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wrote:

I would like to know what are the benefits of using an onboard charger
instead of a portable charger.

I have been using rechargers for many type of household electronic
equipments (such as digital carmera, toy cars...etc). Therefore, I am
very familiar with portable recharger. But I notice that there are
many onboard rechargers available in marine supply store when I was
trying to shop for a recharger. I can imagine one benefit of having an
onboard recharger: It is neatly mounted inside the battery compartment,
instead of being sliding around on the floor of the battery
compartment. What are the other benefits? Can I connect the recharger
with the various batteries (I have 2 batteries, will be 3 in the
future) in a permanent fashion instead of using alligator clips? Then
I only need to run a power cord from an outdoor power outlet to the
receptacle of the recharger. Then I don't need to remember which
alligator clip goes to which terminal on the battery. That will be a
very nice feature if I understand this correctly.

A side-question:
Should I use a 10-amp or a 15-amp battery charger? I believe a
regular 110-volt household power outlet should provide at least 15-amp.
This means either 10-amp or 15-amp charger should work if I understand
this correctly. Then why would one person choose 10-amp over the
15-amp version or the other way around? Does a 15-amp version simply
charge the batteries faster? If I want to charge two 12-volt batteries
plus one 24-volt battery overnight (12-hours), does choosing the 15-amp
version makes any difference to me?

I urgently need to know this info because I need to buy a battery
recharger pretty soon.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Jay Chan

Jay,

Google "Guest" battery chargers for more information. They are one of
many onboard chargers available. I think they also make marine portable
chargers for single battery use.

The difference is pretty simple. Since you have more than one battery,
an onboard charger is the way to go. It will charge, monitor, and
maintain each battery as if each had it's own charger. You can also buy
models that handle one 12V and one 24V at the same time (or other
configurations) that are common on bass boats that have a 12V starting
battery and a 24V or 36V deep cycle trolling motor battery.

I would never charge two batteries with a conventional battery charger
at the same time. They are never the same so while on is starving for a
charge, the other may overheat - or worse.

Dan