Batteries what is your experience

bbwhitejr said:
Most of us with diesels do not have dedicated house batteries. I have 2- fir each engine and 1-for the gen. Do you buy cranking batteries, deep cycle batteries, or dual purpose? I went with cranking batteries because we never draw them down…generator is cranked before the shore power is unhooked….

Bennett
Click to expand...
Same in my 380 gasser, 2 bats for starboard engine/and half house, 2 bats for port and half house and a fifth battery does the genny. I was thinking dual purpose, def interested in the thoughts on this one!
 
Hi all
I have a 365/340Da and have 2 for each side plus 2 lithium for house
I seem to drain starboard still for some items however after 4 years old they are draining a little faster than normal.

running agm with lithium. use an enerdrive charger with Victron monitor and seems to run really well together.

Had an electrician on boat snd said “you won’t have lithium. Too expensive and can’t charge at same time as agm”
He did his research and was fob smacked that it was as I stated. bought the 2005 Sundancer configured like this.

Having seperate house means great piece of mind as well.
I can go whole day without charge but normally never let it drop below 30% so will run the gem to fast charge to about 60% again for a short period just for overnight as in morning need gem again foe coffee. Hahah
 
Lazy Daze said:
Hmmm. While I don't have personal experience with your setup, I'm very familiar with the general setup and know of plenty of people that have similar things. Around 5 years is the general concensus for wet cell battery life with all of them.

You have Interstate, which is an excellent brand -- for wet cells, there's Deka (who also makes Duracell) and Interstate... then everyone else. And, you've got other people in the area that are experiencing similar life as you. Hard to say why there's a difference from what you and dockmates are seeing compared to what I've seen.

That said... I like that free replacement thing and the safety aspect of AGM is certainly a nice bonus. Like you said, though, it's more about the hassle than the little bit more it would cost (in boat dollars, anyways :) ). But if you could pay a bit more and get at least another year out of them, that might be worth trying.

Running them down too far... OK, that makes sense as to why the lifespan was shortened. But how much better are AGM's at this than wet cells? I don't have the answer - just wondering outloud on that. However, with better battery management, you should be able to get more time out of the wet cells, for sure... and even more time out of the AGM's.
Click to expand...


Truth be told I got as much service life out of wet cells as agm. The key is proper charging and monitoring. I like the convenience of agm. To me its worth the extra. They are also a bit more tolerant to abuse.
 
Here they are, hurt a little walking out the door.

4 year 100% warranty hope they uphold their end of the deal
558B5D02-370B-4707-A8E4-D046CDDD61FD.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Changed out the batteries, and I found answers to some of the questions about why my batteries were not lasting.

the batteries were replaced during the survey when I bought the boat, seller went cheap and I didn’t realize it. Group 27 STARTING Batteries. No wonder they were dead so fast….

I am pretty excited about how these proper type (dual purpose) and larger batteries will perform.
 
That makes sense - and follows suit with what we were thinking. I guess this actually turned out to be a positive thing! Other than what your wallet might say... :)
 
Last edited:
Lazy Daze said:
That makes sense - as follows suit with what we were thinking. I guess this actually turned out to be a positive thing! Other than what your wallet might say... :)
Click to expand...
That’s exactly it. I was so reluctant to replace batteries a little over 2 years old. If I would of known they were starting, I would of changed them out when I bought the boat…. Thanks for all your advice and help on this forum. It helps a lot of us out!
 
I have a 2005 new to me 390. Noticed that i could not stay out long without starting the generator. Checked the batteries... mine are set up as 2 banks. Port has both port starting and partial house capability, the other bank has stbt starting and part house, the side with fridges. Have a seperate genny battery
Why are house and starting combined like this. Has anyone seperated them so that there is a seperate starting bank and seperate house bank?
 
The seller ended up providing 2 4D AGM, and 3 group 31 AGM made by Lifeline. These replaced the Lifelines Sabre had installed when the boat was built. We bought the boat while it was still in winter storage and he didn't even flinch when the survey report came back that they all needed replacement. I figured he knew one way or the other he was buying a ful set of batteries.
 
Boater13 said:
I have a 2005 new to me 390. Noticed that i could not stay out long without starting the generator. Checked the batteries... mine are set up as 2 banks. Port has both port starting and partial house capability, the other bank has stbt starting and part house, the side with fridges. Have a seperate genny battery
Why are house and starting combined like this. Has anyone seperated them so that there is a seperate starting bank and seperate house bank?
Click to expand...
Probably because you have a generator and the southern style of boating is run the generator a lot more than we do up north. Its ea$y enough to get the boat rewired to your liking if you prefer a large single house bank. Or you can upgrade your existing banks with more capacity. Welcome to CSR. We are at Hindson Marina in Penetang. What marina are you in?
 
Bayport. I looked at all those wiring bundles and it seemed rather complicated. My previous boat had 3 battery switches.( 1 for each starting battery and 1 for house.) There was a isolater protecting the batteries. The charger connected to the switches. I have upgraded the batteries to 2 banks of L16 6v sweeper batteries. (420 ah each bank) Would like to combine the 2.
What is name of your boat? Mine is 'Wolf's Den'
 
Boater13 said:
I have a 2005 new to me 390. Noticed that i could not stay out long without starting the generator. Checked the batteries... mine are set up as 2 banks. Port has both port starting and partial house capability, the other bank has stbt starting and part house, the side with fridges. Have a seperate genny battery
Why are house and starting combined like this. Has anyone seperated them so that there is a seperate starting bank and seperate house bank?
Click to expand...

I think most larger twin engine models of sea rays are setup this way, two banks, both start one engine and provide some "house". If there is a third bank or fourth, it provides generator start only, and/or bow thruster. All will also have an "emergency start" that will combine the two start banks.
 
Boater13 said:
Bayport. I looked at all those wiring bundles and it seemed rather complicated. My previous boat had 3 battery switches.( 1 for each starting battery and 1 for house.) There was a isolater protecting the batteries. The charger connected to the switches. I have upgraded the batteries to 2 banks of L16 6v sweeper batteries. (420 ah each bank) Would like to combine the 2.
What is name of your boat? Mine is 'Wolf's Den'
Click to expand...
I recall seeing your posts about building the battery banks capacity. The wiring is complicated on all of these boats. Generally there will be a power feed to the house DC panels from the battery switch. Every boat is different though. On mine, it was directly attached to the back of the starboard battery switch. I was able to move the wire to the port switch so I could use the space in the bilge where the port engine battery was to put in a 2x6v golf cart bank. But mine is still engine/house, just on a different side. It would have been easy for me to isolate the house bank from the port start with some wiring, and an isolator, but I only have one 12v house bank. For me, my setup works and the emergency start switch to bridge banks would get the port side started if I ever run that bank too low.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,154
Messages
1,427,383
Members
61,060
Latest member
Danileo
Back
Top