Trickle charging

I replaced my manual head with an electronic one, and also put in a waste tank monitor. I don't want to disturb my existing battery bank connections, so I have an extra deep cycle 12v battery that I want to dedicate to this new head system. But because the battery does not get the frequent charging, I'd like to get a trickle charger for this battery. It would have to stay connected 24/7, sort of connect-and-forget. Any recommendations and/or suggestions? Thank you.

Lead acid wet cell? Where will this battery reside, in a living space like the head cabinet?

If you have a good house battery bank and bus bar, wire is relatively cheap to allow a connection for a simple but substantial system improvement.

Sorry, can't recommend a dedicated float charger. Is your shore charger multi-bank capable?

The battery is located in the engine room, close to the existing bank of batteries. It is roomy down there, and can accommodate space for a trickle charger. It's a wet cell. As for lead acid, I do not know. I do end up charging the battery every now and then, which is inconvenient, especially when nature calls.

And why don't you want to hook it up to your house bank?

Otherwise there are plenty of small, smart chargers out there. Just go by a motorcycle store.

Crazy...

I too am curious why not connect to existing batt'y bank?

If you want to keep it separate here are some options...

I've used and happy with Battery Minders.
I've used them to maintain boat & RV batteries off season so a small (1 amp) unit suffices. They do make larger amp units. Their tech rep told me no problem leaving connected 24/7 when connected to 120V AC - if/when you disconnect from shore power & motor there is a small (?) draw from the battery and over a long period will draw a battery down. If these times are short I don't think there is a problem.

There are a lot of other options to charge this battery either from either house / start batt'y from alternator while running or charger when on shore power.
See Comparison - Battery Isolators & Combiners (post#4) in the Electrical Electronics & Nav Ref Mat'l Thread

I have to say I've not encountered a dedicated head battery before.
In any event, set it and forget it sounds like a bad approach.

If the boat was properly wired, from your house bank there should be both a positive and a negative bus where all connections are routed to. I believe you should route this head and monitor to there.

Besides, where would this charger be plugged into? an AC outlet in the boat? So you're taking DC power, converting it to AC so you can transfer it back into DC to that battery. Rather inneficient.

Have to agree with the sentiment here. Seems like a lot of work to "not" connect to your house bank which is the best source of power on your boat. However, if you must, I do know of a great charger setup that you can be confident leaving on. I have 2 different chargers from these folks and they are great.

http://www.amazon.com/OptiMate-Ampm...ester-maintainer/dp/B003UANXCE#productDetails

Ken

I have a 25w(more than it needs) solar panel charging my genset battery, via a simple controller. That would be an easy solution,no charger power source required.