Battery Charger Red Light Never Goes Out

[tony arnold]

This set up worked for three years and the charger always went to green light until this month.
two bank, 24 volt trolling batteries, 8 amp Guest charger, three years old. Batteries are still connected for 24 volt operation, but each shows 12.84 volts whether the charger is on or off. The red charging light stays on for days. I suspect the charger is toast, but is there a good way to test the charger before I replace it? Thanks....tony

Update: I removed the jumper cable between the two batteries. Both show 12.80 volts with the charger turned on or off. Thanks

 

[cq]

Try this:
http://www.progressivedyn.com/troubleshooting_bat_chrg.html
Make sure battery connections are clean and correct water level.

 

[buzzbuster]

Thanks cq for the site info. This may help others and myself in the future. Hope it helps you Tony with your question.

 

[tony arnold]

Thanks for all the help. The Guest charger is factory sealed and it doesn't look like I can get into it without causing lots of damage. I disconnected the leads from the batteries and I'm getting 4.5 volts going to each battery. I think I'll order a new charger. Three years for a charger that is stored in the garage seems a bit on the short side, but these are not expensive chargers. tony

 

[tony arnold]

Thanks for all the input. Here's the final on this topic:
Bought a new Guest two bank charger, installed, 14 volts on each battery, problem solved. However......When I removed the old charger, I noticed that there were three wires with pig tail connectors coming from the charger that were not connected to anything. These wires are for the optional dash monitor that I don't have. These wires were left unprotected, unsealed in the bottom of the boat. The last trip ended in a large thunderstorm. Evidently, there was a puddle in the corner of the hull where these wires were left and I finally got enough rain to short out these wires. The leads show the discoloration from the short. I'm probably lucky this didn't do any more damage. So I'll send the pictures and complain to Nitro in hopes that the new Z6 takes more precautions. Overall a cheap, quick repair.