"Scotty" wrote in message
news

"Scout" wrote in message
. ..

For that alone, his MC trickle chargers will do the job.
he
also will need to charge them between sailings once he
gets
his sails on next decade or two.

Scotty,
My engine or my onboard charger (when on shore power) can
each charge the
batteries from April to November. I'll keep them in my
basement over the
winter though, so I'm thinking of that scenario. Optima
seems pretty adamant
about not exceeding 13.8 volts or 1 amp. Otherwise I would
have just thrown
the MC charger on them.


My MC charger puts out 1/2 amp, and won't overcharge ( so
they claim). Not to exceed 1 amp? What does your engine
put out?

SBV

A good question Scotty, I'm not sure - but I'll find out.
It's not an immediate issue because I still have the 2 original
batteries onboard (deep cycles). I'm using and checking out the originals
right now, putting electrical loads on both the 12 VDC and the 120 VAC (via
the Xantrex Sine Wave Inverter 1000) systems to see how they respond. I've
run a drill motor, wet vac, coffee maker, and the heat pump (while I pumped
anti-freeze through the coil), and so far the inverter has worked well. The
inverter displays a bar graph to indicate approximate current draw. It also
gives me a voltage readout on the batteries and warns me when they are
getting low, which they did because I couldn't plug my 30 amp shore power
cord into my backyard 120 VAC circuit, which means the onboard charger
(Professional Mariner Charger) wasn't able to be powered.
The batteries needed to be recharged, so off to Home Depot I went to buy
the 2 electrical ends and the 6' length of SJ 14-3 cord I needed to make an
adapter. I did that while the Eagles were losing yesterday, and the boat is
now on shore power and the recharger (Professional Mariner Charger) is
whirring comfortably. I put my Fluke DMM on the batteries and watched the
voltage output from the charger slowly rise to about 13.5 VDC. I left it
operating when I packed up the tools last night. I'll do more studying on
the charger later. By the way, I listened to the game on the onboard sound
system, the extra set of speakers in the cockpit are a nice touch and I
can't wait to play Vivaldi whilst blowing across the bay, hehe! It's one of
my favorite CD's and we listened to it all the time on the Starwind. Hake
Yachts sent me a promotional DVD - guess what music they chose to play in
the background! Yep, Vivaldi.
As I winterize I'm crawling through and around every place on the boat.
It's only a 28' boat, but there seems to be a hundred places to hide cables,
hoses, wires, valves, switches, breakers, tanks, ducts, etc. I'm putting all
my boiler room experience to work. The boiler tech mindset is casualty
based, as I think Doug will attest. When I worked boiler rooms, I'd spend
countless hours studying the systems, knowing what valves, switches, pumps,
cross-overs, etc., did what. The time to study is when all is well and calm.
It's part of the reason for taking my time putting her in the water. I need
time to know the boat. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I pulled the hot water
heater out yesterday, disassembled it completely, and a bare stainless steel
tank now sits on my basement floor. I will reinstall it to my liking, adding
additional valves, extending wiring, making the tank more secure, and in
general, making it much more service friendly. But first I will measure
everything, make drawings, clean the tank, take ohm readings on the
elements, and so on. I should add that all of this is fun for me - a labor
of love.
There are tons of neat little features which if no one tells a person,
and if one doesn't look closely, they'll be missed. For instance, I saw a
tiny hose tied into a tee in the line that dumps the spent reverse-cycle
water overboard. I surmise and suppose that it is some type of venturi
device that sucks the condensate from the evaporator pan when the air
conditioner is running. Makes good sense. The power to pump the condensate
overboard comes from the flowing seawater which is being pumped though the
heat exchanger - very clever!
Back to the original batteries - if they're in good shape, why toss
them? Why not keep 4 batteries if I have the room? I'm thinking of
dedicating the older batteries to the reverse cycle (heat pump) and keeping
the new Optima Bluetops (dual purpose) for everything else. I wouldn't be
too hard to make an emergency electrical crossover if some situation called
for it. Before I install them I'll know what the engine puts out, and the
output characteristics of the onboard charger.
In addition to all this looking, I've been communicating with some very
good and knowledgable people in the Seaward forum - thanks to Charlie Morgan
for putting me in touch there. Between here and there, I couldn't ask for
more or better advice and I feel lucky to have such good online friends.
Scout