BrianSmith
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2014
- Messages
- 487
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Smartini
- Vessel Make
- 2002 Kristen 52' Flybridge Trawler
My house bank of 8 x 6V AGM golf cart batteries (Deka 8AGC2) is 2 1/2 years old. We don't spend much time in marinas, and we don't run the gennie very often (60 - 90 minutes every 2 - 3 days to make water and bring the batteries up, but never to 100%). We have about 1,000 watts of solar and are in the Caribbean, so we typically get at least 8 hours of pretty good sun. (The last 5 days' log shows 200 - 220 Ah being sent to the batteries from solar panels, and our daily usage is somewhat less than that.)
We did just spend about 7 weeks in a marina connected to shore power, so the Magnum 3112 Inverter / Charger got a chance to very thoroughly charge the batteries, and keep them charged, for a good long time.
The Magnum has what seems to be the most accurate default settings for my batteries, their "AGM2" setting. (AGM1 is Lifeline, AGM2 is Deka, et al.) The Absorption voltage is 14.5 and the Float is 13.5. The solar controller is also set to 14.5 and 13.5. The Balmar's AGM defaults are 14.18 and 13.5, so I'm thinking I should modify it to also be 14.5 and 13.5, even though we don't move the boat very often, so the Balmar isn't charging the batteries very often.
FINALLY, the question: am I hurting the batteries by not bringing them up to 100% SOC at least 3-4 times each month? Or, asked another way, what should I be bringing the SOC up to when I run the gennie, and how often should I do that?
We did just spend about 7 weeks in a marina connected to shore power, so the Magnum 3112 Inverter / Charger got a chance to very thoroughly charge the batteries, and keep them charged, for a good long time.
The Magnum has what seems to be the most accurate default settings for my batteries, their "AGM2" setting. (AGM1 is Lifeline, AGM2 is Deka, et al.) The Absorption voltage is 14.5 and the Float is 13.5. The solar controller is also set to 14.5 and 13.5. The Balmar's AGM defaults are 14.18 and 13.5, so I'm thinking I should modify it to also be 14.5 and 13.5, even though we don't move the boat very often, so the Balmar isn't charging the batteries very often.
FINALLY, the question: am I hurting the batteries by not bringing them up to 100% SOC at least 3-4 times each month? Or, asked another way, what should I be bringing the SOC up to when I run the gennie, and how often should I do that?