Who often should I be checking the battery fluid?

[John Richard]

Mine is a new 410. Unfortunately, I have a lot to learn about batteries and their use. How often should I be checking them? So far in four months, I have not made the effort.Also, what is the best way to conserve battery power while at anchor? I have read in the manual about isolating one of the house batteries. What is the minimum amperage that will provide power before I need to start up the engine?John Richards/v Jack's Place

 

[Steve Dion]

When everything is working right, not too often.

John:When everything is working well you will not need to check your batteries very often. The problem is when things start going bad. If you have multiple batteries in a single bank and one of them starts to go bad you are going to have problems. The weak battery will cause the bank to need extra charging. The extra charging is going to cause the good battery to go bad etc etc. My sugggestion is to look at them at least once per month (more would be better). This way you may catch something before it happens. I assume that you leave your charger on all the time? If you leave a charger on all the time and start cooking your batteries, it can start a fire/explosion if not caught in time.The best way to conserve power is to turn everything off. Now this is not practical. You will probably need an anchor light, some interior lights etc. You can turn down your refridgeration at nite so you do not use as much battery. If you have an inverter they use power when in standby mode, so you should turn it off when not in use. Because you can obviously run down a house bank and not have any power left to start your engine you should have at least 2 banks. One that is a single battery that is reserved for start your engine. This battery should be kept fully charged all the time. The second battery bank may have 1 or more batteries. This should be isolated so you do not drain ANY power from the starting bank (an isolator/ combiner can be used). The house bank needs to have enough power to run the entire boat for the alloted amount time between charges. Remember that if you have a 400 amp bank, you can only use about 200 amps of the bank. Nigel Calder's books have some good ideas on wiring and battery requirements. I'd suggest you purchase one (check out the SAILBOATOWNERS.COM store).

 

[John Rollins]

battery check

I have been checking water levels on my batteries about every 6 months. I find that I am adding about 1 gallon of water to two house batteries and one stater battery. The lesson learned is that I need to check more often, perhaps every 3-4 months. Starter battery seems to use more water. When adding water I suggest that you use only distilled water.JR

 

[Rich]

Depends upon how you're using them

It depends upon how you're using them. I check mine every couple of weeks and top them off every 4-6 weeks. I'm also running my fridge 24-7 when hooked up to shore power. This causes more cycling and uses more water. If you leave everything turned off and have a float charge you probably won't need to add water very often but I'd check about every 30 days anyway. I cooked one dry one time...smelled up the boat pretty bad and taught me checking too often is better than not often enough.