one thing about shore power...

tomcat rio · Post by **tomcat rio** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:28 pm

...it might fail, as it did at my marina the other night.
...
i leave the reefer on. i had been leaving the battery switch in 'both' when connected to shore power. this is not a good idea...
yep, both batteries died.
i found the main power switch at the dock. it was off for some reason. i turned it on and heard the bilge pumps on at least 5 other boats come on.
sooo... even with shore power connected, its probably best to have only the house battery selected if you want to leave the reefer (or some other load) on. the battery charger should still service both batteries.
...
it seems most things i learn, i learn the hard way.

Post by **Mariner** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:56 pm

This is true if your battery charger will charge both batteries. Ours does, but I have been leaving the banks combined. I will alter this practice after reading your post.

jcollins · Post by **jcollins** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:10 pm

Tomcat,
I always leave my switch on the house battery. Other folks leave the switch on both to keep the batteries topped off.

Thanks for the tip!

Post by **chiefrcd** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:51 am

Yep, one of the issues here concerns using those electric boat heaters to prevent freezing. Lots of people do that and fail to winterize their boats. Then the power goes off in a big storm or someone throws the breakers and your boat freezes up. Everytime I leave the boat, I prepare that there will be no power on it at times....I minimize food in the fridg....keep just one battery on etc. I'm not sure how most marinas are but the electrical system in my marina was wired by Thomas Edison himself...

tomcat rio · Post by **tomcat rio** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:28 pm

...charges both batteries with the batt switch off. the meter on the charger should verify that. its an a.c. load and should not be affected by the batt switch.

Post by **Butch** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:05 pm

I learn alot listening to all of you . I think i will alternate batteries for now on and i always wanted to know if it charged when off. Thanks

Post by **Mariner** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:43 pm

tomcat rio wrote:...charges both batteries with the batt switch off. the meter on the charger should verify that. its an a.c. load and should not be affected by the batt switch.

That all depends on the boat. Some are wired that way, some are not.

Ours is.

tomcat rio · Post by **tomcat rio** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:24 pm

...check for 12 vdc at the positive leads with the charger on and shore power connected.
then, cycle through '1','2'.'both' and 'off' and verify you still have 12 vdc on both positive leads...reconnect the batteries.
...
it seems to me the builders would really have to go out of their way to put the batt switch between the charger and the batteries.
...
as an aside, i read in one boating mag that wing nuts are no longer recommended to connect leads to batteries. use a nut and a wrench.

Albin Owners Group

Albin Owners Group

one thing about shore power...

one thing about shore power...

pretty sure the charger...

battery, shore power and charger

Re: pretty sure the charger...

just disconnect the batteries and...