House Battery vs Cranking battery

dmnolan said:
Another question!
When I got this boat the cranking battery was located aft and port side as shown by red circle.
The house battery was located in the center storage area.
Storage area is well ventilated as it only is covered by a teak grid.
Would you put both batteries in the RED location?
What would be the best use of the storage location? It is open to the weather.

Or put both batteries in the center storage and mount switch ACR and charger in here??
Click to expand...

I like the center compartment, except (and its a big except) its directly behind the fuel tank. If you develop a fuel leak in the tank, fuel or fumes can get into that center compartment. I had a battery there once, and removed it for that reason.

When I had the I/O's, my batteries were in your red circle. One on the port and one on the starboard.
 
dmnolan said:
Another question!
When I got this boat the cranking battery was located aft and port side as shown by red circle.
The house battery was located in the center storage area.
Storage area is well ventilated as it only is covered by a teak grid.
Would you put both batteries in the RED location?
What would be the best use of the storage location? It is open to the weather.

Or put both batteries in the center storage and mount switch ACR and charger in here??
Click to expand...

I rewired a runabout boat I have. I ran the outboard and gauges off the start battery and every thing else off the house battery. I place both batteries in battery boxes where you have the red circle. I created a starboard panel and mounted the dual circuit plus switches on the opposite side of the boat. I used a Yandina combiner and wired it to the back of the DCP switches and mounted it on the starboard panel. Also mounted the heavy duty neg bus behind the starboard panel to accept the neg from the batteries, outboard, bilge pump, Yandina combiner and the house fuse block. Pos and neg for the stereo amps were wired direct to the house batt fused with an ANL fuse and ran through a separate on off switch near the house batt.

Unorthodox, but I ran two mini DCP switches, one for each battery, and a third mini on/off switch. This arrangement allows you to run loads in the normal way or all loads off one battery or the other rather the electrically combining both batteries. It also allows only the start load to be run off the house batt in the case the start battery is dead and vica versa.
 
Last edited:
Thanks again, love the ideas from this site!
Hey if using an ACR, do I only need a single bank charger?? Alternator charging to the crank battery and the charger to the house?
I assume they will both be connected by ACR and both get charged?
 
dmnolan said:
Thanks again, love the ideas from this site!
Hey if using an ACR, do I only need a single bank charger?? Alternator charging to the crank battery and the charger to the house?
I assume they will both be connected by ACR and both get charged?
Click to expand...
For an electrical standpoint, the output from a single bank charger tied to the main cranking bank, would appear to the ACR as the alternator, The ACR will close, sending charge to the house bank.

In reality, you are better off with a 2-bank charger. This allows the charger to evaluate, charge and maintain each bank individually. In most boats, the house bank needs more charging then the main cranking bank, so again, a 2-bank is more effective.

Further, there is a better way to wire the switch and ACR, keeping the ACR isolated from the batteries when the switch is off. So, this technically takes the ACR out of the loop in the above scenario. So going with a 2-bank is best.
 
Wylie_Tunes said:
For an electrical standpoint, the output from a single bank charger tied to the main cranking bank, would appear to the ACR as the alternator, The ACR will close, sending charge to the house bank.

In reality, you are better off with a 2-bank charger. This allows the charger to evaluate, charge and maintain each bank individually. In most boats, the house bank needs more charging then the main cranking bank, so again, a 2-bank is more effective.

Further, there is a better way to wire the switch and ACR, keeping the ACR isolated from the batteries when the switch is off. So, this technically takes the ACR out of the loop in the above scenario. So going with a 2-bank is best.
Click to expand...
Gotch ya. So I think you are saying if you tie in the ACR to the side of the swith that connects to the loads the battery will be connected by the acr when running.

When turned off the ACR is out of the loop as the chargers are on the battery side of the switch, so acr does not tie thwm together but as its a dual bank, not needed.

I do like the individual evaluation capability of the batteries by charger in this scenario.

Thanks
 
Perhaps I'm reiterating what Wylie Tunes was saying. But a dual bank charger will probably show up a battery which has dropped a cell whereas as a single bank charger with the acr combining both batteries will probably not.
 
I never use shore power and when I go on long cruises (a week or so) I use a lot of power for fans, TV, radio, lights, and charging computers, etc... I got an 8D Deep Cycle for house, and a Optima Blue for cranking. I was disappointed as the Optima didn't last as long as I expected it would. I even carry an emergency starting battery as well. I like the "1/2/both" switch because it will still crank if you combine 2 weak batteries on 'both'.
 
Talked to Blue Sea tech he was very helpful.
He confirmed my thoughts on how to set up with a dual bank charger.
They call it the "load Side" connection.

ACR is connected to the load side terminals of the Main Switch so it senses the alternator and connects battery. But it does not sense the Shore charging and each battery stays independent for charge.

Attached is diagram they provided
 

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dmnolan said:
Talked to Blue Sea tech he was very helpful.
He confirmed my thoughts on how to set up with a dual bank charger.
They call it the "load Side" connection.

ACR is connected to the load side terminals of the Main Switch so it senses the alternator and connects battery. But it does not sense the Shore charging and each battery stays independent for charge.

Attached is diagram they provided
Click to expand...
What position do you have your isolation switch in while hooked to shore/charging?
Wouldn't the above be assuming that the batteries were isolated from the load during charging?
Just curious....
 
Thornton69 said:
What position do you have your isolation switch in while hooked to shore/charging?
Wouldn't the above be assuming that the batteries were isolated from the load during charging?
Just curious....
Click to expand...
The selector switch would be off. And the battery charger connected to each battery directly. Because the ACR is connected on the load side of the switch it is isolated from the batteries during charging, therefore it does not try to connect them.
When you turn switch to on while the engine is running the ACR combines the two batteries for charging as long as voltage from Alternator is present. Once the motor is stopped, then house and crank batteries are isolated preventing draw down of cranking battery while on hook.
As I understand it!!
 
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