That's the answer I would like at this point but I'm confused because you said temperature compensation would be a good idea.
It is always a good idea, especially when batts are in a hot engine space. BUT you got five years out of them and I doubt that even with temp compensation you'd get a lot more than that so on a purely $$ cost perspective 5 years is good life compared to the slight increases you might see by spending upwards of $400.00 by the time all is said and done. $400.00 is more than an entire new bank so if you got one extra year it would still take many years to recoup the expense and upgrade costs.
Bill, I'm not trying to increase charging speed but avoid cooking my alternator.
And that can be done by not allowing the alt to spin at an RPM that would see it producing it's max output. The throttle can be your temp compensation if necessary. Yes, you will charge slower but also not risk burning up your alt recovering a dead bank by running at full cruise RPM.
Now that I have a battery monitor and more knowledge about how these things work, it seems like a direct reading temp gauge on the alternator case would keep me out of trouble. If the monitor tells me I've drawn the bank way down, I'll keep an eye on alternator temperature as I run. I'm not going to be in a situation where the wife has to be home for bridge and I have to be back at work on Monday so I'll have the flexibility to run at reduced RPM if necessary to control charging rate.
Yes you will have a much better handle on it and if you can find a remote sensing t-stat to attach to the case it will allow you to see trends in your alts temp and know what the norms are.
I've run the engine 8 - 10 hours continuously at times and it doesn't seem to have hurt these batteries.
At the stated voltage your alt is putting out it should be fine and 8-10 hours gets you a lot closer to full, even at just 14v. Topping up AGM's is one of the best things you can do to prolong life.
I'm still trying to figure out if an external regulator is just a good idea (I know it is) or something that will look a lot cheaper to me way out in the boonies than it does right now.
They are never a bad idea just not always 100% necessary when other projects need to be taken care of too. We already know you can get five years out of your batts with; dumb regulation, batts in a hot compartment and witout even a battery monitor. You may find that with the monitor alone you can increase longevity by knowing where you stand.
I don't run external regulation on my own boat as it is not necessary for our situation which is wets with solar and in a compartment that never gets above 75F or much below 60F and a stock alt putting out 14.4 v.
I am on year five with WAL*MART

batteries and they still test within 3% of when they were brand new (as tested with the battery analyzer) and I just completed a 20 hour test on one of them yesterday where they are still going more than 20 hours before hitting 10.5V.
I am doing this as an experiment to see how many years I can go on $79.00 batteries with, SHOCK

, dumb regulation... OMG it can't be done the dumb regulator will kill your batteries........


Hasn't yet....
