28 TE batteries

[Nancy]

Our soon-to-be 28 TE has two SRM27 batteries in battery boxes under the center hatch between the helm seats on the starboard side, i.e. beneath the fixed portion of the cockpit sole. The boat has a Guest 10 amp battery charger with separate leads to each battery. There's a 1-2-all-off battery switch under the cabin step.

I'm not sure if the battery location allows decent access for checking and adding water.

This doesn't seem like much capacity to handle the most critical chores:
1. Start the engine
2. Run the bow thruster (which I understand is a power hog, but I don't know the draw)
3. Run the windlass
4. Keep the beer--I mean food--cold

We're accustomed to a dedicated starting battery and a completely segregated house bank. We really like the concept of taking no chances of inadvertent drain on the starting battery.

I'd love to hear how other 28 TE's are configured. What size batteries, how many, where are they? Do you use a battery switch? What size charger? If you have more than two batteries, where are they located? On our boat, the area to port at the center hatch contains the A/C pump. The area in the center is relatively empty.

[Russell]

Nancy, my 97 TE is configured the same as yours. The previous owner installed Duralast starting/deep cycle batteries just before I purchased the boat. After 7 years I just replaced one of the batteries. I mainly fish so I never discharge the batteries very deeply. I put the battery switch on both to start the engine and leave it in that position unless we are cruising and out overnight. Then I put it on one battery and have the other to start the engine. I never run the windlass or the bow thruster unless the engine is running. I also have a 10 amp battery charger but usually do not hook up to shore power except in the winter when I need it for the circulating block heater. The location of the batteries makes it difficult to see the water level as you suspected. I have a battery filler that shuts off when the water reaches the top and a mirror will help see into the holes.
I see that you also have the Cummins 250. I think you will find this is a great engine, easy to maintain, economical and very reliable. It would be nice to have a little more reserve but I can cruise 18 knots in a smooth sea at 2200 RPM.
I hope you will enjoy your new boat.

[Nancy]

Russ,

Battery filler that shuts off at the proper level?? There's such a thing? Ah yes, Google tells me there is. My husband has been holding out on me! lol! such a purist with a flashlight and measuring cup with good spout. And yes, he did mention something about probably needing a mirror on the Albin.

Great input on battery usage - thanks. It will be interesting to see if one SRM27 battery can hold us for 24 hours on the hook. I have my doubts. We're installing a new fridge and it should be pretty efficient compared to the 1978 Norcold we had on our Trojan until a few years ago. Refrigerators are such power hogs.

Interesting that your batteries charge well enough off the engine not to need the charger very often.

We've been hearing nothing but good things about the 250 engine. We're diesel virgins (on boats) and have a lot to learn. At sea trial, the boat ran at 19.5 knots at 2200 on an impossibly flat Chesapeake Bay. I would never have imagined it could look like a mill pond, but it did. We had to run over our own wake to get anything like a bump, and of course it was unnoticeable.

Really looking forward to getting this boat up here.

[Nancy]

Lucky,

Thanks for the great explanation about the combiner. We've read about this type of setup in Nigel Calder, but hadn't run into anyone who has it.

Is your battery charger connected to only one of your batteries?

What battery voltage gauge do you suggest?

[Nancy]

It's time to revisit this topic.

Recap:
Boat has two batteries with a 1/2/all battery switch.
They are wired so that so matter what position the switch is in, everything on the boat has power. In other words, the starting battery is not segregated from the house load.
When on the hook, we switch to the #2 battery and preserve #1 for starting.
When at the dock, the 10 amp battery charger charges both batteries (switch in position All).

After the first night on the hook when the refrigerator defrosted after six hours, we bought two new Group 27 115 amp-hour batteries to replace the 7-year-old ones. This was a quick decision just to keep us in power, and it was the easiest decision because the new batteries fit in the battery boxes. This provides adequate house power (mostly the fridge at 2.3 amps) for 24 hours.

I'd like to think about how to do things differently to provide a longer battery run time without running the engine.

