House Battery

Pineapple Girl · 02-22-2012, 03:52 PM

I got a laugh and vindication out of this.**

One of our many projects*was to trace out the battery wiring.* We could not for the life us figure out how our "house" battery was wired into the DC panel.* The two 8D "starter" batteries are led to it (one directly to the "both" position, but that is another story) but no lead from the "house."* So we were talking to a marine electrician about upgrading our house bank and installing an inverter and told him about this wiring issue.* We got the ha ha, yeah right.* Then we showed him.**And he*said "yeah you're right it isn't hooked up to anything."

*

sigh.*

BruceK · 02-22-2012, 05:13 PM

And for lack of charging you`ll likely have to replace it. Grrrrrrr...

Our boat came with a non working built in reefer, supposed to be wired off the main switchboard. Some idiot wired it direct to the genset battery instead; when the inevitable happened and they couldn`t start the genset they disconnected the wiring altogether.Reconnected to the switchboard,and 30 years old,it works fine; you may not be so lucky with your battery. BruceK

Baggiolini · 02-22-2012, 06:11 PM

At least you know now. And you will be able to run the refridge all night and not have a dead battery in the morning.

FF · 02-23-2012, 03:00 AM

" And you will be able to run the refridge all night and not have a dead battery in the morning."

The boaters prayer!

Usually denied as start batts suck as an overnight power source, and deep cycles suck as start batts , unless there is a big pile of them.

Pineapple Girl · 02-23-2012, 09:46 AM

Quote:

BruceK wrote:
And for lack of charging you`ll likely have to replace it. Grrrrrrr...

Our boat came with a non working built in reefer, supposed to be wired off the main switchboard. Some idiot wired it direct to the genset battery instead; when the inevitable happened and they couldn`t start the genset they disconnected the wiring altogether.Reconnected to the switchboard,and 30 years old,it works fine; you may not be so lucky with your battery. BruceK

oh but it is getting charged!!! the only thing hooked up to it is the diesel heater and the charging cables (charger and alternator).* We have the receipt where the PO bought and installed all three batteries in Feb 2010 so it is prob in good shape.* But it is a moot point since we are taking it out and replacing it with 6 golf cart batteries.*

Pineapple Girl · 02-23-2012, 09:49 AM

Quote:

FF wrote:
" And you will be able to run the refridge all night and not have a dead battery in the morning."

The boaters prayer!

Usually denied as start batts suck as an overnight power source, and deep cycles suck as start batts , unless there is a big pile of them.

I'm hoping Eric!* the new house bank will be 6 golf cart batteries with over 750 amp hours.**Now we know why we were having power issues last summer on the delta!* To FF's point, we were unknowingly using the starting batteries as our "house" and killing them*daily running the*fridge.

Pineapple Girl · 02-23-2012, 10:06 AM

Quote:

superdiver wrote:Pineapple Girl wrote:
oh but it is getting charged!!! the only thing hooked up to it is the diesel heater and the charging cables (charger and alternator).* We have the receipt where the PO bought and installed all three batteries in Feb 2010 so it is prob in good shape.* But it is a moot point since we are taking it out and replacing it with 6 golf cart batteries.*

*I would keep it in there and hooked up to a charger (if thats an option for your charger) and keep it for a back up incase your starter drains.* All you would need is a small set of jumpers or just reconnect it and you have an instant starter...* redundancy is a nice thing....

*Unfortunately it has to go to make room for the new house bank.* We've had some occasions of the starter batteries not having the juice to start the motors (since they were hooked up as the house batteries!) in which case we have fired up the generator to charge them for a bit.* We also carry jumper cables.* Hopefully we won't continue to have issues once they are isolated from the house circuit.

FF · 02-24-2012, 04:37 AM

IF you have the room , the truckers std , Series 31 usually is no more costly than smaller car batts. like Ser 27 or 24.

WEIGHT is good , as it means more CCA.

Compare CCA before your purchase, that is what counts for starts.

Trojan 6v golf cart batts are cheap , about $90 each. Compare "the 20 hour rate) for house batts.