Dead Battery - ???

ACH! Never mind. I forgot that you had twin outboards VS my single inboard/outboard. Thus you have 1 battery for each motor plus your House.

What I'm trying to do is to run 2 starter batteries for my main engine plus 2 house batteries. So 1 battery for the engine is primary and 1 is secondary but stays charged via a VSR. I think I figured out what I need. If I use the BEP 714-100A for the starting batteries and then get another VSR and battery switch I should be able to make it so that I can charge both starter batteries plus the House batteries. Hmmm... This'll be a little tricky. Well back to cleaning the bilge out so I can drop the new motor in.
 
I haven't been using the pannels, because my boats already have the 1,2 all off switches. With the twin engine boat, I have two house banks--which can be paralled if necessary. One house bank (2 batteries) runs the refigerator, the other, single battery, runs the actual house. Two starting batteries. This has two of the relays--one for each bank.

The C Dory 25 has one starting battery and two house banks--one for the inferverter and refigerator, the other for the "house"--they are manually combined--for charging, or just inverter use, or parallel with the house battery. The relay is between the single start battery and the single house battery. The idea is to always leave the starting battery, and have the house battery hooked up for the lights, electronics etc. Being isolated from the starting battery at start, it avoids the electronics crashes, and potential spikes of voltage when you start the engine. As soon as the start battery voltage is up to 13.3 volts, the house battery starts to charge.
 
Thanks Bob.

Yeah, this has the 1, 2, All, Off Perko switch on it already. But since I'm going to have to rewire the hole engine compartment anyway I wanted to move the batteries out of the engine compartment and up into some box seats on the deck. So I would have room to put 2 Group 27 batteries in each new seat box. The existing switch is down in my engine compartment under a very heavy engine cover. So I was going to remove it and put one the switch panel above one of the seats on a cover in front of the transom. This way they would be readily able to be switched on/off without having to get into the engine compartment. I guess I could still use the Perko switch along with the VSR's. I'll have to think on it. For now I just need to get the boat running and in the water! :roll:
 
When I started this thread, it was July and my start battery was dead. This issue was been following me all year, with the battery going dead on a regular basis. Last month I replaced the VSR switch, thinking it might not be switching correctly between the House and Starter battery. Still have the problem with the Starter battery dead each weekend. Last week I took it out of the boat and took it home to charge it. Brought it back this week, put it in the boat - wont start the engine. So now it looks like the battery may of discharged often enough to no longer hold a charge. 18 month warrenty on the battery, but it looks like its pro-rated.
Question - should I replace it with a Optima or go with something else? My thought is until I can figure out what is going on - why spend that kind of money for a battery that goes dead in 5 months.

Cheers,
Tom
 
Tom-

Personally, I'd buy which ever battery I wanted, but put another switch inline with the positive feed out cable to protect my investment.

I'd use a simple car / marine type switch like this

battery_switch.JPG



which can be bought very cheaply online through a variety of sources. I wouldn't waste money on a Hella brand marine version, myself, but one that could be bought for around $10. Well worth it on a $60-$200 battery when you have a mystery drain-down problem!

Do you know anybody that can track down this electrical "lead" with a digital VOM meter?

Cheers!

Joe.
 
Tlhe most obivious problem is that the engine start battery was defective from the beginning. What did you find when you put an amp-meter on the starting battery? What is the voltage of the battery when you come down before you attempt to start the engine?

I looked at the Optima and decided to continue to use lead acid for my engine start batteries, and AGM for the house (which are located inside of the boat's cabin). I realize that there are potentailly some problems with mixing AGM and flooded lead acid batteries. However, the charging voltage is satisfactory for both, and I don't leave them combined when I am not on the boat. We have combiners, plus switches. Each battery is disconnected when we leave the boat.

I have no experience with the Optima, but my conclusion was that there were some other AGM's which were higher capacity and less cost. I have heard of several other Optima (as well as other batteries) being DOA.
 
I know that the lead-acid batteries are fine for the job they do in my boat...4 years old now and ready to exchange the set... but I am looking at the Optima batteries because of their light weight.... My boat always...leans to the starboard side.... and I am trying to locate weight on that side to remove.

Joel
SEA3PO
 
I experienced the clacking with my 16 that was equiped with the BEP vsr setup. When the batteries were fully charged it wasn't and issue. I had a 12volt cooler that drew 3 amps and at idle with the cooler plugged in the clacking would occur. If I unplugged the cooler it would quit. If I increased the RPM the engine alternator seemed to take the load and the clacking quit. I figured the relay couldn't last long operating like that. I traded it before really checking out the problem. When I had my 22 set up I had a 1 2 both off switch installed I figured less was better.
 
A timely subject for me...........
I have had one battery with everything connected to it for all uses on my boat including an elec. pot puller, all electronics and elec. start kicker, elect. reels etc. I leave it on the boat with everything connected all winter(6-7 mo.) and the motor starts in the spring w/o fail and has for 24 yrs. I am fussy to a fault on keeping connections clean. I do carry another new, fully charged battery but not connected just in case. I throw both batts. away every 2-3 yrs. and replace them. In the long run they are cheap insurance. I then use them in my old truck.

That, i know, is not a good or safe long term plan so I intend to buy the parts/pieces to have two batts. with a switch when i plunk my boat this coming spring. This thread has given me the ideas etc. on how to do it and I agree with Marvin..less is better. I just have had too much less for too long. Thanks for the info.
As someone said on another thread...."our lives are coming to a close and there is no need to hurry the process by doing dumb things".
 
Jack...I love yer reasoning.... I have 2 batteries...one is connected to one motor, the other is connected to the house and the motor....no on/off switches... nothing.... and they are still fine after 4 years...but it is time to change.... The dealer (Elco) told me that there was a problem connecting the two Yamaha motors together... would ruin the alternators if they were not isolated......but the no on/off switch omission was just being cheep I think...

Joel
SEA3PO
 
Generally batteries capacity depend on the weight. The more lead, the more capacity. If you look at the amps for the bucks, the Optima seem to be a bit down the scale. They weigh much less than conventional batteries, and the amp hour capacity is also considerably less than conventional and AGM batteries.

Optima may have a point that the spiral wound will take vibration better than conventional batteries--but I have driven some mightly rough riding trucks, where the batteries last a long time. Same for some of our interstates, even with an RV. Personally my back pain would limit the amount of pounding that any boat of mine would endure--and I have not had failure of batteries, which I might own. This was one of the deciding factors in the decision to not buy optima (Again, I have no experience with these batteries--just based on my reading and experience with other types of batteries).
 
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