T&T: Batteries?

[Tom Wadsworth]

I have a 24 volt house bank of 4, 8 AGM Lifeline batteries.
When I returned to the boat last week after a two week absence, they 
were all dead; the readings were 3, 4, 3, and 4 volts.
The boat is connected to shore power with no signs of interruption.
The voltage is too low for the inverter (Victor Phoenix multi) to 'see' 
the batteries to charge them nor will the alternator see the batteries 
for charging.

Of the many people I have called to sort this out, one of them was 
Lifeline, the manufacturer of the batteries.
It seems that the 3 to 4 volts on these batteries is worse than your 
ordinary 'bad'.

After much discussion the person I was talking to said that he had what 
I needed to charge the batteries. It is a special type of charger and he 
had one sitting next to his desk.
With no request from me he asked for my name and address and today the 
charger showed up on the UPS truck.
No charge, no deposit, no nothing.  They do not know me from the 
proverbial "Adam".
Maybe there is service this good out there but it would be hard to beat 
it.  (I think this charger runs about 2000usd.)

My only obligation is to not lose or break the charger and to send it 
back to them.

I cannot help with heavy duty batteries or marine batteries but I do 
know that anything can break and the people who are there to help you 
after the check has cleared are rare and getting more rare every day.

If you need batteries, consider this story.

Tom Wadsworth
Mai Pehn Rai