Is there anyway to tell if a onboard charger has gone bad? My shows it has charged my battery. Took my batteries to auto zone and they show 75% charged. All the light are green and showed charged. They are 5 years old at least so I might need to by some new ones.
Call the manufacter of the charger u have, tech guys can tell u how to check it.
You will need a meter to do so.
with a voltage meter check you batteries immediately after charging them with green light...they should measure 12.6 volts or higher....if not your charger is not working properly, or check your charger manual for what voltage should give a green light charged ..... if they measure that high let them set about one hour and recheck the voltage if it has dropped significantly to 12.O volts or lower then it is your batteries...not your charger...
If they're 5 years old they probably are worn out. Charging a battery has been likened to adding a marble to a jar of water each time it's charged. Soon the jar is full of marbles with little room for water (charge). Then it reads full volts until you load it.
Probably your batteries and not the charger.
BillNorman is correct. I asked a DELCO Voyager rep at an EXPO how long their batteries are good for and I recall he said 150 charges or thereabouts. After 3 years, I thinking new batteries.
Usually when a charger tells you the battery is fully charged, but the battery voltage is 12.4 or less, the battery is sulfated. There are methods to partially de-sulfate the battery, but if the battery is 5 years old I'd just bin it and replace it with a new one.
Last edited by RKW; 08-13-2018 at 11:30 AM.
Yes, you can measure the charger's output voltage during the various stages if you know what it should be. I was able to do that with one of mine, and determine that the charger was not working properly. 5 years for batteries, they're probably toast though.Originally Posted by rude150
2019 BCB Classic
Merc V8 200 4S
Check the positive and negative charger leads at the battery. Two days ago I found two of my + leads connected to the battery, but the terminal ends were actually broken under the heat shrink and you couldn't tell just by looking. This caused the 2 batteries not to receive any charge. I went ahead and cut/crimped new terminal leads on all battery charger leads just be sure.
The batteries are 7 months old and the Chargers are 5 years old at least. I took the batteries to Autozone and did a load test on them. Once the read bad and once they read good on a load test. Took them to another another shop and the batteries tested good. Tried to return them at Walmart before all the testing and they hooked them up to a volt meter and they read 12.7 volts so they said they were good and would not exchange them.
Wait, I thought the batteries were 5 years old? That changes things....
Is it all of the batteries, or just one? In my experience, chargers rarely go bad all at once (though I did have a lightning strike get one once...). Usually it's one bank at a time and you can isolate by moving leads between batteries. And is it more than one charger, or just 1? If more than one, there's something really screwy going on.
The advice to stick a voltmeter on the batteries while plugged in will also tell you whether the charger is working or not. Voltage should read above 13 volts if the charger is in fact charging them, no matter what stage it's in.
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In my experience, two things:
1) Percentage readings from any device is useless. Voltmeter measurements are what counts, done with a decent meter, and having an understanding of what the readings should be at the appropriate time.
2) Load testing is much more valid for a crank battery, not a deep cycle.
2019 BCB Classic
Merc V8 200 4S
If you have a manual charger hook it up to each battery and see what reading it gives you while charging. When the charger reads that the battery is fully charged check the voltage on the battery. Wait a couple of hours then check the battery when it is static.
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