1992 370DA: Battery Banks / Charger / System

[jrybak]

This past weekend was my first out on the boat where we anchored up and sat out and all day. We were anchored up for 7-8 hours, I had the genset running the entire period as we had the ACs running along with the cabin lights/ power and the new stereo system.

To start the starboard motor I had to put to hold the parallel switch at the helm, shouldn't that genset running ensures all batteries and banks are charging up even if we were pushing the stereo and AC all day?

I am trying to understand what batteries do what, or if perhaps my OEM charger isn't pushing enough amps?

 

[PlayDate]

I believe your boat has two batteries for the Starboard engine. They are tied together to support the engine and House 12 volt electronics. Apparently you depleted the Starboard engine bank (a common occurrence since amped stereo systems draw a lot of power) and necessitated using the parallel switch which joins the Port battery. Now as to why running the generator did not keep the bank charged.....is your battery charger original to the boat? Those original battery chargers were notorious for burning up batteries and causing the batteries to fail.

Specifically, the generator powers the battery charger through you main breaker panel. When it is working properly....the indicator lights on the battery charger should be lit. If not....that is the first problem to be resolved.

Also, if it is the original charger....I believe it had a 10 amp charging feed to each battery bank. On your boat, I believe you have:

Bank 1 Starboard Engine and House Batteries
Bank 2 Port Engine Battery
Bank 3 Generator Battery

Modern chargers rotate charging up to 30 amps to each Bank depending on where it is needed.

The issue which might have occurred if you have the original charger is that the charger did not match the draw on Bank 1. 10 amps isn't a lot.

 

[jrybak]

so i have (2) on the starboard/ house & a third on the port bank & a forth on the gen set? has anyone ever created a 4th bank just for audio?

 

[PlayDate]

The real question is what charger you have on your boat. I believe you currently have a 3 bank charger. You could buy a 4 bank charger and set it up (add additional batteries) for the stereo but if you upgrade your original 3 bank charger....you probably will solve the problem.

 

[jrybak]

I am thinking of changing out all batteries to Odessey Extremes AGMs and adding (2) to the house, any thoughts on the group./sereis that would best replace the OEM batteries, and also I want to replace the charger with a new one, any thoughts on a charger?

I think the below is what I will end up with.

Bank 1 Starboard / House (4)
Bank 2 Port (1)
Bank 3 Gen (1)

 

[jrybak]

Did my research and spoke with numerous manufacturers, decided on the Victron Energy. Has anyone had any experience with any of the below?

Skylla-IP44 60(3) Charger
Venus GX Coms Hub
BMV 712 Smart x3 Monitors
AGM Super Cycles x6 Batteries

 

[PlayDate]

I'm not familiar with Victron. Seems like a reasonable choice but there are a lot to choose from. I went with Xantrex (TRUECharge2) and have installed a number of them. The remote panel gives you the charging status of each battery bank.

 

[jrybak]

One reason I went with Victron is it opens a new tab on my garmin 8616 like the shadow casters did, that will allow me view and modify the charger/ battery system.

 

[PlayDate]

That is useful. Although....once I set them up for AGMs I can't imagine changing them...

What I do like see is the battery banks charging and how many amps are being sent to each bank.