Batteries charging

[Two killicks]

After a long period in storage, is it good enough to plug the boat to shore power to let the system on my 21ec recharge the house and starter batterie or I should disconnect the batteries and use a conventional batterie charger?

 

[tlkenyon]

That is what I do in the spring....just plug it in. I rationalize that the installed charger is probably a better charger than the one on my workbench. I have had my R21 Classic since 2010 and still have the batteries I got with it from the PO.

TK

 

[Stevan47]

Hi guys: Just out of interest, what sort of time period should I expect to get from my batteries before I need to replace them? I have a 2010 R21-EC, purchased in 2013 and the existing pair of batteries, 12Volt, 600CCA, linked in parallel, were manufactured in 2012. Noting we are now in 2017, that is not a bad life. When not running I keep them on charge/maintenance via the Pro Nautic 12-20P charger. Your thoughts? Stevan

 

[knotflying]

I would expect no more than five years on standard flooded batteries that are not abused by excessive discharge and distilled water added when needed. As a matter of periodic maintenance I change mine out every three years. Never had an issue. A bit overkill, but still much less expensive than AGM, which can fail also and at a much larger expense.

 

[Stevan47]

Thanks for that. Mine are sealed, maintenance-free type and have always kept their charge. I will still keep an eye on them though and maybe I might even change them out this year. Regards, Stevan

 

[Two killicks]

Mine are 5 years old too, still working. I was looking at my pro nautic 12 20p this morning and noticed that there is two column for the battery profile, preset 1 and preset 2. Only my preset 1 shows a green light. Should there be a light as well on the preset 2 column since there are 2 batteries onboard? both batteries are flooded type.

I looked in the manual, but did not find anything...

 

[HRowland]

Mine are 5 years old too, still working. I was looking at my pro nautic 12 20p this morning and noticed that there is two column for the battery profile, preset 1 and preset 2. Only my preset 1 shows a green light. Should there be a light as well on the preset 2 column since there are 2 batteries onboard? both batteries are flooded type.

I looked in the manual, but did not find anything...

The charger uses the same profile for all outputs. Only one LED in the Battery Type section will be lit. If you can get the recomended Charge and Float voltages for the particular brand/model batteries in your Tug you can use the table in the manual to select the closest profile. The two columns (Preset 1 and Preset 2) are just two different profiles for each battery type - Flooded, Sealed, AGM, etc.

There is also a Custom selection where you can manually specify the charge and float voltages but it is likely you will find a preset close to what you need.

Note you may have difficulty getting the data you need from the company that labeled the battery. There are only a few actual manufacturers of lead acid batteries but many labels. The company that labeled it might provide little useful tech info.

Howard

 

[Two killicks]

Good morning Howard, thanks for the reply, I am glad to hear that there is only one light, I was kind of worried that something was wrong and we are taking the tug to the marina tomorrow. Thank you