presently as the amount of sun even in Malta is paltry this time of year.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
the anode just smiled away whilst the propellor made an exit like the cheshire cat

[/ QUOTE ] That should not happen! Perhaps the anode was not effectively bonded to the prop.

A galvanic isolator should prevent stray currents via the shore power connection causing problems but stray alternating currents can cause problems as well. capacitators can be fitted to GIs to overcome this

See HERE, HERE & HERE

Disconnecting the shore power is the safest option though.