Batteries and charger

Discussions regarding electronics, gear and other equipment of maintenance issues that ARE NOT SPECIFIC to a certain PDQ model yacht
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amytom
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Batteries and charger

Post by amytom »

I currently have 3 Walmart group 29 "deep cycle" batteries on the house bank, one Walmart group 29 "dual use battery" for starting, and a Trucharge 20+ charger along with 400watts of solar and a Air x windgen.

My batteries are pretty much shot after about 2.5 years and it's time to upgrade.

I was considering putting 4 T105's in the battery wells with the outboards and putting the Walmart starting battery under the cockpit step. I was also hoping to upgrade the charger to either a Trucharge 60 or the Iota 55 to be run from shore or Honda 2k.

Anyone have experience with these chargers or any recomendations for the chargers or batteries?

Thanks

Tom
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MIDORI
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Re: Batteries and charger

Post by MIDORI »

Last season prior to our departure to the Exumas, we had an IOTA DLS 75 installed. Our Honda 2000 runs this charger, but turn the ECO throttle off for the initial charge.

We have 4 NAPA golf type batteries in the engine wells and one 12 under the step.

No problems.

MIDORI spends the summer on the hard, we will return to her Nov 2010 and reboot the system for another season.

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Tanah-Keeta
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Re: Batteries and charger

Post by Tanah-Keeta »

I am looking to replace the batteries on my 34. Original batteries were from Canada and look very much like what you can buy at Sam's. I talked to the local Trojan dealer about T-105's. Price was $120.99 each for four. He indicated that the Trojans were built better but who knows.... If you have the height, the t-125 and t-145 give you more amp hours .. same box size but taller. Be careful about terminal type.

I used Sam's batteries in my 36 and they were fine. and a lot cheaper.
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Re: Batteries and charger

Post by Bargain Bill »

I installed a house bank of eight T-105's. They j-u-s-t fit with a 3/4" plywood extension in the battery compartment. We are on the hook 2-3 days before we need to recharge. They are 2 yrs old with no signs of degrading (yet). Its extra weight to haul, but I like not having to recharge every day for several hours.
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maxicrom
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Re: Batteries and charger: Question

Post by maxicrom »

Not trying to sidetrack the post but thought this might be on the same track,

I see that a number of the cruisers here are using strictly charging systems with Honda Gen sets - I wondering if there are folks using inverter chargers rather than the straight charger - for instance a Zantrex Freedom type. I'm definately a believer in a good sized house bank with back up starter batteries but I would also like to have the option of AC power when I want. I realize that the converting from DC to AC is not efficient but my thought would be that the later generation inverters would allow the use of a smaller gen set to provide power (say the EU2000i, or now the EU3000i Handi). From reading the the newer technologies supply on the inverter side and will make up surge amps from your bank. For example if I wanted to run my AC\Heat system (16K BTU) overnight the AC startup load might be 12 - 15A but the running load is 6 - 8A which a small Honda will supply without being overloaded. That new EU300i weighs about the same our old Honda 1K. It's not that we run much of an AC load when we are out it's more of having the option to if needed. Also I would think that supplying the power from the inverter would be a more stable AC power supply. Our charger is almost 20 years old so we will be looking at upgrading our system over the next few years.

Thanks,

Mike in Linda

Some Inverter specs:

XANTREX FREEDOM MARINE 30 Inverter/Charger: The Freedom Marine 30-12 is ideal for powering simultaneous applications including large TVs, VCRs, stereo systems, large microwaves, power tools and mobile office equipment including fax, laptops, desktop computers, and ink-jet printers. With a continuous modified sine wave output of 3000 watts and surge power of 75 Amps, Freedom Marine 30-12 works with electricity supplied from your shore power hookup or craft's generator to recharge your batteries with up to 140 amps automatically. Freedom Marine 30-12's battery charger provides fast and accurate, 3-stage charging. Manual battery equalization and temperature-sensitive-charging features ensure optimal care of your batteries. The inverter / charger provides 30 amps automatic transfer switching between inverter power and incoming AC power. To ease installation, Freedom Marine 30-12 comes with an option of dual input and dual output connections. Weight (lbs) 50 Dimensions (H X W X L) 7.9 X 11.5 X 13.2
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thinwater
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Re: Batteries and charger

Post by thinwater »

I don't get the need to have a starting bank for the outboard boats; It creats a number of issolation puzzels and reduces total capacity. Pull starting the engines, if you goof, is really easy (and you only need to start one and wait a 10 minutes--then the other will catch), and the batteries have to be very near flat not to turn over a 9.9 hp motor. Just a thought and my practice for 17 years.

I have never had a flat battery that was a surprise (3 times); each time I knew I was pushing my luck after multiple nights on the hook. And I have never had trouble getting started.
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eepstein
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Re: Batteries and charger

Post by eepstein »

We have four 6 volt golf cart batteries for the house and two 12 volt batteries for the engines. The boat came that way and it’s pretty nicely rigged for living aboard. I’ll certainly keep it that way, although depending on need, may use lower priced batteries for the Bay and deeper cycle ones when we go cruising in a few years.

As for charging, we have the Freedom 30 which is original from 1996 and it does a great job as an inverter for making coffee, ice, or running the wet/dry Vac when we don’t want the noise of the generators. It’s a bit light for anything serious like the AC or electric oven, and I would hate to shorten the battery bank life anyway. Using it in conjunction with the generator is possible, although I don’t know how to set that up. Right now, once it senses the 120 volts it starts charging the batteries and increases the load on the generator, rather than augmenting it.

The Freedom 30 will pull 20 amps when the batteries are low. It can be too much for one Honda 2000i if anything else is running that is AC or DC power.

I have two solar panels and a wind generator (which is dead). I also have two Honda 2000is, which can run in parallel or separately depending on the need. As Bonnie has a wall oven now, and we have a new AC Unit, we actually have, once, baked biscuits while running the AC, making coffee, and charging the batteries that were running the Fridge and normal 12V systems. Pretty decedent huh?

Normally though, we try to keep power use to a minimum. We charge the batteries via generator every couple days when on long trips. We found the fans and refrigerator to be the biggest draws. The LED lights barely register use, the water pump is only for short periods, and laptops and phone chargers are not too bad while charging (we try to remember to unplug them when we aren’t using them).
Our AC is a Climma 12K BTU. I purchased it in 2009 specifically because it has a slow start compressor for light gensets. The Honda 2000i can run it all night on a tank of fuel. My one weakness is AC. I can endure anything except a really hot night sleeping.

In general I think that weight vs. value of batteries is easily justified when cruising. So having extra batteries is not a bad thing at all.

Hope this rambling is useful.
Eric & Bonnie Epstein
s/v Desert Star, PDQ36, Hull 49
Annapolis, MD
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maxicrom
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Re: Batteries and charger

Post by maxicrom »

Thanks for the info Eric... I'll try to find the article I read on Next Generation Inverters, I think it was in Sail magazine - it looked promising, hopefully with the energy focus on into residential gen-set battery backups we'll see some technology advances.

Mike
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