Marine Battery Meltdown - Battery Bank Failure Stops our Sailing Journey in Colombia

[@jacobfirst2365]

I just found your page through your old one replacement of different transducer. This is awesome knowledge thank you so much! ❤❤❤❤

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Thanks Jacob.. just reached 1k subs so the channel’s picking up traction.. thanks for the support 👍

[@pr1666]

Can understand the sometimes wanting to throw in the towel. Then its just dig in and get it fixed. Thank you Battle born battery company for stepping up!

[@stevenplancich6449]

Dang…What a nightmare☹️ I’m impressed that ya Folks worked it out👍 Continue to Stay Safe & Enjoy 😎

[@arslin]

I look forward to more videos about your setup. You are very lucky that battleborn supported you with so few subscribers.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Well this channel is a kind’ve spin off from our main channel ‘Mothership Adrift’ with nearly 16k subs which is about our circumnavigation with the kids. We’ll be covering our Battle Born story there too but from more of a lifestyle POV.

[@nortonmolly]

Well Woody and family. Thanks for putting this video together and publishing it 👍👍

[@evinwhiteson4902]

Epic effort by all. Great content.

[@Moj_Nick_YT]

Finger crossed and waiting for next episodes !

[@antonioperezgarcia9426]

Cuando no encuentres material, como cargadores, baterías y etc, consulta en el ramo de fotovoltaica y es posible te sorprenda la paridad de materiales utilizados en náutica y fotovoltaica off grid o fuera de red , así como alimentadores que funcionan a 220, 110, vac y con hercios de 60 y 50 en los dos voltages

[@SVImpavidus]

When you said to me they got hot I though you meant just hot...... Not 200+ degrees C !!! What a nightmare. Sail Safe Guys, Ant & Cid.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Thanks Ant. Yes, when Rowan said her bed was hot she wasn’t joking! So luckily we caught it in time.. could have been a lot worse I guess. 🙁

[@windonwater3895]

BOAT - Bring On Another Thousand. Sad story - hopefully with a good ending!! As fed up as I am with a lot of what is going on these days here in the US, it's encouraging to see a company like Battle Born doing such a kind deed. Thanks for sharing all your sad times as well as the happy ones.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Battle Born have been superstars. A real customer focused company who really understand their market and products.. and such a relief to use a company who hasn’t moved its manufacturing to China too!

[@fransdriesen1311]

Battery management is very crucial whether they are AGM's or Lithium's..Well it could have been worse.. It's very frustrating but it seems you handled it very well...

[@MothershipMaintenance]

I remember decades ago a live-aboard cruiser telling me that life aboard was all about battery management. I thought he was being cynical. Now I know better!

[@philthomas7078]

I can honestly see why you were ready to throw the towel in ,But as a land lubber who would give my 1st born ( I'm to old now ) to do what u do , the grass is NO greener on land. ....Well done !

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Thanks Phil. I have those rare moments of total exasperation but now balancing them out here in the Galápagos Islands watching the kids in life’s classroom swimming with seals and sharks and becoming passionate little naturalists. Although the AIS now needs fixing 🙄

[@Leosarebetter]

I was on a yacht one time when the battery bank litterally blew up. Imagine a row of 6 batteries and every one of them had their lid blown off. That is the lid where the top of the battery secures it self to the vertical sides. All 6 batteries, every lid blown off. Hell of a bang! The yacht in particular wanted to kill its crew, seriously. Snapped guide wires, blown batteries, weird smells, jammed doorways, more weird smells and thats when she was in a good mood.

[@wilsard]

guess they were all gassing badly, and they got a spark.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Sounds like the same run away charge we had.. luckily we found it in time before they blew. Agree..sometimes having a boats feel like having a psychotic mistress!

[@matt8474]

Damn Woody, what a terrible mess. I just did the lithium conversion on our SM. I cannot imagine the challenges of doing such a big change in a remote locate.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Yup it was a massive learning curve.. as you’ll see in the next few blogs. Luckily I had some great online advice from a friend in Australia but every component had to be imported from the USA via freight forwarding companies so it took weeks. Spent a fortune in marina and import fees but saved too on electrician and labour costs by doing myself.. and at least I now know the system inside out!

[@QuantumMechanic_88]

I'm thinking about a semiconductor called a Thermistor. It detects heat and cold etc. and can shut down an electrical circuit and sound an alarm. A thermistor is basically a resistor used in a thermostat device . Some thermistors are variable , much like a potentiometer . I'm guessing the batteries are charged by an alternator on the engine which has a voltage regulator. Good luck and all the best.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Yes, you’ll see in the next few maintenance blogs I add a dongle with a temperature sensor and a alternator protection device to the new instal. The new batteries themselves have internal BMS too.. although we’re about to cross the Pacific to French Polynesia so those blogs could be several weeks away!

[@Cptnbond]

Thanks for sharing all sides of cruising. Even the moment your wish to be a land-lubber again with no more boat problems. I'm glad that in the end looks like you are going to get your lithiums after all. Lucky you. Cheers.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

The last few months have been a real rollercoaster ride for sure but getting the LiFePos really changes life onboard. Sometimes I think keeping a boat is like having a tempestuous love affair with a gold digger.. you have to feed it constant attention and expensive gifts to prevent the relationship from falling apart. It’s certainly no life for the faint hearted!

