Bowthruster/Windless Battery

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by westsail42

Exactly. And the original poster's query was about the windlass/thruster battery, whose usage would likely be similar to that of an engine start battery.

Agreed.

[daddle]

You must put a fuse or breaker at both ends of the circuit. Both the charger and the battery are power sources.

Personally I consider a remote windlass battery to be a waste of resources. Not economical in either cost or weight or functionality.

[Andina Marie]

In the early days when we had little field experience we recommended connecting the alternator to the house battery and letting the Combiner top off the starting battery. However after 20 years of experience it turns out to make no difference and leaving the alternator on the starting battery maintains warranty on new engines.

A Combiner that can carry the full output of a 100amp alternator will always charge an auxiliary faster than an echo charge limited to 15 amps.

True, a regulator with an external sense will detect the battery voltage instead of the alternator voltage and avoid the 0.7 volt drop. BUT WHICH BATTERY DO YOU CONNECT THE SENSE WIRE TO? If it is on the bigger battery that comes up to voltage slower, won't that overcharge a smaller battery? If you connect it to the starting battery and it comes up rapidly won't that leave the house battery less than fully charged? It also can be catastrophic if you have battery switches, I've seen and heard of batteries getting fried when the sense wire was on a battery NOT on charge so full output went to another battery bank.

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by Andina

A Combiner that can carry the full output of a 100amp alternator will always charge an auxiliary faster than an echo charge limited to 15 amps.

True if the auxiliary battery is used for a windlass probably but a dedicated start battery uses much less than 1 AH during an engine start - I doubt a combiner would be much faster in that case.

[Andina Marie]

When it took 5 minutes to start your engine and you have a fully charged windlass battery why would you spend over $120 for a 15 amp charger that is going to take 4 hours to re-charge the starting battery when a $60 Combiner will do it in 1 hour? I fail to see anything an echo charger does that justifies the extra equipment. Keep it simple. Does echocharge have an unlimited warranty? Will they replace a 15 year old one that got melted by lighting?

[CharlieJ]

Comment on Post #17
An over current protection device (OCPD: fuse or circuit breaker) is not required at both ends of the conductor by the ABYC E-11 Standard if the alternator or battery charger is self limiting. The definition of "self limiting" is:

11.4.23 Self-limiting - A device whose maximum output is restricted to a specified value by its magnetic or electrical characteristics.

There is a requirement for an OCPD within 7" (or more under special circumstances) of the conductor's attachment to the battery.

Hope this clarifies the issue.
Charlie

[Andina Marie]

Originally Posted by westsail42

Exactly. And the original poster's query was about the windlass/thruster battery, whose usage would likely be similar to that of an engine start battery.

If the starting battery is low due to an engine problem you now have to wait for the house battery to get topped off and then wait for the echo charger to recharge the starting battery which at 15 amps could take many hours. A Combiner100 for 1/3 the price will have it charged in 1/4 that time.

By leaving the alternator on the starting battery you give a preferential priority to charging it first and then supplying the house battery.

It just seems like an unnecessary complicatin to add a 15 amp regulator when the supply to the battery(ies) is already regulated.