Batteries and inverter

[Seas the Moment]

I have a 79 58' MY, galley up. I have an outback inverter (3535) and I have a selector switch A/B/Both. The inverter is my charger as well. I have Roll Surette batteries on the starboard side and Deka and/or American batteries on the port.

So, here comes the questions... what is the port bank used for? I was under the impression these are my house batteries. What is starboard bank used for?

I am having issues with the inverter staying on more than a few hours before is reaches 50% capacity and shuts down. Does it make sense for me to move to golf cart batteries or a deep cycle battery bank for the house batteries? My expectation is I will get a longer inverter timeframe. I also recall some threads and talking to some fellow boaters at marinas stating they replaced both banks with golf cart batteries with no issues.

Thanks,
Loran

 

[Boatsb]

If theres only the one charger your never going to get it right.

Its not the type of battery as much as the way the system is set up. GC batteries are not for starting engines. Starting batteries are not for deep cycle. Battery banks can not be mixed and you cant charge 2 banks of a single bank charger.

 

[davidwigler]

On my 1977 the house bank and port engine starting bank is the port. Stbd starts the stbd engine.

 

[davidwigler]

If you keep the banks separate you do need two charging sources. If you are joining them together with the AB switch they will charge but one bank will likely be undercharged because of different cable lengths and resistance.

 

[Boatsb]

If you keep the banks separate you do need two charging sources. If you are joining them together with the AB switch they will charge but one bank will likely be undercharged because of different cable lengths and resistance.

Worse than that is if their used differently and if their not the same age size and chemistry.

 

[MikeP]

The Outback can quickly and efficiently charge your system IF all the batteries are the same type/age and the banks are combined. My battery banks have been combined since 2006 and I have never had any reason to decombine them BUT that will depend on how you use the boat.

As noted, the Outback has a single charger output so it cannot properly charge two separate battery banks. And if the batteries in the bank(s) are of different types/conditions, the charge can't be equal since the batts will have different "requirements."

 

[doc g]

you can install a relay that that would switch the (single)charger to the opposite once it reaches a given voltage , thus using one charger on two separate banks. Obviously you would still only be charging one at a time . As suggested before , if the charger has the capacity why not just combine the banks?..........you could combine them with a switch between them, so you could un - combine them when you wanted or needed to .......Pat

 

[Boatsb]

you can install a relay that that would switch the (single)charger to the opposite once it reaches a given voltage , thus using one charger on two separate banks. Obviously you would still only be charging one at a time . As suggested before , if the charger has the capacity why not just combine the banks?..........you could combine them with a switch between them, so you could un - combine them when you wanted or needed to .......Pat

Neither hatteras nor out back designed the system that way for more than one reason. I'm sure a simple relay or switch seems like a solution but it leaves more problems. Having 2 seperate systems gives you backup redundancy. It's a nice way to be sure the boat starts after a weekend on the hook. Remember one bad battery will take out a bank. Also the charger is designed for a certain size bank based on its max charge rate. It may be fine with the 2 standard banks but if you've added batteries to the system to give more inverter time you need to take that into consideration.

I have replaced a bunch of inverter systems and most were poorly planned and installed. Designed to use existing banks or worse one had no way to charge the engine start battery without starting the engine. The systems will only perform as well as the design and install.