Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Battery charger set up for boat

  1. #1

    Battery charger set up for boat

    I few questions for you electrical tech heads. I have 2 x deep cycle 240amp 6 volt batteries wired in series to run all the electrics and one dedicated lead acid 800 cca for the outboard engine.
    I see that BIAS boating sell a 15 amp yellow battery charger which looks more like a small stereo/ radio for around 140+ bucks, can’t remember the exact price. I also see in the same section of the catalogue that they sell another type of charger that you can mount in the boat permanently. Which system would be better, the permeant charger or the other type?

    I like the idea of having a charger in the boat along with start protection/surge protection. Does the permanent fitted charger charge while your underway or only when at home and plugged in to the a 240v outlet? And by start protection is that like an overload or spike/surge protection? What I know about electrical stuff I could write on the pointy ends of a pin using a pen. Some say I have gone overboard “pardon the pun” on the battery set up but most of my fishing or at least will be in 180+ meters of water which means 25+ miles out. So when I hit the key I want plenty of juice in the batteries. Much help would be appreciated.

    Stu

  2. #2

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    Hi Stu,
    Looking at the "on board" charger (Minn Kota), it appears to have a 240V plug. There's no specs on their website. Although permanently mounted, you'd still have to plug it in at home. Just saves setting it up each time. I'm not aware of any after market chargers that can be run from your motor.
    Your best move would be to buy one with a high current capability and always have your batteries topped up before each trip. There's plenty of good 3 (& more) stage chargers on the market. Many will say to buy a C-Tek, they are good but not neccesarily any better than some others. Shop around and you'll find a good charger for minimal coin.
    Cheers,
    Leigh (Kero).

  3. #3

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    Good questions Stuart, My setup is similar to yours but you haven't said how your engines charging system is configured but from what you have said I would assume that you have a typical setup with independant battery isolators, emergency parallel switch and VSR so that your start battery is charged first priority and when OK the house batteries are charged.
    I would think that so long as your batteries are in good shape and you use your boat regularly say once a month it should be enough but I guess it can depend on how you use your boat with how much running time : static time and what you have running on your house power, how many engine starts you do and all that.
    In my case I do the offshore trips but also some overnighters, I have typical electronics GPS, Sounder, Stereo, Radio, and all LED lighting etc also Radar but I don't run anything unnecessarily. I have checked my batteries and given them a charge at home in between trips out but they were all pretty well charged up and took very little so it seems not necessary to do any extra charging.
    It may be useful if your batteries are getting old and close to needing a change over or during a long lay up and in that case good to take the batteries out of the boat, just workshop style charger would suffice or the in house style can be more convenient if you don't wish to remove them.
    Just have to be a bit mindful of the inhouse charger being left on, particularly in a tinnie like mine that it could cause electrolysis problems and batteries do give off gas while charging and you need to be mindful of that and check the electrolite levels often in your standard lead acid ones.
    I have friends that use the CTek onboard chargers and just leave them plugged in to 240v while at home and swear by them so they may be good.

    With your other questions, No the inhouse type charger only charges while at home plugged in to 240v, while under way your engines system should take over as normal.
    The start/surge protection is just a filter that should minimise any voltage spikes and is more relevant to a single battery system where you are using the same battery for starting and electronics.
    If using an inhouse charging unit and you have a VSR on your battery system I am not sure whether it will switch battery banks as normal and maintain both sets, it may not and you may need a separate charger on each start batteries and house batteries but someone else on here will know the answer to that I am sure.

  4. #4

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    I use a 125w solar panel and a Morningstar regulator to maintain my batteries when the boat is not being used, I've also got a 25 amp ctek and a 20 amp xantrex and to be honest the xantrex chargers shit all over the cteks as they are much faster at charging (seems odd right) it also tells you the current that its suppling. My batteries are just over 4 years old and according to my snap on battery tester they are still holding 95% of their capacity which is incredible for their age.

  5. #5

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    If you want to go the Powertech charger their imported by Jaycar who would be slightly cheaper than Bias, in fact their on special for $99 at the moment.
    The onboard chargers are great but if your looking at the Minn Kota version last time I checked they were for a SLA/AGM battery and not true gell cells if that makes any difference.

  6. #6

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    Quote Originally Posted by DTHCoCo View Post
    I use a 125w solar panel and a Morningstar regulator to maintain my batteries when the boat is not being used, I've also got a 25 amp ctek and a 20 amp xantrex and to be honest the xantrex chargers shit all over the cteks as they are much faster at charging (seems odd right) it also tells you the current that its suppling. My batteries are just over 4 years old and according to my snap on battery tester they are still holding 95% of their capacity which is incredible for their age.
    I have looked at the ctek and I couldnt see the value but then thats based on not knowing squat. I have also looked at the xantrex and they seem to be good value and being able to mount them on board is great. I was also looking for a spike or zap protection, dont know what the hell they call it already fitted in the xantrex. ###### marine on the Gold Coast has them for $410 so I may very well have a talk to them tomorrow. Its a fair wack more than I wanted to pay but then you pay for quality. The battery cable from the donk to the main starting battery is 50square mm or around 14mm OD because it has to travel around 6 meters. I know some chargers wont charge deep cycle, dont know why. I though a battery is a battery and they all need charging, apparenty not. The main starting lead acid battery is located in the centre console and is open to the air but then If any gas gets out it could very well build up near the top of the console where all the electronics are located, now that could be very expensive if it went "boom". Perhaps I could put a fan on when charging the main battery to get rid of the gas. Its one of those things I have been putting off because I know bugger all about wiring. I have organised a guy from this web site to do all the wiring so I need to get all this sort of thing sorted before he turns up. Thanks for the help so far.

    Stu

  7. #7

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    With the xantrex you can buy the option battery temp sensor it will monitor the temp and charge it accordingly.

  8. #8

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    I was speaking with a company on Gold Coast that sells and does installs on boats. He said that while thew Xantrex is a very good brand most of them aren’t water proof. The 20 amp Xantrex charger was around $470 and the C tec 25 amp charger was $385. What we come up with or at least he did, was to use a 25 amp C tec charger then cut the two alligator clamps off and wire them into a Minkota battery plug and socket. The socket will be fitted to the inside of the console and then it’s just a matter of hooking it up to the boat and plugging it in the mains power point. That’s a fair bit less work and cheaper as well. The other aspect which I though about was that I also needed a charger for other batteries I have so at least the C tec can be used for all the batteries I own.

    Stu

  9. #9

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    While use are on about battery chargers. Can anyone recommend about a 50-60 amp baterry charger for three banks 3x 120amp start 3x 120amp house and 1 x 100amp generator start bat.Did have a baintech about 10 year old but just died. Have seen promariner nautic on web in USA but cant find any reviews. Any help would be good.

  10. #10

    Re: Battery charger set up for boat

    Guys talk to Craig at alco batteries he supplies chargers for the deep cell batteries we use in industry. He will tie up the charge cycle for your specific batteries to the required charger. The guy really knows his stuuf
    A bad day fishing, beats any day at work

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Join us