Battery Monitor

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skipperdude

skipperdude

Guru
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
3,146
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Apache II
Vessel Make
1974 Donald Jones
I am looking at a Xantrex link 20 battery monitor.*
Anyone have any experience with this product.
My last set of 8D's lasted 9 years and I will be replacing them this fall.
*I liked the functions of this Monitor. I am hoping it will help me extend the life of the new batteries.** at 127lbs a battery once every 10 years is enough to lug these monsters down into the engine room*

SD
 
skipperdude wrote:at 127lbs a battery once every 10 years is enough to lug these monsters down into the engine room*
Click to expand...
Why don't you consider replacing the 8Ds with 6V golf cart batteries.* We replaced our two 8Ds with six golf cart batteries--- an 8D battery box will hold three golf cart batteries.* So now two pair of the GC batteries have replaced our house battery and the other pair is our start battery.* The new batteries occupy the same boxes as the old 8Ds, they connect to the boat's wiring the same way, but we now have twice the house amp hours and the same start battery amp hours.

Actually we don't have dedicated "house" and "start" banks since either bank can serve either function.* Plus pushing a start button on our boat automatically fires a big relay in the engine room that connects both battery banks together as long as the start button is held in.* This was the stock setup on all older GBs for a number of years and our boat still has it.* So far it's saved us once in terms of getting the engines started.

*
 
Now you tell me. I did not know that the golf batteries would fit hadn't thought of it.*
*I already purchased the new 8D's.

They were $124.95 Sams club. interstate batteries.
Ok so in 10 years I try the golf cart batteries.

SD*
 
Marin,
*Regarding golf cart batteries. I have been told that these have to be rotated every so often. As the first in line to the charger can sort of get dried up or the plates get damaged or something like that.
Have you any experience along this line?*

SD
 
skipperdude wrote:

Regarding golf cart batteries. I have been told that these have to be rotated every so often. As the first in line to the charger can sort of get dried up or the plates get damaged or something like that.
Have you any experience along this line?*

SD

_________________________________________________________


No you don't have to rotate golf cart batteries if they are installed correctly,* When you install batteries in parallel, golf cart or any type, you want the positive and negative feed loads to come off at opposite ends of the battery bank.* This way the current flows evenly through the entire bank.* If you have multiple banks you need to get a little creative on the wiring*to make this work.* This way all the batteries get "exercised" evenly.
You question about the Link 20.* We have a Link 10 on Hobo (one battery bank vs 2 for the Link 20) with 10 Trojan T-105's.* We also had a Link 10*on our last boat.* I would highly*recommend one.* They really tell you what is going on DC wise.*
Click to expand...
*
Larry/lena
Hobo KK42
La Paz, BCS, MX
 
skipperdude wrote:*Regarding golf cart batteries. I have been told that these have to be rotated every so often.
Click to expand...
I talked pretty extensively with the owner of the shop that we have do all the electrical work on our boat and he didn't say anything about rotating them.* We will equalize them twice a year or so, on his advice.

*
 
SD, Xantrex quality and service is very poor at this time. If you want a quality battery monitor look at the Victron. The best available on the market right now IMO. Chuck
 
Regarding golf cart batteries. I have been told that these have to be rotated every so often. As the first in line to the charger can sort of get dried up or the plates get damaged or something like that.
Have you any experience along this line?

Yes, if you to to Home Power Magazine they recommend rotation , weather its only 2 batts in the bank or 10+.

They also have drawings for the proper hook up of larger numbers of batts into a long lived bank.
 
I have a Link 20 and love it.
 
FF wrote:

Regarding golf cart batteries. I have been told that these have to be rotated every so often. As the first in line to the charger can sort of get dried up or the plates get damaged or something like that.
Have you any experience along this line?

Yes, if you to to Home Power Magazine they recommend rotation , weather its only 2 batts in the bank or 10+.

They also have drawings for the proper hook up of larger numbers of batts into a long lived bank.
Click to expand...
Do you have a link to this article?

Whats next? Are you going to open the batteries up and rotate the plates inside them?
You do not*need to rotate batteries, but it would be good exercise if you like lifting 50 pound batteries!
*


*


-- Edited by troy994719 on Friday 15th of October 2010 12:50:29 PM
 
Golf cart batteries DO NOT have to be rotated if they are installed properly. This is not a home off the grid system with solar panels and the integrated systems. These kind of posts just lend to confusion. SD ask about battery monitors.
 
There was a suggestion to convert to 6 volt instead of the 8 D's.
I had read somewhere that golf cart batteries needed to be rotated due to problems with the first in line receiving an unbalanced charge.
*I didn't understand the reason for this so was wondering if anyone experienced a problem with the first battery in line requiring more maintenance than those down stream. Like requiring the addition of water more often than the next.

SD*
 
We have run our systems on two banks of four batteries for over 12 years. Our batteries average 7 years and have never been rotated, neither have the dozens of long term cruisers we know that converted to golf cart batteries years ago. This is just not necessary. Chuck
 
The Link 20 device, coupled with a Balmar Max Charge and a latching relay does the job of maintaining an AGM bank and a wet starting bank just fine.
 
Delfin wrote:

.....and a latching relay does the job of maintaining an AGM bank and a wet starting bank just fine.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with a latching relay.* How is it used in on Delfin?

Larry/Lena
Hobo KK42
La Paz, BCS, MX

*
 
Yea, what Chuck said. I've used AGM 6V's for a long time. Never rotated or anything like that. I do use a desulphator on them. Got 8 years out of the last bank.
 
Larry, It's just a relay that only draws power for an instant, and then is held in either the open or closed position by a rachet, without having to be held in that state with current.* On a charging system, smart latching relays are used to combine battery banks so that a single charging source can be used to maintain two banks.* The sensor in the relay detects when the primary bank has reached around 90 - 95% saturation, then it latches and combines the primary with a secondary bank.* You generally aren't supposed to combine batteries of two types, as on Delfin where AGM are used for the house bank and wet cell for the starting.* However, the system seems to work just fine without harming the 8D wet cell starting batteries.* The Link 20 makes it easy to see what the charge or discharge rate is of either bank, so I can see when the relay is combining the banks, at what voltage, and what the relative current flow is.* Blue Sea makes the relay I use.

Hope that helps.
 
http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

Take a look at this link. I think you will have to copy and paste but it will take you to a battery interconnection page and description of why the catty corner connection of the positive and negatve main cables is necessary.
Also why the way many do it , pos. and neg. at the same end of the bank is NOT the way to do it.

This site also has a bunch of other good reading.



-- Edited by C lectric on Saturday 16th of October 2010 07:37:36 PM
 
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