Crazy Battery Chargers

[Angela]

OK. I don't want three separate charging systems for what I'm trying to do - that would put me with a total of five chargers! I want a charger intelligent enough to charge three (two initially, then three) banks and when I'm ready to add that third bank as the inverter bank I'll get an inverter. I want something that won't cook one fully charged bank while trying to charge the depleted house bank. I guess I'm back to the Smart or Sentry as condidates, yes???? Outback doesn't seem to have a product for what I want to do initially.

[SKYCHENEY]

OK. I don't want three separate charging systems for what I'm trying to do - that would put me with a total of five chargers! I want a charger intelligent enough to charge three (two initially, then three) banks and when I'm ready to add that third bank as the inverter bank I'll get an inverter. I want something that won't cook one fully charged bank while trying to charge the depleted house bank. I guess I'm back to the Smart or Sentry as condidates, yes???? Outback doesn't seem to have a product for what I want to do initially.

Ang,
With the Outback you won't ever need another battery bank. You can use the house as the inverter bank. I've been doing that for a few years now. We anchor out for days at a time and have no issues. We run everything on the boat and just start the genset in the morning and evening for a few hours to charge the batts, make hot water, and run the 220v appliances.

You'll save more by not having to buy extra batteries, haul around the extra weight, etc.

So, under this configuration, you have the Outback inverter/charger for the the house bank and one other charger(the one you have now) on the start bank. If you have a 12v system for gen start or electronics, you'll also need a little 12v charger for that, but those are small, cheap, and easy to mount out of the way. You can also run the 12v charger off of the inverter if you ever get into trouble and can't get the gen started.

There are a few other Hatts in my marina that we've hooked up the exact same way and I hear no complaints.

We never run the genset while underway as the inverter runs all of the 120v loads and the batts stay charged from the engines. In two years, I've only put 100hrs on my generator and this includes 2 weeks of constant anchoring each summer plus many weekend excursions.

Don't over-complicate the setup. You can do what you want to do without a bunch of extra batteries and chargers.

[SKYCHENEY]

Is it possible to charge two banks with the Outback system? My Protech is "supposed" to handle both.

No, the Outback will only charge one bank, but it's fast. You can put the whole 20amp input to charging, so you get something close to 80amps of charging which is great for bringing the inverter bank back up.

[Angela]

We were hoping to have a larger bank for the inverter than what our house bank is. We're using golf cart batteries so that I can handle them myself which I understand gives us less amp hours than the beasts I cannot manage. If I don't add a third bank, then I need to add a pile of sandbags. We need the weight on that side to balance the boat and have been holding off doing anything about that while trying to figure out what to do about batteries, inverters, and chargers.

Sky, we run the genny a lot here in Miami and the inverter isn't going to drastically cut that as it did for you. From the time we leave the dock, we are usually running air conditioning which the inverter won't run. The inverter is going to be more of a winter-use item for us when we don't use AC hardly at all; not that we won't use the inverter during the summer, but most of the time, we need AC when we're away from the dock in the summer. We do turn it off, for example, if we are spending the whole day in the water - when it is just us using the boat, not a charter (it runs constantly, then). I'll still have to run the genny to cook, do laundry, and heat water every day. I'm looking at an inverter mostly to save fuel when using the boat during the winter. The important items I want to keep running with or without the genny is the refrigerator and the ice maker. So, thinking this through...since I'll need the genny for cooking each day, anyway, maybe my small house bank will be enough for an inverter anyway, and a pile of sandbags will be cheaper. I'm thinking all this through trying to understand it as it applies to our needs and the ideas are still all over the place and often contradictory. One thing I don't know how to do is figure out how much battery power we'll need each day to run what we want to run to even know whether our golfcart battery house bank will be sufficient or not. I don't know what each item on this boat draws or what will be on the inverter in order to do the math. So, I was sort of thinking that more is better.

My genny is already on its own 12v system. The prior owner did that when he had the new genny installed right before we bought her. So, that one is already marked off the list. Likewise, the flybridge is on its own separate 12v system too.

[SKYCHENEY]

It sounds like you have far less demand than I do. Your GC batts should be fine for the limited use you would have on inverter.

If you need to correct your list, try moving spare props/shafts or anything else that is heavy to that side.

My opinion is: Don't waste your money on another battery bank. That's just more to maintain. I can go 24hrs on a charge and I'll bet you'd be happy with half that.

[Angela]

If you need to correct your list, try moving spare props/shafts or anything else that is heavy to that side.

We've already done that. I still need about 300# on the starboard side.

[SKYCHENEY]

We've already done that. I still need about 300# on the starboard side.

Just make Ed and Pascal stand on that side.

[fissioneng]

Just make Ed and Pascal stand on that side.

That's only about 16 cases of beer or wine.

[SKYCHENEY]

That's only about 16 cases of beer or wine.

The problem with that is that it just keeps evaporating.

I also have a few of those RD units. You know the reverse distilleries. They take beer, wine, or spirits and turn it back into plain water. If you don't keep them running you'll have a mutiny.

[Angela]

The problem with that is that it just keeps evaporating.

Yeah, but alot of it gets put back in the starboard holding tank thus, restoring the ballast until we pump out. Then, we have to begin the viscous cycle all over again.