[C320-list] Battery Combiner

[catalina at thehares.com]

I may have played around with the settings to see how much range I had, but
they're pretty close to factory settings as that's really good enough.  The
thing is, during charge, you almost always have more than 13.5 volts unless
you're charging from solar or wind which might be lower until the main bank
is mostly charged.

-Jeff

On Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:57:35 -0600, Jeff Church 387 <jc387 at att.net> wrote:
> Jeff,
> 
> As always, thanks for the great info.
> 
> Did you change the combined and/or overvoltage settings or just use the
> factory defaults which are 13.5v and 15v respectively?
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
> 
> Jeff Hare wrote:
>> Hey Jeff,
>>
>>   I like the price/versatility of the Blue Sea CL-series ACR unit,
>> personally.  It has current limiting (~60 Amps?) and lets you adjust the
>> cut-in / cut-out voltages, allows for a manual override switch if you
> want
>> one and has a built in driver for a remote LED to show when batteries
> are
>> joined.
>>
>> I picked mine up at West Marine for $75 and then applied a boat show
>> discount coupon.
>>
>> Some things to consider regarding current limiting and starting
> batteries:
>>
>> 1) Pretty quickly (within minutes) after you start charging your house
> bank,
>> the batteries will begin to accept less current anyway, so from our
>> experience, it doesn't really affect bulk charging in any noticeable
> way.
>>
>> 2) Unless the starting battery is weak, it's not going to draw much
> charging
>> current for any length of time anyway, so the current limiting wouldn't
> come
>> into play except in extreme situations.  It might draw 10-15 amps for a
>> couple minutes, but starting batteries recharge really fast and don't
>> typically get drawn down hardly at all if just used for starting.
>>
>>  I installed a starting battery with the CL-ACR in a C380 2 years ago
> and
>> went with the Exide orbital AGM because it's a pretty indestructible AGM
>> battery with really high starting currents for about $110.  (That, and
> the
>> 380 had a screwed down floor panel for accessing the starting battery
>> compartment making it inconvenient to check water levels in a flooded
>> battery.)  :)
>>
>> On the bonus side, It can also be wired as an automatic low voltage
>> disconnect for loads under ~50 amps.  I have a second one that I plan to
>> mount behind the electrical panel that will disconnect the fridge if the
>> house bank drops below some voltage that I choose.  That will prevent my
>> batteries from being drawn down if my shore power breaker gets popped or
> I
>> forget to turn on the shore power charger when getting back at the
> dock.. :)
>>
>>
>> Should something happen to the starting battery ACR underway, I'd have a
>> spare I could use quite easily.
>>
>> http://bluesea.com/productline/overview/386
>>
>> -Jeff
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com
>> [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Jeff
> Church
>> 387
>> Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 7:48 PM
>> To: C320-List at Catalina320.com
>> Subject: [C320-list] Battery Combiner
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> We may have discussed this a few years ago. I'm going to install a
>> starting battery in my 387 and I need a recommendation. I'm looking at
>> various battery combiners such as Blue Sea's Battery Link and the
>> Xantrex Echo Charger. The Echo Charger seems to have the advantage of
>> limiting current to the starting battery when the battery charger is in
>> bulk mode. Do You have a preference or recommendation?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Jeff Church
>>
>>
>>