Another battery? Where to put it? Space is at a premium in the bilge under the helm (see photos below).
Honda generator? Noisy. Have to store it and fuel it.
Solar panels? Has anyone done this on a 28TE?

batteries-1-070812-1200.jpg

batteries-2-070812-1200.jpg

[DougSea]

Hi Nancy,

Our 28 had 3 batteries. 2 group 27's configured like yours and a big 8D mounted on a platform over the bilge under the center hatch, i.e.; right where you were when you took the two pictures above. This battery had it's own on/off battery switch which as far as I can recall was tied in to the common post of the 1-both-2 existing switch. With this you effectively had a 1-2-3-ALL switch setup. The 8D was the "start" battery and the two group 27's were the house. My normal procedure was to get on the boat, turn on all of the batteries, and start. I would leave all of the batteries on while the engine was running. Once I had arrived at my anchor location and shut down the engine I would turn off the 8D. The 2 27's would normally keep the fridge, fans, lights, etc. going all night. Come morning I would turn on the 8D, shut off the now depleted 27's, start the engine. Let it run for 10 minutes or so to recharge the 8D and then turn on the 27's and shut off the 8D, figuring that the charge profile the alternator would now put out should see the lower voltage of the 27's and flood them. If I was staying put I would shut down the engine once the batteries were back to a reasonable charge and leave the 8D off. (And repeat the process the next day or whenever the 27's needed recharging) If getting underway I would again wait until the 27's were mostly charged and then turn the 8D on so that everything got topped off.

That sounds a bit complicated but once you got into the habit it was pretty straight forward. The only thing to watch for was to always have at least one of the switches in the ON position. Since there were two separate switches the normal "Make Before Break" of the 1-Both-2 isn't sufficient.

Hope that all made sense! Please feel free to ask if I can clarify anything.

[Nancy]

Hi Doug,

I wrote a reply to this a few days ago, but somehow it didn't get posted.

That all makes sense. Did you have an instrument or meter that indicated the charge level of the batteries? I'm wondering how you knew how long the engine should run to recharge the batteries.

Also, why did you go with an 8D for the starting battery? Did you feel that a 27 was inadequate?

[jms02050]

Hi Nancy - Quick question regarding your use of the charger. You indicated that you put the battery switch on "ALL" when using the charger. Is this necessary? I have a similar setup and I always put the switch on "OFF" when I leave the boat plugged into shore power with the charger on. I'm wondering if I'm not charging my batteries by doing this?

[RobS]

Normally the charger is wired to charge both batteries regardless of the switch position. The switch position will however determine the charging via the alternator.

Turn the charger on and check voltage right at the battery posts with a VM at each switch position, only then can you be sure.

[DougSea]

Normally the charger is wired to charge both batteries regardless of the switch position.

The key word here being "normally".

On our 35 we have a four port charger which charges each battery regardless of switch position.

Our 28 had an Inverter/Charger and the batteries had to be "on" to get a charge.

Nancy - the battery setup existed when I bought the boat and although I made some minor changes I never got around to a wholesale update. The two 27's were wired to support non-starting loads like the bilge pumps and such, whereas the 8D was completely independent.(Again, dependent on switch position)

I used the instrument pannel voltage and amp meters to know what the approximate charge state of the batteries were.

[Nancy]

Hi Jim -

We haven't checked our batteries to see whether they're charging via the battery charger when the switch is turned to the off position. But we want them on anyway primarily to keep the DC-only refrigerator running.

Doug, ah yes, the pre-existing setup situation. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I was hoping to hear from a solar pioneer or two.

[RobS]

Nancy, You should only leave 1 battery on in case your 110V shorepower to the boat is lost you will not drain down both batteries with the fridge.

[Nancy]

Thanks, Rob, yes, good point. We rarely lose power, though, and the marina sends out an email when it happens. We're only 20 minutes away and it's a good excuse to take a ride. Of course there are other ways to lose power - someone flips the breaker by mistake or unplugs the power cord (not by mistake!) or .....

[RobS]

Ok, just figured I would mention it, wouldn't want warm beer and no engine start, that would be a VERY bad day at the boat!!

[DougSea]

I was hoping to hear from a solar pioneer or two.

Well, since you mentioned it.

Sonny III (our 28) spent the first part of our life together on a mooring. I had one of those 1' square solar panels cabled to the house battery that had the bilge pumps wired to it. Did a nice job of keeping the battery topped off. I had plans to move to a much bigger panel mounted on the hardtop, feeding all of the batteries via a charge controller, but ended up moving in to a slip. Couldn't justify the cost/benefit at that point.