Saturday 9th November 2019



Since arriving in Middlewich, we have had to be running the engine far too frequently to charge the batteries. A new battery bank was fitted in September of last year. Although the new bank gives significantly greater capacity, the batteries are unsealed and so require maintenance. They are a neat fit in the available space and to be checked, they have to be disconnected and removed. A heavy and awkward job and so one that gets put off and done far too infrequently.

However, this morning the batteries were removed and individually, checked and tested. One of the connecting cables between batteries was found broken as was one of the connecting clamps, meaning that we were actually running on a single battery rather than five.  

All the batteries were showing 12.2V and none of the cells had to be topped up. The hydrometer seems to be reading incorrectly. When checked previously the SG of the batteries show on the border between white and red, so the hydrometer is probably incorrectly calibrated. Cheap Chinese shit most likely. Worryingly though, the SG of the only battery that was supplying the boat was well into the red and will have to be rechecked when all is fully charged.

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