Battery Charger Question

[Irish Bill]

I am pretty sure I need a new charger as I had issues with it over the weekend.
I have 1995 31ft Larson cruiser, with 2 batteries (12v system) plus a generator battery. After leaving the boat overnight not connected to shore power but battery switch on "ALL", when I came back in the morning the batteries were dead, I was not surprised as I have 2 fridges running, usually I just fire up generator for 15 mins and I am good to go however this time even after an hour I had nothing. I ended up jumping the batteries to get engines started. I ran boat for about 10minutes, shut off engines and restarted no problem.
If I do require a new battery charger can anyone suggest a good one, I looked on Amazon, they have a ton of them, so I really need some guidance, they run from about $100 for a 3 bank charger.

Thank you in advance

 

[NYBo]

Welcome to iboats!:welcome:

You need to do a little diagnostic work, starting with the batteries. They can stand only so many deep discharges before they give up the ghost, and 1 hour on the charger/generator probably won't be enough charge to start the engines even if the batteries haven't been damaged. You should also examine your way of running your electrical system. No shore power available? Do you really need to run the refrigerators all night?

 

[Irish Bill]

Batteries are only 1 1/2 years old, plus when I did get engines running they charged just fine off motors, so I don't think its the batteries, they never usually get totally discharged, I left my boat over night at a dock that does not have shore power, usually plugged into shore power and charger on. The charger is the factory one, been in the boat 21 years, so I'm not surprised its failing

 

[bruceb58]

Don't charge in the ALL position. If you have one bad battery, it will bring them all down. Buy a charger that has a separate output for each battery. You can buy a 3 bank charger to do this.

New chargers will be way better than the one you are replacing. They are pretty much all 3 stage smart chargers and will help your batteries last longer than with the older dumb chargers.

I have the 2 bank version of this one
http://www.amazon.com/Dual-Pro-Bank-...s=dual+pro+ps3
It is on the pricier side but it is also an approved charger for Odyssey AGM batteries. It is also 15A/bank

If you want to pay a lot less, this one only puts out 5A/bank.
http://www.amazon.com/Guest-2613A-Ba...s=guest+3+bank

 

[Ike-110722]

Whatever charger you buy make sure it is made for marine use and is ignition protected. Read the labels. It should be UL Marine rated and have a label thats says meets 33 CFR 183.......

 

[bluecollerboater]

Are you sure there is something wrong with your battery charger? You stated that you stayed at a dock with no shore power overnight with your refers running. If you had the refers running but we're not hooked up to shore power your battery chargers were off. So your batteries got depleted but the charger which is run off of 110v(shore power) was not on. I agree new smart chargers are probably a lot better than what you currently have. But if the old charger did not have power to it there is no way it could work. I suggest next time you stay overnight at a dock with no shore power you either shut everything down or leave the generator running overnight.