Power Disconnect - Amp/House Battery

[tnvolgrad]

I am wondering if anyone is having a similar issue related to your amps/radio draining your batteries. I have 6 or 8 guage (can't remember) power and ground wire ran to a distribution block where the amps,radio, and power inverter all run into. Everything works fine, except for the fact that something is draining the battery? I have the Perko switched off - so the only thing that could be draining it is the power and ground wire that is ran directly to the battery, therefore it has to be either the amp, radio, or inverter that is the problem.

Any suggestions? My only though is to put a shutoff to the power wire that is easy to access (e.g. the power wire is fused, but a pain in the neck to get to)to ensure power is killed. I have doubled checked everything is off, but something is sucking the battery dry.

[TRD]

I have mine setup that I push a button and disconnect my radio & amps. Then I put a maintainer on my battery every time I put the boat up after the wkend. My battery stays charged at all time this way.

The only time I leave my radio stuff hooked up while the maintainer is on is when I'm cleaning up the boat and putting my stuff away and I'm listening to the radio.

[chpthril]

Before we go hog wild and start applying bandaids, lets see if we can actually find the source of the draw.

1) did your boat come with the factory EIDB dual battery setup? If so, then most all of the accessories are drawing off the house battery.

2) the ON/OFF really only disconnects the starting battery from the main engine systems. Kinda like a manual starter interrupt. Due to this, as noted above, there are still devices connected to the batteries.

3) A digital amp meter would be worth its weight in gold if you have one or can barrow one. One that clamps around a cable and reads the current flow. If not, start by looking for lights on the amps or the inverter, stereo head-unit. Also check the bilge pump, blower, NAV and anchor lights. Courtesy lights and ballast pumps as well. See if anything is lite up or running.

4) Next would be a touch test to see if anything feels warm like its drawing current. Other then the addition of the inverter, how stock is the rest of the stereo?

*EDIT* Its also a good idea to know the condition of the batteries. If its not getting replenished to the proper level, then it will not hold up long to even an normal draw.