Battery Drain Question

K

KevinReston

New Member
Jan 30, 2007
54
Occoquan, VA
I'd like to run my refridgerator, upgraded momo stereo (mentioned for voltage draw purposes) and maybe my Garmin 188c GPS (with low battery alarm) without the generator while on the hook.

How long can I safely run like this and still have enough battery power to start up the engines? :smt017 I thought if I used only one of the two batteries I'd be okay for a few hours. Thoughts? What about just the fridge?

By the by I'm actually sitting on "Good Juju" right now anchored in a bay on this perfect morning. Spring is FINALLY here :smt038
 
Only use the one house battery when on the hook. Save the other for starting. Others here have said they made it through the night with refrigerator on all night.
 
We regularly run the frig overnight + cabin lighting before bedtime + stereo + occasional Vacuflush operation + occasional arch lighting + CO detector. If the house battery is fully charged (12.6 volts), when we arise in the morning the battery has typically been drawn down to roughly 60% (12.2 volts).

Note, however, that if you have a Mercathode system installed on your boat, it may also slightly draw down battery #1 (the starter battery) overnight.
 
No sir it does not matter, 1 or 2 will work. As they should be the same battery size/type, etc. We found that we can run quite a long time on battery juice especially since I swapped out the lead acid group 27's for Optima group 31's. It sounds like you have a generator... and in many cases if the engines will not start (not nough juice left) the lawnmower.... ahem... I mean the generator will allowing you to switch on the battery charger to get enough juice to start the engines.

To give myself a decent baseline I disconnected from shore power and then ran the stuff I would normally run I made notes of start time and monitored the voltage levels on smartcraft (only clicking smartcraft on to read voltage). This way I was able to obtain a baseline while sitting within the safety of a trailer.

Awesome that you are out on the boat... I'm jealous :smt001
 
Hi Jeremy! So what's the difference between lead-acid 27's and Optima group 31's? I also recall Marqbloq mentioning that he had added deep cycle gel batteries. How do the deep cycle gel batteries compare?
 
Thanks guys. Thanks Jeremy, nice Saearay you've got there. Lawnmower, that what's been on the tip of my tongue.

" Admiral/Honey that generator we've got.....what does it remind you of??? "

Ding!! Lawnmower. Today was so quiet on the battery. I just ran the fridge and didn't seem to drain to much.

very helpful thread. :thumbsup: More newbie questions to come...
 
And you a nice 280 as well sir!!! We will run the lights, vacuflush, fridge (setting 4) and stereo all day and all night, never fire an engine nor generator and the next morning everything will fire... in fact we simply never turn the fridge off... it is on 100% of the time.

Please ask away.

Thunderbird1.... I will start a new post in the electircal section on optimas as to not pull this one off track too much.
 
Kevin,

Jeremy's got a great idea there -- do a dry run, perhaps at the dock, running everything you would at anchor (don't forget the anchor light), and see how your battery does.

We have overnighted in our 260 on the hook using one battery, with the anchor light, fridge, gps, and depth finder on with no problem. On the other hand, the first time we did that we had also been using the stereo, vacuflush, etc etc for several hours in the afternoon/evening before we went to bed, and the battery died inthe middle of the night. Not fun waking up to the CO detector going off! Took us a minute (or three) to figure out what was going on :lol: funnny in retrospect, but.....

So, we now make sure the battery is charged before we go to bed. We have lead-acid multi-purpose group 27s.

Jeff
 
This afternoon/evening we'll go out for no more than 3 hours on the hook. We're taking out the Admirals family for the first time, should be tons of fun. There'll be 6 adults so I hope the T4.3s will get us up okay :smt018 but I'm stealing my own thread here...

So I plan to run the stereo/amplifiers, fridge 4 and possible mercathode system full time. Plus the head, water pump and cabin lights part time. I should be able to do this on one battery no problem based on my limited draw yesterday.

I'll measure the before and after voltage and use that to determine how long I can go w/out the lawnmower :smt043 I mean generator.

How low is to low to be able to start the engines? :huh:
 
Just to be safe....

Just to be safe....I would put one of those automotive thingys on there that automatically shut down the battery if the power level gets to the point it wont crank the engine over.
 
The battery controls are located where you put in your ignition keys. There are two dials (at least on my twin engine version), the left one designates 1, 2 or Both (batteries that you want connected) and the other engages the battery you select.

If you do a search in the forum for Mercathode you'll find some good explanations/discussion from some of the other folks on here that know more than me. The gist from what I can gather is that it is an active system that tries to protect your out drive from corrosion caused by electrical currents.

Bob I have a low battery alert on my Garmin 188c, how low is to low to start the engine do you think?
 
JeffM said:
We have overnighted in our 260 on the hook using one battery, with the anchor light, fridge, gps, and depth finder on with no problem. On the other hand, the first time we did that we had also been using the stereo, vacuflush, etc etc for several hours in the afternoon/evening before we went to bed, and the battery died inthe middle of the night. Not fun waking up to the CO detector going off! Took us a minute (or three) to figure out what was going on :lol: funnny in retrospect, but.....Jeff
Click to expand...

Ditto - this sound is not pleasant after a night of adult beverages... :smt021

I too get the entire night with one battery, and start the boat with the other.
 
ditto

See my post about a bad battery experience on the 340 DA thread.

Also, I understand that gel batteries are not compatible with the battery charging system already installed, is this information accurate?
 
Do those answers about a battery lasting all night include those of you running a mercathode system? Should that result in much battery drain?
 
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