Bad cell in 6x6v bank

Erinscot

I have a 12v, 6x6v t105 bank on my boat, charges by generator. One cell has gone bad, and I am 4 weeks away from replacing the bank.  Should I continue to flog the entire bank, or would it be better to isolate the bad batt and run on 4x6v?

Marc Kurth

In my experience, your plan to isolate the failed battery makes perfect sense without more info! It will depend upon what is wrong with the battery with a "bad cell."  Disconnecting that pair of batteries lets you run with 2/3 capacity. That is better than the potential of a partially shorted cell dragging down your whole battery bank.

BB.

And "removing" the bad cell reduces the chance for other interesting effects... As Marc says, a shorted cell will make that one string a 10 volt battery bank, drawing current from the rest of the bank, and possibly overheating (or worse) the bad cell/battery (over charging the rest of that string cells).

An open cell is like disconnecting the "bad string"... But since you don't know what happened internally to the battery/cell, it is better just to disconnect the wiring and make sure that nothing bad happens to the bad cell/battery and damages your boat.

-Bill

Erinscot

Thanks!  I was leaning that way but knew I would get some solid info here.