[@matwilliams4608]

Just idear your wife could show some things she can make and do on your famly boat ie. meals on the boat and short cuts in making meals .

[@MothershipMaintenance]

We cover more of these type or things on our main channel ‘Mothership Adrift’ which covers life onboard and travelling with the kids as we circumnavigate. This channel just covers boat maintenance as we’ve had plenty of it over the last few years!

[@liame]

I watch these videos to try and relax!! But the stress from all the things breaking is getting too much 😂 Sorry you have so much bad luck!

[@MothershipMaintenance]

😆 This was a particularly LOW low point! it gets better with next few episodes as i replace the battery hardware and install the LiFePo batteries I promise!

[@elmorosso]

I have an external temp monitor for the batteries and a fuse monuted on each battery terminal. I have Lipo4 batteries with an integrated BMS in eachone of them so between the BMS, the battery charger and the simple temp monitor I should be fine. You may consider doing the same. Wood can auto ignite around 250 C°. In case they are in direct contact with a hot surface the auto-ignite temperature is much much lower.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Yes, as you’ll see the the next few maintenance blogs I do add LiFePos with internal BMSs and many more circuit breakers, fuses, APD and bigger cables!

[@Orchardman53]

Was this before or after Irenka mashed another finger? An event filled sector of your journey. Good luck with the LFP, no doubt you are enjoying the extra capacity.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

This was after the finger episodes Charles. You’re right it’s been an event packed few months with so many ups and downs and yes the LiFePos have been a game changer.. in fact I really need to upgrade the solar now to keep up with them.

[@MilesCobbett]

Wonder if a Tesla Powerwall 7 K watts could be used as a boat batt system?

[@MothershipMaintenance]

It’ll be very interesting to see if Tesla does enter the boat market. I see Battleborn are going public and they’re very ahead of the game in RV and boating already. Although I’m more interested in old Musky rolling out an affordable Starlink package to us crumb feeding boaties.

[@dannyarcher6370]

Is this the same model boat as SV Delos?

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Yes, there’s is a few years newer.. 2000 I believe, whereas ours is a 1997 model.

[@dannyarcher6370]

@@MothershipMaintenance Cool

[@wilsard]

i'm always charging lead acid batteries in the house. had one sort of explode a few nights ago. i didn't know what it was and took me a while to find it. the top had blown halfway off, and a crack down the side had leaked half the acid from one cell onto the carpet. i make my own chargers. don't know how it exploded with only 2.5 amps split between 2 batteries. you can find a battery tester that does CCA's for less than $20, that you can test battery health with. here's my guess. i cell of one battery goes jacked or shorted, and starts sucking power from the other batteries. the charger thinks everything needs to be charged heavily because of that cell draining things, then the batteries all get way too hot. seems a nice feature of a charger would be to emit a low tone alarm for a high current charge, so when you hear it coming on when not much power is being used, you know something is bad, besides the need for a temp alarm on the batteries, to shutdown charging when a battery goes above the limit. LED lights use very little current. is that not what you have?

[@MothershipMaintenance]

Yes the new batteries I installed from Battle Born all have internal BMSs and I also upgraded the entire system to add more fuses, circuit breakers, larger cables as well as a new battery charger. As I say in the video, I don’t know what caused the meltdown it could have been one of the Victron batteries (happened to friends of ours with the same type/age batteries while trickle charging at sea) could have been the Mastervolt charger (also happened to friends of ours) but I don’t think the dodgy shorepower helped with our basic 25 year old system either. I’ll probably never know but at least now we have a lot more safety features and redundancy built into the system as you’ll see in the next few maintenance blogs.

[@Antipodean33]

I can see why you were so frustrated, the messing around, the cost etc etc, a lesser man would've got on a plane and gone home

[@MothershipMaintenance]

I nearly did!

[@c.a.mcneil7599]

Thanks for battle born. don’t worry all the free stuff you got others will pay for it. So won’t ever spend a penny with battle born. You have a generator all you needed was 2 12volt batteries and fuel. Oh yes running generator is noisy. I feel for one’s that don’t have a generator and need to charge at times with there motor. Step over a dollar pick up a dime.

[@MothershipMaintenance]

I think you misunderstand the concept. Most progressive companies now divert advertising spend towards social media partnerships. It is far more cost efficient to send products to an actual end user who can do installations and review videos based on their own experience rather than putting money into the hands of expensive ad companies. The cost of traditional advertising is far higher and costs would have been passed on to the end user anyway. If you know the Battleborn product, you'll know it's American made and as a company they really get involved and support the off grid community.. which is why we agreed to partner with them. Doing it this way, end users get to see a real person actually handling, installing and using the product in a real world environment and give their own subjective view. As you point out generators are noisy, dirty and expensive. When you're at anchor as much as we are (99% of the time), it's much better to rely on renewable sources like solar and for that you need a reliable energy storage solution. Another upgrade to our solar panels and we should be able to ditch the generator all together, so no more fuel, servicing or spare parts to worry about 👍