Disappointed kinda

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by Tim francis

Thanks for all the responses. When I said open, I meant nothing going to one side of the battery switch from the bank. I don’t think that is important and I know it’s all over the place because that’s what’s in my head all this stuff all over the place. The engineer is all insured and legal. Does it hurt anything to run the alternator while charging off the battery charger? Once again, I really appreciate the help.

Nope, you can connect any number of charging sources to the same battery.

Each source will work to its specs and settings.

Assuming everything is wired and configured correctly...

Eg.

If you have a battery that can draw 80 A, and you have two charge sources that can each deliver 40 A, they will both deliver max.

Under the same scenario, if the battery can only draw 60 A, the draw from each source will be dependent on the output characteristics and wiring of each source, but together they will deliver a total of 60 A.

When you get down lower, sooner or later, you will reach the shut-off or float parameter for each charging source until finally, the battery is fully charged, according to all charging sources.

[Tim francis]

I bought brand new batteries. Maui cost was around 650 I think. The batteries I took out were still showing good voltage and I assumed they were not that good because the previous owner had two gel and two fla in series.

[Tim francis]

I think another reason I was somewhat disappointed is because I thought the Stetson 60 amp charger would charge at 60 amps but even before installing it after reading the manual, I realized that is not the case. I’m assuming with more batteries or a couple different banks the charging amps go up.

[Stu Jackson]

Tim,


Buy a book about boat electrical systems, and read this:


Electrical Systems 101 Electrical Systems 101


You need a wiring diagram, too.


It sounds like what's going out exceeds what you can restore, or something else is wrong, as you said your wiring, connections or switching.

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Tim francis

I think another reason I was somewhat disappointed is because I thought the Stetson 60 amp charger would charge at 60 amps but even before installing it after reading the manual, I realized that is not the case. I’m assuming with more batteries or a couple different banks the charging amps go up.

It will charge those batteries at 60a

Get someone who knows what they are doing to look over the entire system.

Acutlly the one you posted is a battery to battery charger. Not an ac charger. So either you posted the wrong one. Or your setup is really weird.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by smac999

Acutlly the one you posted is a battery to battery charger. Not an ac charger. So either you posted the wrong one. Or your setup is really weird.

I was going to mention that as well. I’m hoping that’s not what the OP is using to charge from the Honda generator.

[Pete7]

If the previous owner was using AGM it will be worth checking what settings the solar controller has been set to, as AGM depending make, needs a lower voltage. Now that there are 4 FLA batteries are fitted settings could be increased to make the most of solar and any other charging sources.

Pete

[Tim francis]

The picture I posted is incorrect. I’m not sure how I saved that to my phone in the first place

[Tim francis]

This is the one I bought and installed.

[carstenb]

Tim,

far be it from me to make myself an expert, but it seems to me you're going about this backwards. You noted that you want to make a S. pacific crossing in a couple of years. if so, you might as well get this system sized and spec'ed for that.

someone up above gave you great advice - start by figuring out just how much (AH) you use or will use when you do the crossing.

a house refrigerator running on the inverter is a bad idea - buy a dc keel-cooled isotherm or the like - you save a lot of electricity. The important thing is to determine your usage, both now and what you want in the future - then size everything for it.

By the way it is a bad idea to buy more batteries and add them now, unless it is in a completely separate bank - don't mix batteries.

our system is a 700watt solar panels, 600AH AGM house bank - normally we do not have to run the engine to charge these batteries unless it is cloudy all day.

we have a big refrigerator (keel-cooled) a good sized freezer (engel) and when sailing we run a big furuno chartplotter all the instruments and our autopilot. When everything is running at full blow - we (depending on the sea state - autopilot) will use 20-30 AH. If we're pulling that much we do run our engine for an hour or so every 4 hours - our alternator can put out 160Amps.

but don't screw around with temporary fixes - get it don right now and you won't have to worry about it anymore

the last time we had shore power (we live aboard 24/7) was almost 3 years ago

[Tim francis]

The four batteries are brand new and I’m considering adding two more that are the exact same. I don’t have a large fridge. I have a isotherm by Indel marine dc
I’m going to hire the professional as soon as I can get a temporary slip. I don’t mind spending the money.
Thanks I’ve learned a lot from this thread.

[Tim francis]

My inverter draws a lot More amps with the tv on than I thought. M Still trying to get the math right in regards on how many amps the tv iPod iPad charger and inverter pull. One thing I’m going to do is put in a 150 watt inverter coming off the bank. I’m also going to take the two agm batteries and the two fla batteries the previous owner had and secure them in a big empty space below the bed forward of the main bank with a temporary 20 amp generic battery charger I’ll power by the Honda 200 as a back up bank. All temporary till those batteries go bad. I’ll run the tv chargers etc off that bank. After talking to the engineer I will hire, I may add two or more batteries to the original bank. I have the space and money to do it. So is it wrong to buy 8 six volt fla for my bank in 4 or 5 years from now. I know I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll have the engineer to ask these questions to soon. Thanks again for the help. It definitely put me on the right path of learning how a house bank works.