Leisure Battery Capacity. Advice.

[Tranona]

that pix displayed from a sellers website.
DC Battery Monitor Meter 100A 0-200V LCD Display for Cars RV Solar System Tools | eBay
The 100A shunt is fitted.
Boat is close by,will take a pix of the actual readings today.

That is essentially a voltmeter with a lot of irrelevant data added. Pretty useless for monitoring your batteries. You need something like this 12voltplanet.co.uk/victron-bmv-700-multi-function-battery-monitor-1-batterybank.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqsQMK4KBUvqIwtx4PbDeGGkG0gpv4G8L2Q_P97uVzRvWvN8xc6 to monitor your consumption and charging. As you can see it costs nearly 10 times as much which gives a clue as to the difference in functionality and usefulness. Other makes are available, all costing +/- £100. You can replace your current device easily with the Victron - the wiring is essentially the same.

 

[noelex]

That is essentially a voltmeter with a lot of irrelevant data added.

It is a coulomb counting battery monitor, but often these cheap meters are not very accurate with no allowance for battery efficiency and Peukert's law. The small 100A shunt is also a limitation on many boats.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Such is social media, better to accept. And trust no one So much misinformation gets put out & the usual suspects never ever back down when it's pointed out they are talk rubbish. Ai kicks web chatrooms into touch these days for getting reliable relevant instant information with sources to confirm off the web.

Where do you think the so called "AI" gets its answers from ? It trawls the internet for its information. Without forums etc there would be no information for it to gather. What it cannot gather is experience and real World knowledge.

In the past, you boringly popped up frequently telling us how SignalK was the answer to every question in the universe, now, it's AI.

 

[Refueler]

Forums have been around since man first gathered together .... I'm sure they'll survive this - as they have every other rival ...

 

[gaylord694]

Where do you think the so called "AI" gets its answers from ? It trawls the internet for its information. Without forums etc there would be no information for it to gather. What it cannot gather is experience and real World knowledge.

In the past, you boringly popped up frequently telling us how SignalK was the answer to every question in the universe, now, it's AI.

I think that's the kettle calling the pot black with regards to boring !

 

[fredrussell]

I think that's the kettle calling the pot black with regards to boring !

I think it’s fair to say that to the vast majority of the public we ‘forum sailors’ are all boring. I used to have a couple of mates that were train spotters. They referred to the non train spotting public as ‘normals’, but always in a slightly disparaging tone, which I thought was great. That said, Paul has always given masses of decent advice on this forum and I can guarantee you that none of the numerous recipients would have considered such help “boring”.

 

[Greg2]

I think it’s fair to say that to the vast majority of the public we ‘forum sailors’ are all boring. I used to have a couple of mates that were train spotters. They referred to the non train spotting public as ‘normals’, but always in a slightly disparaging tone, which I thought was great. That said, Paul has always given masses of decent advice on this forum and I can guarantee you that none of the numerous recipients would have considered such help “boring”.

I agree, Paul is very helpful and having met him once in person on a pontoon he was happy to chat and was as helpful as he is one here, despite that fact that he was working on a clients boat.

I read this thread with interest as battery woes are not uncommon and it is often helpful to see what people think when someone shares a problem. It is what forums are about, sharing knowledge and discussion about sometimes differing views, so I did wonder why gaylord694 and GHA decided to contribute nothing of value about the topic but instead to criticise those who were contributing and in GHA’s case to criticise forums and to advocate AI instead, which made me wonder why he/she is here. A sign of the times I guess and no wonder that many no longer frequent this site

Back on topic, I would agree with Tranona and suggest fitting a Victron BMV but would suggest the 712 as opposed to the 700. It costs a little bit more but has Bluetooth and can be used with an app on your phone, which is a whole lot easier than fiddling around with the small display and scrolling to find what you want. We fitted one last year and it does the job. The only note of caution is that the % charge function isn’t great so better to rely on the voltage figure for state of charge.
.

 

[oldgit]

Back again with my recently installed budget battery condition display.
Two pix.
Shore power on for 24 hours and presume leisure batteries fully charged.
Shore power turned off.
A few mins for everything to settle down then everything turned on.

approx 50 mins later

2 x 105Ah 3 year old leisure batteries .

 

[Parabordi]

Back again with my recently installed budget battery condition display.
Two pix.
Shore power on for 24 hours and presume leisure batteries fully charged.
Shore power turned off.
A few mins for everything to settle down then everything turned on.
View attachment 187424
approx 50 mins later
View attachment 187425
2 x 105Ah 3 year old leisure batteries .

Your batteries are shagged, time for some trojans

 

[Parabordi]

Your batteries are shagged, time for some trojans

or. if you are really up for a challenge....
LiTime 24V 200Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery, 200A BMS, 5120Wh

 

[PaulRainbow]

Back again with my recently installed budget battery condition display.
Two pix.
Shore power on for 24 hours and presume leisure batteries fully charged.
Shore power turned off.
A few mins for everything to settle down then everything turned on.
View attachment 187424
approx 50 mins later
View attachment 187425
2 x 105Ah 3 year old leisure batteries .

See post #35

 

[PaulRainbow]

Your batteries are shagged, time for some trojans

See post #53

 

[PaulRainbow]

or. if you are really up for a challenge....
LiTime 24V 200Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery, 200A BMS, 5120Wh

How many of the OPs 12v equipment do you think a 24v battery will destroy ?

Besides, ignoring it's a US website, the price is either a mistake or a scam.

 

[oldgit]

Thanks to all who contributed, come to the conclusion during 2024 that the two items most vital to be functioning properly on any boat in order for any skipper to sleep at night are .............
A. The Toilet.
B. The Batteries.
C. Everything else.

 

[Caladh]

Thanks to all who contributed, come to the conclusion during 2024 that the two items most vital to be functioning properly on any boat in order for any skipper to sleep at night are .............
A. The Toilet.
B. The Batteries.
C. Everything else.

…..don’t forget the……anchor……nooooooo

 

[[70521]]

Thanks to all who contributed, come to the conclusion during 2024 that the two items most vital to be functioning properly on any boat in order for any skipper to sleep at night are .............
A. The Toilet.
B. The Batteries.
C. Everything else.

Do you have one of these evil electric toilets?

 

[oldgit]

Do you have one of these evil electric toilets?

O Gosh Yes and when working a paragon of civilised delightfullness .................However when the vacuum bellows fails, a very quick way of finding out who your friends are and regretably what they have recently eaten.

 

[oldgit]

2 x new 150Ah wet batteries now installed................interesting to see the results.

 

[PaulRainbow]

2 x new 150Ah wet batteries now installed................interesting to see the results.

You didn't buy those Ebay batteries from post #1, did you ?

 

[oldgit]

You didn't buy those Ebay batteries from post #1, did you ?

Yes.
the results.
and an hour later with everything on.