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wjcons wjcons is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2007
Posts: 2
Default Battery Charger and Wire Guage

I recently bought a new battery charger. Even though the specs called for
12 guage, I installed oversized 10 AWG wire to the AGM batteries (one
battery on each of 2 banks) when I installed the charger. When I crimped
the fuses into the cables at the + battery terminals, all I had was 12 guage
butt splices, so I just trimmed off a few strands from the 10 guage wire
right at the splice. Once I had everything hooked up, I saw that the
charger would only charge my batteries to about 80%. Well, I finally got
around to replacing the butt splices with 10 guage, and now the charger is
charging my batteries to 100%. I don't understand how less than one inch of
12 guage wire, or the 12 guage butt splice could have introduced enough
voltage drop to cause an 80% charge in the batteries. Am I missing
something?

TIA for any responses.