Battery Charging

[SteveHall]

I am after some advice about my battery charging when left unattended.

When I had the single battery on a 5 meter I used one of the cheap Halfords battery chargers / maintainer, and I never had any battery problems - but nothing was ever left connected.

Now I have the 6.5 with a much larger motor and twin battery's and a tracker connected to one battery, so now have some drain my charging solution needs updating as I have two of same style chargers - but its a PITA to connect them up, and then run the wires and connect the two chargers up, and it looks a little messy.

I have been thinking that I need to clean up this system, and it would be nice to have a system that I could use with shore power hook ups.

Has anyone gone through this before?

Breakers?
Boat Mounted Plugs?
Chargers?
Any other things to think about?

[Trimix]

I have my motorbike on a charger all through the winter months.

I use this: Optimate 6 Battery Charger + Optimiser

You can leave it hooked up 24/7 and it checks the battery, topping it up when necessary and its fine to leave it plugged in for months.

I plan to use one when I get my boat, but of course, as you say, you need good quality connectors - something you can plug in when you want. Not some shonky crocodile clips.

Once you sort out the wires, using this Optimate is easy.

[Pikey Dave]

I have the same setup, twin engines/batteries/tracker etc. I use a Ctek charger connected to an auxiliary input on my changeover switch. Set the changeover switch to "both" & plug the charger in & forget about it, simples. The Ctek chargers are waterproof & can be left on the deck if necessary.

[SteveHall]

Dave, I did think of using the battery switch as the common point, as this would enable the charging if I select both - but I don't like the idea of everything having power when its left, don't want a fault to develop and say the OB try and start..

The Halfrauds chargers I have aren't really man enough to cope with the two connected either, so I think the CTEK is needed.

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by Trimix

I use this: Optimate 6 Battery Charger + Optimiser


Once you sort out the wires, using this Optimate is easy.

Same here - came with wires which are hard wired & plugged in very simply ( using same plug as my RC car batteries). I use the plug to run a flying lead power supply to stuff if needed - little pumps, spotlight etc .

[kwil]

I have the same system as PD Ctek charger connected via plug and socket into the charging circuit but use on of these to split the charge between the bateries and isolate them if the mains power should fail.

Keith

[steve-ribnet]

+1 for the voltage sensitive relay. I use one of these Victron units :

http://www.victronenergy.com/battery...20a-225a-425a/

In my scenario I have the traditional two battery "house" and "starter" arrangement: the alternator charges the start battery as priority.

For winter storage, the priority is on the "house"battery as it has some light load (tracker).

The beauty of this VSR is that they sense charge on either side of the circuit and combine when either battery is receiving charge- so whilst the engine alternator is wired to charge the start battery, the mains charger is wired up to the house battery (via a Bulgin plug and fuse)

If the mains power drops then the VSR isolates the start battery.

No combiner switch to remember to change over.

[steve-ribnet]

Bulgin 7000 series buccaneer panel mount socket on boat with cap (IP68 /IP69k)
Matching cable plug on charger ( and get one for solar panel for when on mooring/ one on portable pump for inflatables )

http://bulgin.co.uk/Products/Buccane...r-Plastic.html