It should be easy, but... I need new dual on-board battery charger maintainer for my Sabre 28. The old one was about 10 Amps. I'm trying to stay under $120. I tried researching it, but it seems that even "very good" ones have drawbacks. I want a simple charger that will charge and maintain both my batteries without deciding that one of them is "bad" and then shutting off. I do not want a cheap one I will hav eto replace in 2 years. The PO's old one was 20 years old when it conked out. In fact, it was so reliable, that the PO couldn't figure out for 15 minutes why the engingine wouldn't crank untill we realized the charger was bad. So, I will entertain all ideas...
Battery charger question
- Thread starter Piotr
- Start date
Piotr.
I would recommend you read the information shared by Maine Sail. He is a featured contributor on these forums. Extremely knowledgeable about all things electrical. http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?forums/musings-with-maine-sail.135/
Afraid you are not going to find a cheap charger (under $120) that is also safe to use in the marine environment. The size of the charger (you stated "10 amps") is relative to how big of a battery bank you have and how long you want to wait till it is fully charged.
You can also search the forum for "Battery Chargers". There are many postings that share owners ideas to answer your question.
I just replaced the charger that came on my -new to me- boat. The previous owners were unaware of the electrical/fire risks the were under. They installed a 6 amp car battery charger not designed to be on a boat. May also have been the reason they were replacing dead batteries every two years.
I would recommend you read the information shared by Maine Sail. He is a featured contributor on these forums. Extremely knowledgeable about all things electrical. http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?forums/musings-with-maine-sail.135/
Afraid you are not going to find a cheap charger (under $120) that is also safe to use in the marine environment. The size of the charger (you stated "10 amps") is relative to how big of a battery bank you have and how long you want to wait till it is fully charged.
You can also search the forum for "Battery Chargers". There are many postings that share owners ideas to answer your question.
I just replaced the charger that came on my -new to me- boat. The previous owners were unaware of the electrical/fire risks the were under. They installed a 6 amp car battery charger not designed to be on a boat. May also have been the reason they were replacing dead batteries every two years.
There are better for more money, but the promariner batt chrgers are pretty decent and dependable chargers for what they cost....
But rather than a dual feed charger, using an acr with a single feed charger is a better choice... cost wise, it will probably work out real close to the same either way you choose to do it.
But rather than a dual feed charger, using an acr with a single feed charger is a better choice... cost wise, it will probably work out real close to the same either way you choose to do it.
For that kind of budget the ProMariner ProSport 8 or ProSport 12 would be a considerably better charger choice.
The ProSport chargers offer three voltage settings; AGM, GEL and FLOODED. This allows you to match the best voltage setting to your batteries, or as close as you can, in this level charger. The Guest/Marinco charger offers one voltage profile or a one size fits all approach.
The Guest/Marinco 10A charger has a limited output on each leg of 5A. This means that if your start bank only needs 0.2A then the other 4.8A is being 100% wasted.
The ProSport uses a distributed by demand charge output design and each battery will get what it needs in current from the charger. This means the smaller ProSport 8 is actually charging a house bank faster faster than the Guest 10A / 5A + 5A because it can send the majority of the 8A to house and the trickle current over to the already full start battery......
All that said I am not a fan of any chargers in this price range but one that at least charges via a distributed by demand method, and offers more than one voltage profile, will be the better choice.
The ProSport chargers offer three voltage settings; AGM, GEL and FLOODED. This allows you to match the best voltage setting to your batteries, or as close as you can, in this level charger. The Guest/Marinco charger offers one voltage profile or a one size fits all approach.
The Guest/Marinco 10A charger has a limited output on each leg of 5A. This means that if your start bank only needs 0.2A then the other 4.8A is being 100% wasted.
The ProSport uses a distributed by demand charge output design and each battery will get what it needs in current from the charger. This means the smaller ProSport 8 is actually charging a house bank faster faster than the Guest 10A / 5A + 5A because it can send the majority of the 8A to house and the trickle current over to the already full start battery......
All that said I am not a fan of any chargers in this price range but one that at least charges via a distributed by demand method, and offers more than one voltage profile, will be the better choice.
Piotr,
A cheap charger will cost you more in the long run than a suitable multi-stage marine charger. Assume you have the standard 2 group 24 flooded cell batteries that Sabre used on the 28s. Each GRP 24 has about 75 amp hours of capacity so you have a total of ~150 AH. The rule of thumb is to have a charger that is 10% of the battery capacity plus some for running lights and whatever while connected to shore power. So you should be looking at a 20 amp multi-stage charger.
An ACR (automatic charging relay) should be installed between the batteries. This will allow both batteries to be charged from one source, alternator, charger, solar, etc. and prevent the batteries from discharging themselves.
Check Maine Sail's forum here or his website Welcome To MarineHowTo.com Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com
The $120 price point is going to be a bit difficult to reach, $200 is probably more realistic.
Edit: You may also want to check out the online Sabre group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Sabresailboat/info
A cheap charger will cost you more in the long run than a suitable multi-stage marine charger. Assume you have the standard 2 group 24 flooded cell batteries that Sabre used on the 28s. Each GRP 24 has about 75 amp hours of capacity so you have a total of ~150 AH. The rule of thumb is to have a charger that is 10% of the battery capacity plus some for running lights and whatever while connected to shore power. So you should be looking at a 20 amp multi-stage charger.
An ACR (automatic charging relay) should be installed between the batteries. This will allow both batteries to be charged from one source, alternator, charger, solar, etc. and prevent the batteries from discharging themselves.
Check Maine Sail's forum here or his website Welcome To MarineHowTo.com Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com
The $120 price point is going to be a bit difficult to reach, $200 is probably more realistic.
Edit: You may also want to check out the online Sabre group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Sabresailboat/info
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Here is a promariner sport 12 for $103... copy and paste the URL, cuz i dont know how to turn it to a link on my phone.
they seem to work pretty well....http://www.anchorexpress.com/ProMar...SuiU0Q3JEIk1e5wbXUW1jjaPogQq9pZds4aArT58P8HAQ
they seem to work pretty well....http://www.anchorexpress.com/ProMar...SuiU0Q3JEIk1e5wbXUW1jjaPogQq9pZds4aArT58P8HAQ
An ACR is a good addition and the dual feed chargers can be used with them by connecting both leads to the same terminal, for what i feel is quicker in bringing the all the banks back to full charge...
Good find at $103 but check the shipping charges, I believe the Amazon price included free shipping.
That's the unit that, apparently, refuses to charge batteries it deems to be "bad." It's not clear what makes them "bad" as many people reported that "bad" batteries remain serviceable for years...
That's trhe one I was leaning toward but I'd prefer 10 Amp rather than 8, but I don't think it matters (I'm mostly at the diock with on-shore power...).
The typical battery set up on a Sabre 28 is 2 group 24 "marine" batteries with a 1-2-both switch. The Both position will put the batteries in parallel to give you more amperage at the same 12 volts. Batteries in series will increase the voltage, thus 2 12v batteries in series would yield 24v.
If you follow Maine Sail's forum and his website, you'll soon learn that deep cycle batteries aren't all that deep cycle.
I checked and that's what I have. Interestingly, the old Guest charger was hard-wired in, while the new charger has a standard plug, so now I have to install an electric outled in the lazaret. Ugh...