Adding a Second Battery.....

[Kmg3356]

i have 2 batteries on my boat now.. they are not tied togther and are both used for engine starting and house power.. when out this weekend i left my frige on and it killed the battery to my port engine. i have to use jumper cables to jump one battery to the other to get started.. how can the bluesea switch help me out .. do i have to swtich it back and forth to charge each battery or does it do it on its own and only use one battery to start the motor ?
thanks

Keith

Cape Cod

 

[bgc]

Re: Adding a Second Battery.....

Please elaborate on how the batteries are wired.
There is one battery for each engine but they both run house power?

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Adding a Second Battery.....

OK, It appears you have two batteries and two engines. Is that right? Why not install two battery switches, with the common connection from each to a single battery. Now wire both #1 connections to the starboard motor and both #2 connections to the port motor. Normally you have the starboard switch set to #1 and the port switch set to #2. Isolate your house load to one deep cycle battery. Now if the fridge drains the house battery, you can change the switch setting to start either motor with the fresh battery, and adjust it to charge the weak battery.

Now this only makes sense if you do not deeply discharge a battery frequently. You you want to do that, you enther need another battery or share a single starting battery across both engines.