Another Battery Question

rhino4552 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 4:07 pm

Ok, I know everyone probable gets tired of battery questions. But, I've got a brand nee deep cycle battery bought 2 months ago, and another deep cycle that is about 4 years old. Im about to add an amp and a sub to my existing stereo. My question is, should I hook the amp up to the existing deep cycle used for starting the engine, and running all the accessories, or connect it to the other battery?

I think the best way would be to run everything to one battery and install one of the switches to go between batteries in case the one dies. Is this best?

230 Mike · **Posted:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 4:55 pm

You might get varying answers on this. If it were me, I'd dump all the deep cycles, and go with a pair of dual-purpose group 27's (mounted either one on each side of the boat, or both on one side to help correct your listing problem), connect all the stereo stuff to one battery and use a battery switch to switch between the two.

Alternatively, I would use one dual-purpose group 27, and one of the deep-cycles, but deep cycle batteries aren't optimum as starting batteries.

Walt · **Posted:** Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:54 am

Yup, what he said.

I actually have one 27 and one 24 batt (didn't even realize until I got everthing loaded out this year). Anyhow, I have the Perko batt switch, and have everything hooked up to that, and whichever batt is selected (See Walt's Mod's pg 1). Again, you will se various opinions on the issue, but my thought is with one flip of this big red switch, I can kill everything electrical! Very handy in an emergency, such as the small fire I had about 10 years ago, or earlier this year when I accidentaly shorted my 12V+ at the alt to my oil dipstick with a socket (eng not running). Perhaps in the future, I will install a relatively small deep cylce to run the stereo/amp and possibly a few other helm items.
Good luck, and keep us posted with your answer!

powellcrazy · **Posted:** Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:23 am

I agree with Walt, the only thing connected to the battery is the battery switch. From the switch you can then run cable to starter motor, fuse panel, ect...

aguyindallas · **Posted:** Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:01 am

In my boat, I have 2 group 27's with a Perko switch. I alternate which battery I use so that they get their fair share of "wear and tear".

Mine is wired so that my amp power is connected to the common on the Perko so that my stereo power comes from whichever battery I am switched to at that time. If I am out and run battery 1 totally dead by listening to the stereo etc...I switch to battery 2 or vice versa.

An alternate is to have your stereo connected directly to one of the batteries. The bad thing there....lets say you are out listening to the tunes on the hook for a long time and you kill that battery. Its the end of the day, so you go to start the boat on the other battery...for some reason...its dead? Now what do you do with 2 dead batteries? My wiring setiup prevents that fdrom happening.

1. I have an onboard charger and highly suggest one
2. Dump the deep cycles and go with 2 dual purpose batteries

Jim_R · **Posted:** Thu May 13, 2010 6:53 pm

aguyindallas wrote:

In my boat, I have 2 group 27's with a Perko switch. I alternate which battery I use so that they get their fair share of "wear and tear".

Mine is wired so that my amp power is connected to the common on the Perko so that my stereo power comes from whichever battery I am switched to at that time. If I am out and run battery 1 totally dead by listening to the stereo etc...I switch to battery 2 or vice versa.

An alternate is to have your stereo connected directly to one of the batteries. The bad thing there....lets say you are out listening to the tunes on the hook for a long time and you kill that battery. Its the end of the day, so you go to start the boat on the other battery...for some reason...its dead? Now what do you do with 2 dead batteries? My wiring setiup prevents that fdrom happening.

1. I have an onboard charger and highly suggest one
2. Dump the deep cycles and go with 2 dual purpose batteries

I separated wiring between my two batteries into "house" and "starting" systems, both using dual purpose batteries. Apart from the starter, the only other item connected to the "starting" battery is the back up bilge pump. The two systems are totally isolated unless there's a charging source present, in which case both will charge. With the engine off I can run the House battery dry (which I never do), and unless the back up bilge is running (have to have a pretty serious leak for that,and a very annoying alarm would sound) my starting battery is always damn near topped off.

Walt · **Posted:** Sat May 15, 2010 4:44 pm

I like Jim R's set-up, in theory. My bro-in-law had the same, but after a few years of removing, and hooking back up, he got a few things crossed, and didn't work quite right. I eventually went through, and landed all the smaller wires to the proper cables, and labeled. Just my recommendation to do so if you head down that road. The thing I did not like with the set up was the relay that closed to charge that batt. It was "on" even while starting, so potentially draining the cranking batt while cranking. I may eventually do the same general set-up with one deep cycle soley for the helm, lights and stereo; then have the two starting batts (w/ switch) to the starter, and bilge pump. I would also put in another disconnect so I could cross-connect in an emergency to use the stereo batt as a starter.

Jim_R · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 11:09 am

Walt wrote:

I like Jim R's set-up, in theory. My bro-in-law had the same, but after a few years of removing, and hooking back up, he got a few things crossed, and didn't work quite right. I eventually went through, and landed all the smaller wires to the proper cables, and labeled. Just my recommendation to do so if you head down that road. The thing I did not like with the set up was the relay that closed to charge that batt. It was "on" even while starting, so potentially draining the cranking batt while cranking. I may eventually do the same general set-up with one deep cycle soley for the helm, lights and stereo; then have the two starting batts (w/ switch) to the starter, and bilge pump. I would also put in another disconnect so I could cross-connect in an emergency to use the stereo batt as a starter.

There are many charging relays out there - I use the Blue Sea Systems "Add a Battery" system which has a switch and an ACR or Automatic Charging relay.
http://bluesea.com/category/1/productline/overview/329
This system can be configured in many different ways, and does include the provision for keping the batteries isolated during start up. The switch is basic On (isolated, but both batteries charge when a charging source is present), Off (both batteries off), and Both (where both batteries are combined). I've enjoyed mine a lot - as close as I could find to 'set and forget'. The only modifications I've made was to run an LED to the helm to be able to tell when both batteries are charging, and a switch to disable the ACR. The switch was a necessary addition when I added an on-board dual bank charging system - the ACR must be switched off so that the smart charger senses individual banks.

I do agree with labeling the wires that go to the various battery terminals. I added colored electrical tape to form a color band about three inches back from each lead. Green for starting system, yellow for house systems. Each battery has obvious tape stripes on it as well - I figure that I know where everything goes, but wanted to avoid a situation where a dealer or repair tech might get confused.

rhino4552 · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2010 6:23 pm

Thanks for all the info.. Still trying to decide what I should do with mine.

jtupman · **Posted:** Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:38 pm

anyone have pics of their install? how do you figure out what cables are actually for starting and what are for house? i have one battery right now with 4 cables hooked to it 2 smaller gauge wire and two larger gauge wire. are the smaller ones for house? i have the blue seas add a battery with acr but want to make sure i getting my head wrapped around this and a good plan before starting the project.
thanks!

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