Boat battery maintainer has flashing red light and wont charge boat battery.

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jjj70095

Active member
I put a brand new boat battery in my sea doo jet boat last summer. I went to charge it the other day with my battery maintainer and the maintainer has flashing red light for 3 hours. A flashing red light on maintainer means the battery has less than 3 volts in it to even charge the battery. Any ideas or suggestions?


The maintainer works fine on my ski doo snowmobile. I never had any problems with batteries losing their charges in the past 10 years with my boat, until this battery.
 
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jjj70095

Active member
I dont think it was disconnected at all. I have never disconnected any battery in the past. My mechanic did a 250 hour maintenance on it last fall.
 
U

united

Active member
Not an expert. Possibly a switch was left on or bumped by accident. Also could be some type of phantom drain. Possible bilge pump, fire system if you have one, or anything else might have gone bad and kept drawing from the battery. if the maintainer is good (and sounds like it probably is?) it might not have had a enough power to counteract the phantom drain. This could drain the battery all the way down to the bottom which would eventually not allow it to maintain a charge. I would pull it and put on a heavy duty Battery Charger and see if the battery comes back but it sounds like it might not. If it continues to happen you or mechanic needs to isolate the phantom drain and have it repaired. Maybe take an old battery (or this one if it holds a charge) check the level, hook it back up without the maintainer and monitor it to see if it drains. And I guess every once in a great while there is a bum battery. I don't know your area but we did have an extra cold snap this winter. I'll let the rest of the guys and experts give better advice. Good luck.
 
U

united

Active member
Also I don't know if they even have boat batteries with fluid cells anymore or if they are all AGM fiberglass. If it does have fluid the levels would need to be checked but probably AGM.
 
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euphoric1

Well-known member
Put an "old school" charger on it see if it will charge it, most of todays so called smart chargers cant tell the difference between a low battery and a failed battery. I am not a fan of "maintainers" at all put a full charge on it before you put it away and disconnect one of the cables, give it a charge before putting it back into action. And do your self a favor buy a good charger like a NOCO Genius 10. But before I would write off that battery I would put an old school heavy coil charger to it first.
 
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eao

Active member
Flashing red light means either the battery charger to NOT properly connected; the battery is deeply discharged or defective and unable to hold a charge, per my Battery Tender guide.
 
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whitedust

Well-known member
Do yourself a favor and purchase a Norco 10 genius and will answer every battery problem you have. Best $100 you can spend on a battery charger.
 
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