Battery Charger

[scottwvyc]

I have an old style "dumb" battery charger and would like to replace it with a new electronic "smart" one. I have 2 8d deep cycle house batteries and 1 8d starting battery. All 3 were replaced just prior to me buying the boat in May and I want to look after them. Can anyone suggest a good quality brand and maybe recommend an appropriate size(amps, etc.). I have a new 5 kw Kohler genset and I am not currently using an inverter for anything.Any suggestions would be appriciated.

 

[Banshee36]

I reccomend a Cruiseair Sentry battery charger. I am on my 5th season with the same set of batterys. It is kind of pricey but then again most good stuff is.
Hope this helps.
JW

 

[Genesis]

I bought a Charles 5000-series about a year ago when my old ferro unit took a final dive.

Its been great. No problems with it at all. It "just works" - that's the way you want something like this.....

 

[Captned]

I would suggest a Heart inverter / charger. I installed one last year and have been very pleased with its operation. I didn't think I wanted an inverter but after using it a few times, I could not image not having one. I also left the old charger in the boat and wired it so I could use it as a backup in case the inverter/charger had a problem. My 2 cents..

 

[SKYCHENEY]

FWIW, I have a Major Power smart charger and I have not no problems with it.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I have a Xantrex (these used to be called Statpower). Works fine. The Charles 5000s are very good. The Sentry is good (ironic since they made perhaps the dumbest chargers for years and continued to champion chargers which boiled the batteries long after everyone else had changed over to HF smart chargers. However their new series are very good). The charger should be set at the "hot" or "warm" settings, in my experience. Using the "cold" setting in a charger which has temperature adjustments results in maintaining the batteries at too high a charge level and uses up the water.