On Board Battery Charger !

[RiceRocket]

After reading about different brands some say that after one battery is charged up , that amps go to the other battery , and some brands Do not ??? Guess need to ask the manfacture to be sure . I did see the the cabella brand was a smart charger. Nice price Too !

[Cray]

Rice rocket go to Mississippi off topic, look for anybody need a charger. Link to BBG marine for sale on Mincota chargers. Great prices.

[CatFan]

After reading about different brands some say that after one battery is charged up , that amps go to the other battery , and some brands Do not ??? Guess need to ask the manfacture to be sure . I did see the the cabella brand was a smart charger. Nice price Too !

I think ProMariner and their Bass Pro XPS chargers are the ones that share the power. They call it Transfer-On-Demand or Distributed-On-Demand, meaning that the charger will use its capacity on the battery that needs it after the most lightly discharged battery is charged. This can be an advantage when you don't run your cranking battery down much.

The way to identify a "smart" charger is to look for "multi-stage", "microprocessor controlled", "3-stage" or "4-stage" in the description. Virtually all onboard chargers meet that definition, and many newer portables do as well except for the cheapest that will be labelled "automatic", "taper", "manual" or even "trickle".

The multi-stage capablility is well worth the extra money. Your batteries will last longer, charge more quickly, and require less attention than they will with cheaper chargers.

Most people can get by with 5A per bank, but I wouldn't recommend anything less than 10A unless the price or weight savings is worth it to you. If you fish long days and are on the water again early the next day, a bigger charger will be important, but bigger chargers are heavier.

As far as heat and fire risk, 10 or 15A is well below the range where heat becomes an issue with the battery. In many conditions, these batteries could handle 25-40A, but not at 90 degrees, so chargers are downsized to where they'll always be safe for the battery.

The real concern with fire is the 1000+ Amps that the battery can deliver, not the little bit coming out of the charger.

[Il Duckshewter]

The only advice I'll give is to keep a close eye on the water levels of your battery. I put a pro sport 8 in my boat this Spring. After checking and topping off the batteries, I plugged in the charger. The manufacturer info says that you can leave the unit plugged in and charging for up to 30 days at a time, after which they recommend unplugging the unit and checking the batteries. I left mine plugged in for ONLY 7 consecutive days. When I checked the water level, they were very very low, I added almost a half gallon of distilled water between two batteries. I now will only plug mine in a day or two at most prior to going fishing. This is a real drawback for me because the literature on my charger says that it will also condition the batteries after they charge, extending the life of the battery. Seems to be a moot point if I can't leave it plugged in for more than a few days..

[CatFan]

If you lost that much water in a week, your batteries are probably shot or you have something drawing current from them while they are charging. I leave mine plugged in 24/7 when I'm not on the water and only have to add a little bit of water a couple of times a year. Once the batteries charge, the charger switches to float mode, which is below the gassing level for the batteries, meaning there isn't much more water loss than you'd get from evaporation. Quick water loss means the charger is not seeing the battery as being fully charged.

[Il Duckshewter]

Good info Cat, I'll pull them and have them tested. There is nothing that can draw current from them when they are charging, that I know of.

[Dutch552]

The only advice I'll give is to keep a close eye on the water levels of your battery. I put a pro sport 8 in my boat this Spring. After checking and topping off the batteries, I plugged in the charger. The manufacturer info says that you can leave the unit plugged in and charging for up to 30 days at a time, after which they recommend unplugging the unit and checking the batteries. I left mine plugged in for ONLY 7 consecutive days. When I checked the water level, they were very very low, I added almost a half gallon of distilled water between two batteries. I now will only plug mine in a day or two at most prior to going fishing. This is a real drawback for me because the literature on my charger says that it will also condition the batteries after they charge, extending the life of the battery. Seems to be a moot point if I can't leave it plugged in for more than a few days..

I had one of my two trolling batteries (24v) do this to me last year with a MinnKota charger. The charger fried it because the battery never charged to a level that the charger would register as being full so it kept cranking all 10 amps of the bank to it. Since I replaced the battery I have kept the boat plugged in 24/7 without a problem.

On a side note, I was browsing the local BPS today and it appears that their XPS line of chargers is designed and engineered by ProMariner. My MK charger has suddenly developed a buzzing sound and will be replaced by either a 5-5 or 10-10 BPS charger next week. They're MUCH lighter than the comparable MK units.