Simple Battery Isolator Diagram ?

[Andina Marie]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Andina-
"Bi-directional " This is an improvement over the original combiners, which only kicked in based on the voltage at Battery #1, yes? Or can the old ones be wired up to work this way as well?

I don't know about other brands but all of ours have been bi-directional since day 1.

[Cheechako]

It's a good system, however, part of my goal was to not deal with the battery switch except in emergency. As mentioned it's buried in the engine compartment. Some great ideas on this thread, thanks all.

[pbiJim]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Jim,

You already "GOT IT!" I had to figure it out back in 1998 before someone invented the Echo Charger. Our combiner works just great. The "trick" is for folks to understand the difference between the 1-2-B switch as a USE only vs Use and Charging switch.

It's pretty simple once you draw a wiring diagram.

The way that I posted is the way that I used to wire boats when I worked in a marina back in the early 1980's. Everybody seemed happy with it back then. Once both batteries are charged, you just set the switch to 1 & forget about it for a month or two unless you run into a dead battery issue on #1 for some reason, then switching to #2 saves your bacon. The only hassle is that you really should charge #2 every month or two just to be sure that it is topped up if (when) you need it. This can be done by switching to both while running, or by using an external charger of whatever type you like, or having some sort of automatic dual charge or diode system. Nobody, at the marina where I worked, ever seemed to want to spend the extra money on the fancy automatic stuff, but that's just the particular crowd that I was dealing with at the time.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by Andina Marie

I don't know about other brands but all of ours have been bi-directional since day 1.

Bingo!

Other than a cracked case, which you shipped to me free of charge even though I fully admitted I was the one who broke it, I have never seen a Yandina or any other VSR fail.

I know of one Echo Charger failure but that is it. All of these devices seem pretty darn reliable but the Yandina clearly carries the best warranty.. I even have a few of the very early WM models in gray outdoor electrical boxes still going strong. They have to be 20+ years old at least..

[Cheechako]

Bought the Yandina yesterday... thanks all..

[gettinthere]

My yandina combiner has allowed me to set and forget my charging system for several years now of full time cruising. Excellent tech support. Happy customer.