Going to install an On Board Battery Charger on my Boat , has crank battery and two 12 volt battery in series for the 24 volt Minn Kota , do I need a two bank charger or a three bank charger ??
Printable View
Going to install an On Board Battery Charger on my Boat , has crank battery and two 12 volt battery in series for the 24 volt Minn Kota , do I need a two bank charger or a three bank charger ??
A 3 bank charger is what you need if you want all batteries to feed off of the on board charger. even though your trolling batteries are wired in series they are each an independant battery when it comes to charging. A set of leads from each bank goes to each battery. Some of the newer on board chargers have a feature that sends the most current to the weakest battery and adjusts as the batteries come up to full charge. Make sure when you mount the charger that you have adequate ventilation around the charge as they can get real hot. When I mounted mine, I used blocks under each end to mount them on so that I could air flow on all side and underneath the unit. Saw a boat once where the charger was mounted right on top of carpet and it got hot enough to catch the carpet on fire, which in turn consumed a lot of the boat before being extinguished.
One bank for each battery on the boat. Dont rely on the engines alternator to fully charge the starting battery unless you do alot of long runs during the day. Get the 10 amp PER bank for wet cells or the 15 per bank for the agms
I'd do the opposite. AGMs charge much more efficiently and quickly than wet cells, so the larger charger would be more benefit with the wet cells.Quote:
Originally Posted by brushnjigs
Would not a 5 amp charger create less heat and fire problems than a 10 or 15 amp charger ? I am a Wet Cell person . can't see paying 200 bucks for a battery.
a 5 amp draw would take forever to charge a battery. After a day of fishing you would be looking at 18 to 20 hr of recharge time at 5 amps. 10 amps should be the minimum rate for an effective charger, 14 would be even better.
I used a 5-5-5 for several years and never had a problem of fully charging my batteries over night. This included a week long trip every spring when we would fish hard every day. My batteries were a starting battery and 2 big Delco Voyagers. Keep in mind how the smart charger works. The starting battery rarely needs much charging. So after it is charged that 5 amps is applied to the other 2 so you now have 7.5 amps going to them. I never ran out of power and our daily trips averaged 8-9 hours. I'm sure the maximizer in the TM helped a lot in conserving power too.
i use the 3-5-5 from cabelas, 3 going to starter battery. i can use trolling motor 8 hours, plug it in that night and its ready in the morning. 150.00 [ dont know how long it will last] works for me
Which chargers are the smart ones ??? I was looking at the minn kota but it doesn't state if they are or not ??
I may be dating myself with that term. That's what they called them years ago when they started going all digital. I think they are all smart chargers nowaday, at least the name brand ones I'm familiar with.
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 !
Rice rocket go to Mississippi off topic, look for anybody need a charger. Link to BBG marine for sale on Mincota chargers. Great prices.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by RiceRocket
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Il Duckshewter
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.