charger and three battery ???

[timbecht]

i have three batts in my boat one is starting and two for trolling and eletronics and i may buy a switch but need to know if my shumacker charger will charge all of them at the same time with the switch set at both the two batts for trolling and electronics are wire for 12 volts so i have longer run time the charger is a Schumacher SpeedCharge 15-Amp Marine Battery Charger Model SSC-1500a if some one could give me a diagram i would appecate it

 

[Silvertip]

Re: charger and three battery ???

Inserting a period and a space once in awhile makes things a lot easier to read and understand. What you failed to mention is how the two troller batteries are wired. Are they wired in series providing 24 volts for the troller or are they wired in parallel for a 12 volt troller or are they not even wired together. Need to know that before a reasonable answer is possible. Next you need to realize that if you attempt to charge three batteries with a single charger, it will take three times as long to charge all three as it would any single battery. You have a 15 amp charger so divide that by 3 and you have 5 amps (roughly) divided among the batteries. The charger thinks it is simply charging one giant battery though. For what purpose would you use the "switch". Sounds what you really need is a three output on-board charger with 10 amp capability on each output (30a total).

 

[timbecht]

Re: charger and three battery ???

the two troll batts are wired parallel for 12 volts. the switch would be used for separating the crank batt during outings and then set to both for charging

 

[Silvertip]

Re: charger and three battery ???

If you leave the two troller batteries in parallel and connect that pair to the BAT 2 terminals on the switch and then connect the starting battery to BAT 1 on the switch then you could charge all three at once. But you cannot use a single switch to switch all three batteries individually because there are only two "source" connections and one "load" (common) connection on the switch. Connecting the troller batteries in parallel while using the troller serves no purpose as you get the same run time (and probably a little more) if you use just one battery until it runs low and then switch to the other. Those two batteries may not be exactly equal in capacity so by paralleling them the weaker one draws down the stronger one until they are equal.