Basic Newbie Battery Questions

[PuffinStuff]

Hi All,

When your boat is tied up and on dock power, is it wise to turn off the battery charger when leaving for extended periods? I've been told that when the batteries are topped up and the boat is not in use, no need to keep charging and charging. It has been said to me that this facilitates added electroysis and will lead to an early demise of your boat. Is this true?

An even more basic question for all you old salts out there: in order to best separate the starter battery (and thruster battery, I assume) from the house batteries, how do I position the parallel switch? Currently I have it at "1 & 2", but on our first extended trip recently I realize I nearly burned us out of power and the engine struggled to start us one morning. Made it, but don't want to get that close without a generator again.

2012 R-29

Thanks,

Paul

 

[baz]

I've had the stock batteries in my R-25 (Classic) since Aug 2009. I do keep the liquid levels maintained. I always have the battery charger engaged when docked and on shore power. My boat is kept under cover and docked and is really never taken out of the water. My batteries appear to be as good as new at this time after 5 years. I have 320 hrs on the engine so that means my boat has been on shore power with battery charger engaged for some 43,800 - 320 or some 43,480 hours. 😱

 

[knotflying]

Do you have a solar panel and docked in the sun? If so no need to leave the charger on. You do get a slight drain from several items on the boat even if everything is off. The co detector, propane detector, fusion radio memory, occasional bilge pump use etc. I always leave my charger running. Also see how your relays are wired. Some boats need to have their switches on for the relays to work. As far as your switch goes, mine says parallel and off. In parallel it joins all the batteries. You only do that if the engine battery went dead. I can only assume that position one is for the engine, so it should be in that position unless it went dead.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

We leave our Kismet plugged in, when at dock, boater homing or parked in the driveway at home. Most battery chargers installed in our boats are made to stop charging when the batteries get to a full charge. At this time the charger goes into a float status and only turns back on when it reads that your batteries have dropped down. A check of your battery charger owners manual will most likely explain how this works in better detail. We've just started the 4th year with our AGM batteries, hoping to make them last as long as Barry's have.

Jim F