Battery wiring on Morgan 41 refit

[Paul M]

Quick question on starter and house batteries -

Do you guys prefer to wire the starter battery in parallel with the house batteries so alternator charges all? Or keep starter battery separate? It seems if they are not in parallel, shore power is the only way to charge house.

Thanks again

[Sailmonkey]

Completely separate and charged with an ACR or echo charger.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Completely separate and charged with an ACR or echo charger.

Im not familiar with the echo. Is this to avoid rapid recharge of the house batteries from the alternator? I had considered using a battery selector switch to go between house and starter as my boat will rarely be on shore power.

[Sailmonkey]

The alternator feeds directly to the house batteries to provide them with as much power as possible when running the engine. The start battery would be charged by either the ACR or the Echo charger, the low amount of power pulled from the start battery means it doesn't need much charging after starting the engine.

I prefer this setup to switches as it prevents mistakes or forgots.

[Cadence]

If you parallel them just call them general use batteries unless you use blocking diodes. The whole purpose of both is to insure having starting power. There was a threat not long ago on it, a few weeks.

[pcmm]

We have our Morgan OI 41 wired with one of the new isolation switches. Only 3 positions off - on ( both house and engine, but seperated) and parallel. and parallel position is AFTER the ON position so you can't accidentally cycle through Off to get to parallel, blowing the Alternator diodes! I'm going to be adding a Battek battery combining relay so that during alternator charging it automatically combines both banks for charging, and isolates when the engine is turned off.

[Cheechako]

The Echo Charger device is a great way to go. Other wise you run the risk of overcharging your start battery. You can get them as low as $60 in other brands.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The Echo Charger device is a great way to go. Other wise you run the risk of overcharging your start battery. You can get them as low as $60 in other brands.

I looked them up. I believe you are correct. It apparently isolates the house and starter batteries and regulates the charge rate of todays batteries.

[Suijin]

Ya if I were rewiring I would add the new switch type and a combiner. I added the Blue Seas combiner. As pcmm noted, it makes the bank and switch pretty idiot proof.

From what I was told by a marine electrician who has installed a lot of them, the combiner only combines the banks after the primary bank is done with bulk charge, so your start is getting delayed charging, but in practice that would only ever be a problem if you never fully charged your house bank.

[Paul M]

Thanks guys. I'm learning about these as I go. Turns out my boat has an old echo charger with converter/inverter but output is nonfunctional. Shore power is also wired up wrong thru a corroded home breaker panel. Gonna have to rewire it all and replace echo. But, I destroyed my charger and flywheel on the move to sarasota so going to tackle that first.