R21 EC 2017

[Areema]

I have a 2017 Ranger 21 that my wife and I are absolutely in love with.

We have done a few overnight adventures in the keys (we live in Florida) all met with great success.

The one concern I have is draining the house battery. Once we get on the hook in the early afternoon and then use the fridge, radio, fans, etc. by the early hours of the morning I notice the fridge seems to shut down and the anchor light dims. Long to short is that it makes sense to install some solar panels on the roof in order to keep the batteries up (if possible) enough to make it through the evening and perhaps even into the next day of usage (post coffee and morning ocean swim). Does anyone have any product recommendations or photos of installs they have performed themselves? Any and all feedback welcome.

 

[captstu]

I don't think more solar panels will help. After a day of cruising, your batters are nearly always at full capacity when you stop for the evening.

Do a load calculation - generally, you can ignore everything else if you have a fridge. Just figure how much it draws, what percentage of the time it runs (measure it for an hour or so with a stop watch), and the number of hours between engine shutdown and startup. If that number exceeds 50% of your house battery rating, you ust add capacity or change fridge.

I added a high-efficiency Dometic chest, Dometic CF-040AC110 Portable Freezer/Refrigerator Mid Size, Gray, down in the "cave" - it draws nearly nothing and I use it instead of the built in one when I'm on solar for a long time. Even after two overcast days, the batteries still fill to nearly capacity (13.50 volts) each day.

 

[baz]

Thumbs up for the Dometic 🙂 .... great product and really expands the stock freezer capacity.

 

[mrrlc]

You can add two house batteries to the port locker. I did this because I too was concerned about draining the single house battery when staying overnight without shore power. I have pictures in my photo album if you are interested.

 

[MooniesBBQ]

Another option his to replace the house battery with a battleborn lithium ion battery. I don't know the stock battery amp hour rating is but this is 100 amp hours and you can draw it down to 20% before it needs recharged. It has every advantage over lead acid. I'm ordering four of these for my off-grid cabin.

https://battlebornbatteries.com

 

[baz]

Oucheeee.... $899 a pop. 😱 However, I do agree to a very large extent on the superior benefits of the Lithium ion battery vs. the AGMs etc. One just has to get past the upfront cost.

Did you give any consideration for the Lithium ion battery charging using the boat's stock charger ?

 

[SGIDAVE]

I have a 2017 Ranger 21 that my wife and I are absolutely in love with.

We have done a few overnight adventures in the keys (we live in Florida) all met with great success.

The one concern I have is draining the house battery. Once we get on the hook in the early afternoon and then use the fridge, radio, fans, etc. by the early hours of the morning I notice the fridge seems to shut down and the anchor light dims. Long to short is that it makes sense to install some solar panels on the roof in order to keep the batteries up (if possible) enough to make it through the evening and perhaps even into the next day of usage (post coffee and morning ocean swim). Does anyone have any product recommendations or photos of installs they have performed themselves? Any and all feedback welcome.

Hello Areema,

You simply need more house battery bank capacity. As others point out, if your batteries are charged to full or nearly full capacity at the end of the day, a solar panel won't help with a low house bank in the early AM...nor will it bring a bank bank to full charge during one day after being deeply discharged.

You have a group 24 battery now as your "house" bank. You need to expand that. I installed two 6V deep cycle golf cart batteries in series for my house bank. Alternatively, you could install two 12V deep cycle group 24 batteries in parallel to achieve a larger house bank. You just need to figure out where you want to relocate your batteries...I started with the 'house' bank (two 6V golf cart batteries) on PORT side under aft bench with 'start' battery under engine box. This works fine but causes a weight imbalance...so, eventually, I moved the 'house' bank back under the engine box and moved the 'start' battery to the PORT side under the aft bench seat. Perfect. And less heavy cable to run.

If you stay with house bank under the motor box...which means you are limited to group 24 side footprint...golf cart 6V deep cycle batteries are going to give you the highest capacity. IF you move the house bank aft under the bench seat you could go to group 27 or even group 31 which would then probably exceed the AHr capacity of the golf cart batteries slightly.

For best performance, ensure you buy TRUE deep cycle batteries. Batteries labelled 'combination' start/deep cycle are NOT real deep cycle batteries.

dave

 

[knotflying]

I do not own a 21, but I seem to remember it has only one house battery. One house is not enough for an overnight with refrigerator running. You should be fine with two and better with three if you can fit them in. If you are only staying overnight and then moving on you should be fine. If you plan on staying on the hook for more than a night it will be time to invest in a solar panel. However, in my opinion, you should still have two to three batteries for the house.
I also hate to tell you this, but the refrigerator shutting down means that the house battery was fairly depleted. That is bad for the battery and can shorten its life considerably.
As said, figure you consumable amperage and that will tell you what you need in reserve. An LED bulb for the anchor light will save you amps and is a definite change that should be made. So does changing your other often used bulbs. As a quick stab, using a refrigerator and other miscellaneous things, you could be using 5 or more amps per hour. After you stop your engine you are now consuming battery amps, so say you stop at 5:00 PM and don't get going until 8:00 am the following morning; You used 75 amps.
Also, before buying additional batteries perform a load test on the existing to make sure it is still good. A bad battery will drain the good ones.

 

[Areema]

Et All,

Thank you, everyone, for the feedback. To say it is cool to have a support network of people who share the same enthusiasm as well as product range is an understatement.

All ideas/comments are and were greatly appreciated. I have plenty of options and ideas now to move forward on.

Thanks again!

 

[sheral]

If it hasn’t been mentioned, if you do move and add to your house battery bank - to under the rear seat - ensure that your cable runs are done correctly, or else you will run into charging/discharging imbalances that will shorten the battery(s) life considerably.

 

[Two killicks]

Here is my own solution for this issue, I did not want to add another battery in the boat because of the lack of space in the aft compartment, I have a ton of stuff in there... We have a 2102 21ec, still have the original batteries (1 cranking and 1 house only) We still have the regular light bulbs too. When we go on the hook, we have never run out of power, if it's an overnight, I keep the fridge at setting #2 and the radio plays a few hours a day too. If we stay out on the hook a couple days or more, I turn off the fridge as soon as we set the anchor, once again, we never needed to recharge the batteries. What I wonder is how low that they get, I have no indicator onboard nor do I have a solar system. We carry a pelican ice chest on the engine box, I cut the seat foam in two and flip the sunbrella underneath the other half. It is totally reversable if I wish to have the full seat again, by doing so, the chest sits directly on the engine box. In 6 feet wave, it remain there without any tying. for the perishable food which serve as a table for many purpose, the fridge is for pop and beer can only.

The pelican ice chest is not in the way at all and it is amazing at keeping the food cold for many days and it also match the sunbrela Color. It act as my backrest too and is perfect to cut things on a cutting board or doing dishes



It could be an alternative idea!

 

[rayzickrick]

The first thing I did was pull the fuse for the fridge. Granted, I do not live in FL, I live in NE MN so all my perishables go into my cooler mounted to my swim platform. The batteries that came with my boat were not all that stellar. My fridge is a nice little storage locker. I have since updated both batteries and have not had any issues.