R-25's battery maintenance and operational questions

[baz]

As a newcomer to the R-25 and not really knowing too much about the boat's electrical system I'm finding myself coming up with various questions. This one relates to the batteries. I think there are 4 batteries in my R-25.

I believe one battery is referred to as the 'house' battery, one for the bow/stern thrusters and I'm guessing the other two are for the engine's operation. Please correct me if I have this incorrect. 🙂

My questions are

1. Are all 4 batteries charging when engine running ?
2. When engine not running and with shore power connected are batteries receiving a charge ? Can they over charge if left for a prolonged period of time ?
3. With a factory installed Xantrex inverter delivering some 1800 watts which battery is involved whether the engine is running or not?
4. When shore power connected does the Xantrex inverter sit kinda 'idle' and isn't used ?
5. When leaving boat at moorage slip with shore power connected will batteries be kept 'healthy' ?
6. The batteries will need periodic servicing, right? Should I be using distilled water for topping them up? What other battery maintenance chores are required to ensure the batteries remain healthy and last as long as possible ?

Thanks in advance for your replies. 🙂

 

[CaptMac]

Close -

Two batteries are tied together for "house", one is dedicated for the engine, the other is dedicated for thrusters & windlass.

When the engine is running, all batteries get recharged

When plugged in, all batteries get recharged - albeit slowly. They should not get overcharged if the charger is working correctly. Yes, the batteries are "minimal maintenance" - you may need to add water periodically. Keeping them charged, and not discharging below 50% will help them last the longest

The inverter is not connected when connected to shore power

Mac

 

[captain's cat]

The wiring diagram for the R-25 is here

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=39

open it and you'll see the 4 batteries.

There are two House Batteries, one thruster battery and one engine battery. All charge when hooked to shore power, follow the three wires from the charger to the three (labeled 1, 2 and 3) positive bus bars. See the rest of your answers in the quote below in BOLD

As a newcomer to the R-25 and not really knowing too much about the boat's electrical system I'm finding myself coming up with various questions. This one relates to the batteries. I think there are 4 batteries in my R-25.

I believe one battery is referred to as the 'house' battery, one for the bow/stern thrusters and I'm guessing the other two are for the engine's operation. Please correct me if I have this incorrect. 🙂 See Above

My questions are

1. Are all 4 batteries charging when engine running ? Yes, follow wires down from the isolator
2. When engine not running and with shore power connected are batteries receiving a charge ? Can they over charge if left for a prolonged period of time ? They will all charge when on shore power. I think it's a "smart charger", goes down to "trickle" and then "maintenance" when the batteries get full
3. With a factory installed Xantrex inverter delivering some 1800 watts which battery is involved whether the engine is running or not? Pretty sure it's fed from the two house batteries, check the diagram, can't go back to it while posting
4. When shore power connected does the Xantrex inverter sit kinda 'idle' and isn't used ? If nothing is hooked to it, or if the things are off, it will draw no current.
5. When leaving boat at moorage slip with shore power connected will batteries be kept 'healthy' ? Yes, see above about the smart charger
6. The batteries will need periodic servicing, right? Should I be using distilled water for topping them up? What other battery maintenance chores are required to ensure the batteries remain healthy and last as long as possible ? If they're not sealed (maintenance free, not sure what Ranger uses), they will need periodic topping off with distilled water. Keep the terminals clean. Use regular nuts on the posts instead of wing nuts and be very careful with a metal wrench not to short across both terminals...A dead short will cause catastrophic things 😱 If you have room, would be good to put each in a covered battery box and strapped down. Alternatively, buy red/black heavy plastic terminal covers to keep from accidental shorts

Thanks in advance for your replies. 🙂 You are most welcome! I think Mac beat me by about 30 seconds!

 

[j&lgray]

The electrical system is pretty straight forward but you have to take the time to understand it. If you take care of it, it will take care of you. Look at the owner's manual that Andrew created and has hopefully furnished with your boat because it shows all the wiring and the purposes of each battery.

One battery is the engine battery and all it mainly does is start the engine. One battery is dedicated to the thruster and the anchor windlass. Two batteries are connected together and serve as the house battery bank. Know where your battery cut-off switches are. For us, the thruster battery cut-off is in the engine compartment and the other battery cut-offs are near the cabin door. Understand though, that some electrical functions bypass the battery cut-off switches by being direct wired (with fuse protection) to the batteries. Knowing those will help you understand the system better.

1. All four batteries charge together whether it by the engine or the 120 volt battery charger.
2. The smart battery chargers are designed not to overcharge the batteries. However, this does not mean you can ignore the water levels in each battery. Check those water levels at least two or three times a year and fill them with distilled water.
3. My guess is that your inverter is connected to your house bank. Most are but the owner's manual will confirm this.
4. Shore power hook-up runs the smart battery charger. These chargers monitor the batteries charge and reduce their charging as necessary.
5. Besides the water levels mentioned above, keep the battery terminals free of corrosion. If your battery becomes more than 50 % discharged, it will not come up to full charge again. So, watch your battery use when you are not connected to shore power and the engine is not running.

You can also learn a lot by picking up on the great books on 12 volt systems like the "12 volt bible"

 

[j&lgray]

The crew of the Laurie Ann has finished upgrading the house battery system to suit our extended cruising and anchoring needs. To re-cap, we had exhausted our house batteries while at Princess Louisa Inlet and also found that we had worn out the thruster/windless battery after two years and nearly 600 hours of engine use. We did the amp use inventory that is found on the West Marine website and found that our huge amp users is the refrigerator and the inverter that we use for the laptop.

We decided that our best option was upgrading the house battery bank from two 12 volt batteries to four 6-volt batteries and thus increasing our amp storage capacity from 210 amps to 425 amps. We took one of the house batteries and moved it into the thruster battery position and returned a weak house battery and the worn out thruster battery. We also moved the house batteries from the port side of the cockpit to the starboard side of the cockpit. This solved two problems for us: it leveled out the boat by putting 240 pounds on the starboard side and thus eliminating the use of the trim tabs to even out the tug. By the way, this is not a factory or design issue, this was an equipment storage issue-we put a lot of gear on the port side. The second result was having one massive storage area on the port side. We do not have a generator or air conditioning and when we moved back the house and thruster batteries to the stern a bit, we have a whole bunch more storage.

The system was easy and straight forward to install and we are quit pleased with the outcome.

Now we are ready for the extended cruise to southeast Alaska next summer.