Hide Transcript
Transcript is auto-generated.
hi everyone jeff cote here with pacific yacht systems we've got a question from a fellow voter so this boater asks i've got six car six golf cart batteries that are about 232 amp hours each a bank of four that were installed in september 2010 and another two that were installed in january 2012. they're all hooked up in one bank which is important so it's actually one battery bank just in two different places the four that are together seem fine but the two newest batteries that are closest to the freedom inverter charger are actually heating up and losing water is it possible that they were wired incorrectly i've noticed that the last year the two batteries seems to get hotter that's a really good question so the first thing we got to remember is that when we're actually adding batteries and i know this is a challenge on power boats and sailboats the battery bank should be in one place that's the first thing if they're not in one place you're going to make your life a little bit more complicated i know it's easier said than done but that's one thing to consider second mismatching batteries of different ages even though they're the same type in one bank is guaranteed to give you problems okay uh you just it's simply it'd be a good analogy would be changing one tire on your car but leaving the three other ones uh older tires you can't do that i know it's a pain but what's happening in your case is that the new batteries are basically not only working hard but they're also picking up the slack from the four older batteries so in effect the two new batteries are working harder and the other reason here and that's key is that they're the closest to the inverter charger and depending on how your battery bank is wired where it should be evenly distributed where the negatives at one end and the positive at the other end it's very possible that your inverter charger is actually connected directly to those two new batteries and they're effectively working harder than the four other ones that are effectively supporting the two new ones so all in all not good news but here are the key takeaways one is have your battery bank in one place second when you change batteries unfortunately you got to change them all have them all be the same age and the same location and third you want to have your loads the positive at one end and the negative at the other end what that does is it allows for even charge and discharge of your battery banks so in a nutshell that's your answer thanks for asking your question anybody have more questions post them down below and we're doing this as regularly as we can thank you