Still learning here. I was looking over my batteries and have a few questions. I have two batteries. The first is a STOWAWAY TOURNAMENT MARINE DUAL PURPOSE. The plate says "205 reserve capacity minutes @ 80". It goes on to say "designed for marine starting and trolloing motor deep cycle. 900 marine cranking amps at 32". This battery is hooked up to indicator #1 on the battery switch and I use it as my house battery. The second is a NORTH STATE BATTERY. All it states on the battery is "CA @ 32 = 665, CA @ 0 = 535". This battery is hooked up to indicator #2 on the battery switch and I use it as my starting battery. I have a battery charger that works off the AC at the slip. The batteries are closed cell (I never have to fill them). Here are my questions: 1) The negative terminals of the two batteries are connected and then go to the battery switch. The positive terminals each go directly to the battery switch and are not connected to one another. Are these batteries in parralel or in series? What's the difference? What's best? 2) Do I need to know the AH's? How would I calculate this since it's not written on the batteries? 3) What type of maintainance do they need? Again, they are closed cell where I don't add water. 4) Do the RCM's go down as the temperature goes up? It can get pretty hot in the lazarette where the batteries are located. Thanks, Joe Mullee
Battery Maintainance / Questions
- Thread starter Joe Mullee
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Joe - two batteries
Dear Joe 1)Your two batteries are in parralel and correct. 2)Normaly you need to know the AH. If not, then batteries are charged when the Amp. meter on the charger is at zero or the green light on. 3)Maintenance. Dont ever leave them very empty for long time.Protect from frost. Always must have power. You better unplug them when not in use for more than 2 months, cover the poles with vaseline or other grease but first charge them. For Excellent maintenance: leave charger on the winter, with 10 minutes charging every day(a cheap swich with timer will do good job)Must be at anopen air stock room. 4)Temperature increasing is normal. Check always the ampere meter or add one.If overcharged can be exploded. If you can not control all the above, do the hard charging off the boat. Good luck George Greece
Dear Joe 1)Your two batteries are in parralel and correct. 2)Normaly you need to know the AH. If not, then batteries are charged when the Amp. meter on the charger is at zero or the green light on. 3)Maintenance. Dont ever leave them very empty for long time.Protect from frost. Always must have power. You better unplug them when not in use for more than 2 months, cover the poles with vaseline or other grease but first charge them. For Excellent maintenance: leave charger on the winter, with 10 minutes charging every day(a cheap swich with timer will do good job)Must be at anopen air stock room. 4)Temperature increasing is normal. Check always the ampere meter or add one.If overcharged can be exploded. If you can not control all the above, do the hard charging off the boat. Good luck George Greece
Backwards.
Your batteries are separated so they are neither parallel nor serial. A common ground does not tie the batteries together. Since each positive post goes to a different position on the battery switch they are not tied together unless you switch to BOTH. Battery switch #1 should be your starter battery. You know that because of the 900 CCA(cold cranking amps). A big CCA number is a starter battery and typically has a low AH(amp-hour) value. Unless someone on the board has those batteries it is easiest to get the AH values from the mfg., store, or Google. Harder way is to measure if you have an amp meter attached.
Your batteries are separated so they are neither parallel nor serial. A common ground does not tie the batteries together. Since each positive post goes to a different position on the battery switch they are not tied together unless you switch to BOTH. Battery switch #1 should be your starter battery. You know that because of the 900 CCA(cold cranking amps). A big CCA number is a starter battery and typically has a low AH(amp-hour) value. Unless someone on the board has those batteries it is easiest to get the AH values from the mfg., store, or Google. Harder way is to measure if you have an amp meter attached.
What you have are
two starting batteries, the first has a cold cranking amp rating of 900 amps at 32 degrees farenheit. The reserve capacity rating probably refers to 20 amps for 205 minutes, or roughly 100 amp hours. The second battery has a cold cranking amps of 665 amps at 32 degrees or 535 amps at 0 degrees. Your battery switch allows you to use one or the other or both hooked in parallel. Since they are maintenance free tmey do not need any maintenance other than keeping the connections and the batteries themselves clean. Charge them once a month when not in use. These batteries are starting batteries, not true deep cycle batteries. When one of them dies, I would replace it with a true deep cycle battery and use it for the house battery. The amp hour rating is going to be difficult to determine on starting batteries, because they are not designed for that type of application. Run them until they die, or you decide you need more capacity for your house battery bank. Just don't mix old and new batteries for your house bank. There are lots of threads about batteries in the archives to research. Check them out and if you have questions, post them. Batteries are always a lively topic here.
two starting batteries, the first has a cold cranking amp rating of 900 amps at 32 degrees farenheit. The reserve capacity rating probably refers to 20 amps for 205 minutes, or roughly 100 amp hours. The second battery has a cold cranking amps of 665 amps at 32 degrees or 535 amps at 0 degrees. Your battery switch allows you to use one or the other or both hooked in parallel. Since they are maintenance free tmey do not need any maintenance other than keeping the connections and the batteries themselves clean. Charge them once a month when not in use. These batteries are starting batteries, not true deep cycle batteries. When one of them dies, I would replace it with a true deep cycle battery and use it for the house battery. The amp hour rating is going to be difficult to determine on starting batteries, because they are not designed for that type of application. Run them until they die, or you decide you need more capacity for your house battery bank. Just don't mix old and new batteries for your house bank. There are lots of threads about batteries in the archives to research. Check them out and if you have questions, post them. Batteries are always a lively topic here.
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