Another Battery Question... Help!

Thanks Joe, I like your approach much better, keep it simple...

Many times I have people ask me about my Link 10's and how they work. Well of course being an electrical kind of guy I start to go into the details -- that's about when I see their eyes glaze over and want to move on. Bad habit of mine, but good if you want some quiet time... :disgust

Steve
 
My boat electrical Guru has a solution for keeping batteries charged while idle. If put away charged, an AGM (absorbed glass mat) battery will lose just tenths of a volt over several months! As in all things for boats, you pay dearly for this advantage. I'll save my battery system plan until it's installed and tested. It seems so logical on paper... We'll see. Roger
Dreamer
 
Was able to run the charger for several hours yesterday, after an abortive start. Hooked up the shore power cord to my new $35 adapter and extension cord, turned on the charger, but failed to notice that you first have to turn on the main breaker. Duh! So, came back to the boat after a couple of hours to check on the charge......no change. Discovered my error, ran it again for several hours, and lo and behold, it's now showing 12.5 volts, about 3/4 full. Also confirmed that the port engine is connected to the house deep cycle battery, and the starboard to the starting battery. All the electronics are routed through a breaker switch, then to the house battery. Supposedly then, with the engines off, both switches still on, all house current would come from the house battery. If that's so, then why did I get identical low readings on both batteries?

Here's the mfg wiring diagram for these switches. Note, it is only for a single engine; our factory is adapting it for twins. Question is, does it defeat any of the switches features to use it for twins? One thng the factory does differently than what Bep advises, is they hooked the battery charger leads directly to the batteries, rather than through the switch, but I don't see that as a problem.

http://www.bepmarine.com/PDF/INST_716SQ_100A.pdf
 
Flapbreaker wrote:
>>>Sealife I have the same BEP switch setup on a Single engine (boat new in august). I recently had a problem that I didn't expect. Launched the boat and when I went to start the motor I got nothing. Not even an ignition light. I was and still am puzzled as to how there wasn't enough juice to start the main since the VSR (voltage sensitive relay) is supposed to isolate the two batteries to prevent this. Lucky for me I have a trolling motor wired to the house battery so I pull started it and let it run for a couple minutes. Then I tried the main and it worked. Needless to say I'm still confused about this BEP setup and just what the heck it's doing for me even after reading the details on their website.<<<
Have you figured out what went on here? I understand the the VSR devices made by BEP will charge the second battery only when the first battery is charged to or receiving a charge of 13.7 volts or something like that. So the theory is that the first battery would always be charged even if you ran the second battery (the house battery) down. Of course, this is more complicated in three battery setups with one or two engines. Interested in your comments.

Regards
 
Mark,

No, I haven't figured anything more than what I stated in my previous post. Since recharging my batteries, they now seem to hold their charge, so I'm baffled as to what happened, and still have questions about the setup. I queried Bep by e-mail, and have gotten no response.
 
Sealife:

I have only scanned all these posts but want to offer the following:

1) Try emailing (or better yet calling) Ian Hunt at BEP (IHunt@bepmarine.com, +64 9 415 7261 ext 729). Remember they are located in New Zealand.

2) It's hard for me to understand your set up, but I believe you want one battery for each of your twins and at least one battery for the House (3 batteries total). I have twin Suzis on my boat and have a cranking battery and a house battery per engine. I would never have only two batteries (one per engine) with one serving as a house battery.

3) The BEP 717-100A could be used in a two cranking battery (one per engine) and one house battery set up. I know because I have emailed Ian about this as I want to get rid of the Guest battery selectors (utter junk) in my 2004 22'. If you have two house batteries they would need to be connected in parallel. Not sure the 716 is the correct unit for your twin set up. A 718 might work. See http://www.bepmarine.com/showcategory.cfm?categoryid=76

4) Consider getting (our checking out from the library (?)) a copy of Nigel Calder's "Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual". It is chock full of useful info on marine batteries and their various hookups.

5) You can check for abnormal current draw (ie, something sucking your juice that shouldn't be by following the instructions here: http://www.tpub.com/content/construction/14273/css/14273_40.htm

Glad to hear the factory is using BEP stuff. It is good quality.
 
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