One charger two batteries.

[Dhutchy]

Hi Raiders, since moving to the ACT I haven't done much boating. After the last outing was almost stopped before it started with flat batteries x2, which I replaced. I have bought a CTEK charging system and have kept a trickle charge going for my crank battery.

My question is: WIthin the next week I may be using the boat. So do I keep the charger just on my cranking battery, or do I also now use it on my other accessories battery.

Thanks for your help

Dhutchy

[Welster]

I would be switching it over. It should hold charge fine for a week. That way you can be confident you have two freshly charged batteries.

Actually what I have been doing on my boat that has two identical batteries is connecting the charger to one battery and running small jumper wires to the other so they are both on trickle charge.

On my old boat I could isolate the batteries from the electrics but still use the 1-2 switch to charge both batteries together. The original battery lasted around 11 years before dying and the second back up battery was still going strong for around 6 years when we sold the boat.

Edited June 27, 2016 by welst

[amkr]

A VSR will do this for you automatically.

It's a relay that switches at preset voltages - so when it detects 11v it opens and then closes when it detects 14v for example.

Basically this means you have a primary battery that's receiving the charge first, once it's at a charged state it switches to top up the secondary battery.