Guest battery charger question

Stu Jackson · Feb 13, 2011

Read the manual. Many multiple output chargers can use only one output to use the full capacity. Some don't. You have the charger, and you have the manual.

You're right that if it CAN do so, cap the second and third outputs, and run the single output to the house bank, your combiner will do the rest, just like your alternator will do. This is simply an issue of single source charging to a dual bank setup.

The combiner doesn't care whether it's from an alternator, shorepower source, solar, windmill or squirrels rubbing their legs together.

Ron20324 · Feb 13, 2011

I'm not sure I can see why you wouldnt go ahead and wire the two charger outputs to the two battery/banks. Eliminate the combiner, which is just another thing to go bad. I had one go bad on my BVI charter last year.

I would not try to combine the charger outputs.

Maine Sail · Feb 14, 2011

galynd said:
I have a guest 2613 battery charger, which is a 3 stage charger with 3 seperate outputs of 5, 5, and 3 amps. The 3 outputs ares designed for 3 banks. I currently have a house bank and a starter battery with a combiner between the two. My 12 v alternator charges the house bank, then the starting battery. Should the guest charger also charge the house first then allow the combiner to close and charge the starter battery? If so can I connect all the outputs to the housebank together to charge at 13 amps?

thanks,
greg

Your unit is a 5/5/5 amp charger.

Here's what Guest says..

2613A Connection Warnings: For the 2613A, only output 2 and output 3 may be connected in parallel for a 12 V 10 amp output. The engine start output (Output 1) may not be connected in parallel with output 2 & 3.

So the most you're going to get, using it as a single bank charger, is 10A..

Maine Sail · Feb 14, 2011

Ron20324 said:
I'm not sure I can see why you wouldnt go ahead and wire the two charger outputs to the two battery/banks. Eliminate the combiner, which is just another thing to go bad. I had one go bad on my BVI charter last year.

I would not try to combine the charger outputs.

Just because you had one go bad, of unknown brand, does not mean these are not very, very, very reliable devices. A lot of the charter companies do not use real ACR's or purpose built combiners they use basic relays. Because of this they can wind up with relay chatter when the banks combine. This can kill them in short order because they were not designed properly to begin with. A genuine Blue Sea or Yandina combiner will not chatter due to programming delay logic.

If the OP has a combiner he would be very wells served to keep it and just use the 10A output..

The failure rate of the Yandina combiners for example is well under .1% and they've sold well over 30,000 units, "An annual failure rate of 0.0125% is why we can give unconditional warranty".

Not too many marine electrical products with that type of warranty or reliability. The Blue Seas ACR's and the Yandina combiners are very, very reliable and far more reliable than HEF or "Human Error Factor" when constantly manually selecting which banks to charge and then remembering to isolate them when the engine is off.

The OP can combine two outputs to make it a 10A charger.

Maine Sail · Feb 14, 2011

galynd said:
Aman to the Yandina Combiner. That's what I'm using and I love the way it works.

MaineSail, the charger I'm using is a 2613 not the 2613a. I don't think the 2613 is made anymore. My manual says it's 5/5/3 amp output; thus the "13" on the original 2613. The 3 amp is for the starter battery. I believe I can connect the two 5's and leave the starter output (3 amp) disconnected.
thanks.

They must have bumped the "A" version to 5/5/5 from 5/5/3... Either way your only giving up 3 amps by not using the starter circuit. You might call Guest to confirm it works the same for your non model "A" version..