Are VSR's necessary or not?

[Rodb73]

Hi Raiders,

As the topic title asks, is the use of a VSR kit necessary on a dual battery setup please?

I have set them up and used them on previous boats, but I went to buy a new setup yesterday at a marine store and was told by the business owner they were not required and in fact, a waste of money.

He sounded pretty convincing, saying he has been in business for 25 years and never fits them to his boats.

According to him, as long as your diligent with battery selection;

1. For cranking

2. When when using auxiliaries

Both. When running for recharge.

Can anyone please offer advice and wisdom on this one.

Thanks

Rod.

[lillie]

I ran a dual battery set up for years in my seafarer and ran it as the marine store owner said and had no problems, it worked fine. what is a vsr kit anyway. Cheers glenn

[batfishing]

Personally I use them and advise them.....apologise I'm not logged in under roadrunnerparts, but if you want to ring us on Monday, I am happy to explain more.

And yes we sell them

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[Rodb73]

Hi Glenn,

A VSR as I understand it, essentially is a relay that once the motor is running will direct all charge to the crank battery and once it has reached a full charge the relay will then divert the charge to the house battery.

In effect, always ensuring your crank battery is full and ready to start the next time.

As I mentioned in my post, I like them. But to be told their a waste of money has done nothing but confuse me.

[oz_brett]

I prefer not use them I usually know which is the weaker battery and turn to that one while running to make sure it gets plenty of charge.

[Billy2014]

I've been told the complete opposite. I have found that the system is excellent. It does the job more efficiently than a human could, always on time, always accurate and always knows exactly what condition your batteries are in. I prefer this because its a real set and forget system, one less thing to worry about and its far more accurate about what it wants to charge and when to shift charging than we will ever be. Not sure why you wouldn't run one?

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[fragmeister]

Hi Raiders,

As the topic title asks, is the use of a VSR kit necessary on a dual battery setup please?

I have set them up and used them on previous boats, but I went to buy a new setup yesterday at a marine store and was told by the business owner they were not required and in fact, a waste of money.

He sounded pretty convincing, saying he has been in business for 25 years and never fits them to his boats.

According to him, as long as your diligent with battery selection;

1. For cranking

2. When when using auxiliaries

Both. When running for recharge.

Can anyone please offer advice and wisdom on this one.

Thanks

Rod.

As an electrical engineer I often hear what I recognise as poor advice given to boat owners regarding electronic equipment.

Without intending any insult often the worst advice comes from electricians or boat retailers who mean well but are offering advice with a limited perspective or technical qualifications.

In this case the statement "as long as your diligent with battery selection;" is very significant.

The problem is that good advice needs to useful for the average punter ( and I include me in that category) who, in the excitement of a fishing trip can always remember to switch from the cranking battery to the running gear battery and then back to both every time you head out or back to a fishing spot.

I could write chapters on the misconceptions regarding how much ( or how little ) the typical running gear draws from your battery and how that really impacts your dual battery setup but I will leave that for a detailed post later.

A quality VSR takes this all out of the equation and it is a highly recommended bit if gear but it does depend on what accessories you run.

If you have the money it is a good investment if you don't then I wouldn't stress too much unless you have short trips and run a lot of accessories while achored up for 8 hours or so.

Cheer

Jim

Edited June 29, 2014 by swordfisherman

[Rodb73]

Thanks Jim for your advice. You've basically backed up my concerns. As I said, in previous boats I've always fitted them and never had an issue.

This particular dealer had me convinced.

So, off to the shoppe I go tomorrow to by a VSR.

Thanks again to all.

[fragmeister]

Thanks Jim for your advice. You've basically backed up my concerns. As I said, in previous boats I've always fitted them and never had an issue.

This particular dealer had me convinced.

So, off to the shoppe I go tomorrow to by a VSR.

Thanks again to all.

No worries buddy.

Happy to help where ever I can.

Cheers

Jim

[roadrunnerparts]

I'm now logged in from work............Jim answered what I would have said perfectly.

There are 2 choices VSR or DC to DC charger, we have been recomending the DC to DC charger on vehicles running high house loads over the last 2 years rather than VSR's as some of the newer vehicle charge systems just do not cope with 2 batteries.

What I personally did with my last trailer boat, was fit a VSR, have all house loads connected to the Deep Cycle, Start kept as pure start, with the redundancy available to start off the Deep Cycle. I also set up a C-Tek charger in the garage, and ran 12V wiring out to the boat with a waterproof plug on the boat. Basically the while ever the boat was not in use, the batteries were being monitored by the charger. They were always 100% when I headed out

[antonywardle]

I hope they are a good thing,

i just bought one!

[fisherman666]

I ran a dual battery set up for years in my seafarer and ran it as the marine store owner said and had no problems, it worked fine. what is a vsr kit anyway. Cheers glenn

VSR = Voltage Sensitive Relay

I'm impressed. I don't think anyone so far has said duel batteries.

I hate when those batteries fight each other. It gets real messy.