12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

[shay_mcquaid]

Hi and thanks for looking...


I recently bought a 1981 Sea Ray 260.

I want to upgrade the house battery.

Currently the boat has a Perko 1-2-both-off switch on two battery's. (unknown types)


I bought THIS promariner 3 channel shore power charger.

( I was surprised/disappointed to learn from the chargers owner manual that all three channels HAD to be hooked to a battery. ( I planned on using one of those channels in the future)
I plan on the trip up to the marina this weekend stopping at Sears or Wally world and picking up two 31 or 27 (hopefully 31) series deep cycle batteries.


I plan on installing the two new house batteries in a single 12v configuration and using the best existing battery for the engine start.


My questions are:

1. Are two cheap deep cycles gonna be sufficient for moderate use house battery?
   
2. Can you leave a channel on the charger un hooked?
   
3. Can you charge two batteries on one channel?
   
   
4. Would you do something totally different?

Thanks in advance for any input!!!


Cheers!!!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: 12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

If the user manual says you cannot leave an output unused then you cannot leave an output unused. You can however bridge it to another output (pair up the POS and NEG wires from two or all three pairs). You can have two pairs feeding one battery and the third feeding another. But since you have both of them in parallel anyway, you really didn't need a three output charger. Contrary to popular belief, batteries in parallel whether you have two, three, four, six, or a dozen, they can be charged with a single output charger. Yes -- the single output charger will take a longer time to charge them but it will work. So it doesn't matter how you connect the three outputs. Connect all three to one battery, two to one and one to the other. The net result is the same. If all three outputs are 10A each for example, you will still have 30A going to both batteries. Since you have Perko switch, all charger outputs could go to the COM terminal on the switch. Set the switch to BAT 1 to dump full output to that battery. Set it to BAT 2 to dump full output to that battery. Or set it to BOTH to dump full output to BOTH.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: 12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

Shay,

I suggest you call the manufacturer's tech guys and ask them your questions since they know their product the best.

 

[seabob4]

Re: 12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

Silvertip is correct, you can charge 2 batts wired in parallel with one set of leads, it would just take a long time to bring them back.

And yes, you need to take the unused set of leads (for now) and attach them to one of your existing batts.

 

[shay_mcquaid]

Re: 12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

Thanks for your time Gents!

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: 12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

My manual says connect unused leads to one of the batteries. Like ST said, it doesn't matter if 2 sets of leads go to one battery.

 

[shay_mcquaid]

Re: 12v Gurus please sign off on this before I drop the dough =)

thanks y'all