[C320-list] Shore Power

[Allan Field]

Ken - For us, the answer to your question is complicated! When we bought
our C320 new, it came with a ProMariner charger and lead cell batteries.
The dealer told us at the time to have a load on the batteries if leaving
the charger plugged in. So that's what we did...and cooked the batteries!
The ProMariner back then was a problem child for many of us. Once we put a
new charger in and switched out to gel cell batteries, we never had
another problem. The charger ran 24/7, along with the fridge, from the end
of March to the end of November. We had the boat for 16 years with the last
battery bank being AGMs after friends we lent the boat to for 3 weeks
ruined the gels.

With our C387, we have a Xantrex charger and AGM batteries. We had an
electrician install the charger. I asked him about the "load" issue. He
told me that with the new 3-stage chargers and AGM batteries, it didn't
make a difference whether or not there is a load. Note that this is one
person's opinion, which we have elected to follow. We leave the boat in the
water all winter. About every 4-5 weeks, I'd go down and turn on the
charger and leave it on, with no load, until the next visit 7-10 days
later. And the batteries remain healthy as evidenced by a periodic load
test

So, this is a long way of saying that if our experience serves as any
guide, it might depend on what your setup is. Hope this helps some and if
Jeff Hare weighs in on this, disregard everything I say and follow whatever
he says!

Allan S. Field
Sea Shadow - C387, #103 (formerly C320, #808)
Columbia, MD

On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 8:37 AM Ken McCrimmon <kenmccrimmon at hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi
> When I purchased Kia Ora last fall, I asked the previous owner about their
> practises with leaving the boat plugged into shore power.
> The response was we don't leave it plugged in because it is bad for the
> electrical system if it is plugged in without a draw on the power.
> Since then, I have done research on shore power and really never found a
> good answer to what is the concern with leaving the boat plugged in or not.
>
> I wanted to ask the forum what your practises are when the boat is in the
> water at the marina and if you know what if any concerns, I should have
> with leaving the shore power connected when I am not on board.
>
> Thanks
> Ken
>