[C320-list] Re: [catalina320] starter battery

Wed Nov 9 05:28:09 PST 2005

Chris,
   One of the last things I did to my c320 was add a starting battery and an Echo Charger by Xantrex for away from the dock charging. It has the brains to - Check the start battery to see - IF - it needs juice, then - IF - and only IF whatever battery or group of batteries you have it connected to has enough juice to feed it, before any current is passed to the start battery. Of course I wired a 'fail over' switch so I could always use the house for start if needed.
   I also had the Xantrex 20 connected to all 3 batteries (I didn't go parallel with the house) for shore power charging and had no over charging problems.
   Since I was one of the many, many, many..... people who had the infamous Flyback 20 go junk in the first year, if that was my charger, I would get it out of the picture before doing anything else to try and figure out the problem. Just my rarely humble opinion.
Stan
(formally) "Christy Leigh"
c320 #656
Wickford/Narragansett Bay RI

>>> oldman1030 at hotmail.com 11/09/05 7:57 AM >>>
I might have missed something in the thread but let me ask this question 
because I might need to deal with it in the near future.

This solution seems to leave out the alternator overcharging the starter 
battery.
If I have a  low house battery and an 80 amp alternator couldn't the same 
situation happen.

Thank,

Chris
#447

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Darrell" <dgray at n-sea.org>
To: "C320-List" <C320-List at catalina320.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 6:22 PM
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Re: [catalina320] starter battery

> Thank Jeff, a local marine electric shop mentioned the same plan , using a 
> smaller trickle charger for the starter battery and the larger charger 
> just for the house bank. I guess I thought it more complicated than need 
> be. Should I wire the smaller trickle charger to the AC side of the panel 
> separately or could I tie into one of the AC outlets, Darrell
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jeff Church" <jjemail at comcast.net>
> To: "C320-List" <C320-List at catalina320.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 8:29 AM
> Subject: Re: [C320-list] Re: [catalina320] starter battery
>
>
>> Darrell,
>>
>> It sounds like you probably missed this part of the discussion relative 
>> to your starter battery problem.
>>
>> JeffC
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jeff Hare" <Catalina at thehares.com>
>> To: "C320-List" <C320-List at catalina320.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 10:13 AM
>> Subject: Re: [C320-list] Re: [catalina320] starter battery
>>
>>
>>> Hi Guys,
>>>
>>>     I'm not certain I understand the problem here, but if Bob was unsure 
>>> if paralleled
>>> batteries would be sensed correctly by the charger, then he's either not 
>>> paying attention
>>> to the question or doesn't really understand electronics.
>>>
>>> It is not electrically possible to tell whether you have two batteries 
>>> in parallel or
>>> one big battery.   You simply have a plus and minus terminal and it 
>>> makes no
>>> difference (in this application) whether you attach one charger wire to 
>>> the Plus
>>> post of each paralleled battery, or both to the same postitive post. 
>>> They're electrically
>>> the same point and will see identical characteristics.
>>>
>>> Also, regarding the overcharging,  it may be possible to overcharge the 
>>> starting
>>> battery, but this situation is more likely to happen if you run your 
>>> main house
>>> batteries down low on a regular basis, because the charger will remain 
>>> in bulk
>>> charge mode longer than the starting battery needs.  If this happens 
>>> from time
>>> to time, there shouldn't be any real damage other than the starting 
>>> battery might
>>> not last quite as long as it could.  Batteries are kind of self 
>>> regulating when charging
>>> in that they will only accept as much current as they need, so it's not 
>>> like the starting
>>> battery will be accepting the same amount of charge current as the large 
>>> bank.
>>>
>>> If you're very concerned about overcharging your starting battery 
>>> because you regularly
>>> discharge your house bank, then just move the shore power charger leg 
>>> back over to
>>> one of the house batteries, and install the Blue Sea ACR to trickle 
>>> charge the starting
>>> battery.  I think it's like $80 and seems like a pretty cool unit.  (I 
>>> bought one but haven't
>>> installed it yet).
>>>
>>> -JeffH
>>>
>>>
>>> At 01:51 AM 11/5/2005, you wrote:
>>>>Darrell,
>>>>
>>>>I spoke with Bob at ProMariner again. As expected, his suggestion for 
>>>>using the third post on the charger was wrong. He suggests that you test 
>>>>the charger and if it is defective they will sell you a rebuilt unit. In 
>>>>any case, I think it might be advisable to buy a Xantrex.
>>>>
>>>>I guess I'll hold off on adding a starter battery until I'm ready to 
>>>>upgrade the charger.
>>>>
>>>>JeffC
>>>>
>>
>>
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