Battery maintanance

[Boat&Bikes]

Hi,

 

My boat has 4x 110 plus starter batteries charged via a victron unit.Through summer it is cruised 2 0r 3 weekends a month plus 3 or 4 weeks.As winter approaches i am wondering what the best method is to look after the batteries?I expect we will use the boat for odd weekends cruising weather permitting.I am not to keen on leaving shoreline power plugged in continuously when away from the boat as i am uneasy about the effects of stray electric currents.....So was thinking leave them off charge then plug in the odd night we are on boat in marina plus obviously they will be charged when we take boat out.Any thoughts on wether this will be ok for the batteries? when boat is left empty they will be isolated.

 

Ian

[WotEver]

As winter approaches i am wondering what the best method is to look after the batteries?

I leave ours on shoreline with a Victron charger. The batteries have never been so good.

 

Tony

[jonathanA]

I had the same issue last winter and just connected the shoreline up when we were on board. I've now fitted a safeshore galvanic isolator and leave the stirling (in my case) charger on all the time. As far as I can tell the batteries haven't been 'boiled dry' and needed minimal topping up when i checked a few weeks ago. I don't know if the galvanic isolator is dealing with any stray currents - guess we'll find out next time the boat is out for blacking but the theory says it should be...

 

This also means frost protection via a small electric heater will be much simpler this winter too.

[WotEver]

This also means frost protection via a small electric heater will be much simpler this winter too.

I do that, too One of those 8ft long bar heaters as used in greenhouses.

 

Tony

 

Switched by a little plug-in digital thermostat.

[Boat&Bikes]

I do that, too One of those 8ft long bar heaters as used in greenhouses.

 

Tony

 

Switched by a little plug-in digital thermostat.

 

 

I have a GI fitted just a little wary still...as for frost protection does this mean you are able to forget about the usual winterisation procedures such as water draining ?

 

Ian

[WotEver]

I have a GI fitted just a little wary still...as for frost protection does this mean you are able to forget about the usual winterisation procedures such as water draining ?

 

Ian

I never winterise our boat. I simply fit the thermostatically controlled heater. I guess the danger is that the heater could fail, or the power could trip, so I'm not suggesting everyone should do it. It's simply what I do.

 

Tony

[Chalky]

We don't have mains power at our moorings so I have a small solar panel and a regulator to keep the batteries topped up. It's not enough to charge them, but it does slow down the rate of self discharge. Every couple of weeks in the winter I run the engine for an hour or so to charge the batteries and run the heating (rads run off the calorifier return circuit via a heat exchanger). Alternatively I'll use the 12V output on the genny and charge the batteries that way.