Battery advice

  • Thread starter Christopher Barrett
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Christopher Barrett

I've got two deep cycle batteries on my 27', 1972 boat. I can't start the 6hp Volvo diesel on bat 1, only on bat 2 or all. This obviously means that bat 1 is low. During off hours I select bat 1 and leave it there in hopes of it charging. No luck so far. Should I purchase a new battery for replacement? What is good battery management, i.e. which batteries should be used for amenities and which ones for starting capabilities? Thanks, -CB
 
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john renfro

flat

hello christopher, go to your local auto parts store and buy a cheep ( about two dollars ) hydrometer, the type with floting balls to tell the charge on the battery. you may also have loose / dirty cables. john
 
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Brad Elbein

Battery mnemonics and management

As far as which battery to use for starting versus house use, a friend of mine (who sails a 42, so he must be 50% smarter than me) has this mnemonic: "One to get ready and two to go": which means you use one for starting and two for house use. I used to fight this problem with a low battery all the time. The problem is that if your batteries are hooked in parallel--which apparently they are--then the weak battery sucks the strong one dry and one of the batteries is always weaker, right?. (How like life this is!) So what I finally did was spend the bucks to get a dedicated starting bettery. Now no matter what happens with my parallel-linked house bank, I always have a starting battery raring to go. It was really, REALLY worth the money.
 
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Rob Rich

I have Brad's Setup

Sounds Like 2 is okay and will take a charge, so I would leave that one as is. Try replacing battery 1 with a starting battery. Like Brad, I always start with battery 1 and run out of the harbor with it. Once the engine is shut down, I change over to battery two, which is a dual purpose (used to be a deep cycle). Even if I run #2 into the ground (which takes days to do) I can easily switch back to 1 and start the enginewith a fresh, fully charged cell. Or, I can switch it to both,run the engine 5 minutes to charge both of them, then start it back up on 2 to charge the cell back up with with 100% of the alternator's output. I do this primarily for safety reasons. I like to know the engine will be there for me when I need it. Keeping your batteries topped off and constantly at full charge will help greatly! Best Regards, Rob
 
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