This autumn's upgrades

Took advantage of the downtime:

• swapped the Garmin ais 300 receiver for an Em-trak 954 transceiver.
• a new Garmin 24xd GPS antenna. Followed Submariner's instructions here - went from +/- 12ft to +/- 3ft.
• replaced all three original bilge pumps. Good to hear that three minute "wrrrrrrr" again.
• a galvanic isolator finally installed. Bought it a few years ago and tossed it in the hold. Never did get around to doing it... Just discovered it's not a failsafe version, so now I have a new project!

Were your bilge pumps bad? I thought they all gave the three minute wrrrrrr on these non-float style pumps.

T-Bone said:

Were your bilge pumps bad? I thought they all gave the three minute wrrrrrr on these non-float style pumps.

Click to expand...

One had outright failed. One other was in a partial state of failure (it would only turn on manually -- the intermittent water check had stopped working over the summer).

I took the opportunity to just replace all three w/ same model, just new pumps.

All were original 2018, so I figure they were due for replacement just out of an abundance of caution.

My next project, aside from getting the CORRECT galvanic isolator -- will be to get new AGM batteries -- they're all due. I can't justify/afford a lithium overhaul at this time.... and since I rarely am not on a dock w/ 30amp, its a bit overkill for now.

I also want to get everything on to a common negative bus so I can install a battery monitor (BMV-712).

gregc said:

My next project, aside from getting the CORRECT galvanic isolator -- will be to get new AGM batteries -- they're all due. I can't justify/afford a lithium overhaul at this time.... and since I rarely am not on a dock w/ 30amp, its a bit overkill for now.

I also want to get everything on to a common negative bus so I can install a battery monitor (BMV-712).

Click to expand...

I had the same situation and continued on with AGM, but replaced everything else with Victron (Multiplus II, Cerbo, Display etc.) For the batteries my electrician steered me toward these for the house https://lifelinebatteries.com/products/marine-batteries/gpl-3100hc/ and these for the thruster/starter: https://lifelinebatteries.com/products/marine-batteries/gpl-3100t/\

Lifeline batteries are not the cheapest, but wow what a design and badass performance. Really noticeable when running the thrusters.

With 375 W of solar in the summer, they are fully charged to 100% by 10:30 in the AM. Overnight I was not conservative I ran both fridges, some 110 V inverting, lights, TV etc and the lowest they got was 86%. I have run the water heater via the inverter and that does hit them pretty hard so I only do that during the day when I know I have sun to bring them back up.