Carver Owners Forum

I HAVE A FREEDOM 20 INVERTER ON OUR VESSEL, RECENTLY WHEN I DISCONNECT SHORE POWER THE CONTROL PANEL SHOWS 0 BATTERY POWER WITH IN 5 MIN. AND SHUTS DOWN THE INVERTER. BATTERIES SEEM TO HAVE A FULL CHARGE BUT THE HOUSE BATTERY WILL NOT SHOW A CHARGE ON THE PANEL. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

CAPT.CHONIES wrote:Source of the post.......BATTERIES SEEM TO HAVE A FULL CHARGE......

What leads you to come to this conclusion?

If you haven't already done so, check the battery fluids, I suspect they're empty. If not empty, disconnect the batteries and test them with a good battery tester. Make sure all the connections are clean and tight to begin with. If everything checks out, use a meter to check how much the charger is outputting.

PS; welcome aboard

thanks for the response, battery fluids are all good. and test good on a cheap tester, I will try a better one tomorrow.

Ahoy my boating Carver Buddy! Thinking maybe your 13 year old Freedom 20 Inverter/Charger has an issue. Mike

A couple of things coming to mind;
- if when shore power is on you have no problem with 12 volt systems until you disconnect shore power at which time your 12 volt systems die, then one must assume the charger is working, or at least putting out enough to power things up. It may however not be putting out enough to actually charge a battery. Also, depending on how your system is wired, charger output may be powering up boat systems but may not be making it to the batteries. You may have charge breakers, check to ensure they're not tripped. Probably located close to the battery selector switch. You'll need to check with a meter to see if a charge voltage is getting to the batteries, and if so, how much is it outputting?
- does this also happen with the inverter function shut off?
- because things are being powered up, this shouldn't apply but worth a check; I believe there is a charge switch on the inverter. Ensure it is switched on
- as mentioned above, make sure you have good clean tight connections on the battery terminals. Check all positive and negative connections at the batteries and check the negative cable grounding at the engines.
- If a charge is getting to the batteries, and all connections are good ones, it's probably a battery issue. They may not be holding a charge and should be replaced. Do a load test on them and see how they hold up.