Adding another leisure battery

[Adora Belle]

Hi, I have 2 leisure batteries and an engine one all in a line. I have space to add another for the engine and connect the old engine one into the leisure bank, hope fully this will give us longer electrics when cruising, any tips or ideas?

We reguarly cruise for 5-6 hours but by the end of nightime charge is nearly gone, would the extra batt help, would i need to check an upgrade the alternator?

Edited March 9, 2013 by Adora Belle

[matty40s]

Hi, I have 2 leisure batteries and an engine one all in a line. I have space to add another for the engine and connect the old engine one into the leisure bank, hope fully this will give us longer electrics when cruising, any tips or ideas?

We reguarly cruise for 5-6 hours but by the end of nightime charge is nearly gone, would the extra batt help, would i need to check an upgrade the alternator?

It will entirely depend on what your usage is in the evenings to lead to your charge going "nearly gone".

depending on the age of the existing batteries, purchasing a new starter battery and adding the existing starter battery to the domestics may not improve matters greatly if the batteries are 3 years old and tired.

Your starter battery is likely to be in a better state than the domestics.

You may be better served buying two new (or indeed 3 new) domestic batteries and keeping them well maintained (add a solar panel for when you are not cruising).

[Arthur Brown]

That your batteries only just meet your consumption needs, are they in good condition? and are they ever fully charged?

 

If the batteries still have their nominal capacity and are very young (under a year) then adding another may assist IF the alternator can recharge all the batteries in the cruise time.

 

If the the house batteries are more than a couple of years old then replace them with three batteries.

 

Consider a solar electric installation.

Consider a smartgauge battery state indicator.

 

http://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Book-EN-EnergyUnlimited.pdf is a good free-to-download book.

 

http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/ is full of useful information on lead acid battery installations in vehicles, with lots of technical info on boat charging and battery systems. Keep reading all the indexed technical info.

[bottle]

What the other two said.

 

 

We regularly cruise for 5-6 hours but by the end of nightime charge is nearly gone, would the extra batt help, would i need to check an upgrade the alternator?

 

Then you are using to much power for the battery capacity (batteries old/knackered) you have and/or the amount of charging you do (alternator could be larger [amps] or run the engine longer)

 

It does not matter what size the battery bank is, if you are using more than you put back, you are on a loser.

 

Also remember what ever you use, you have to put back more because of the inefficiency of charging.

 

Battery monitoring is essential, Smartgauge (simple) or volt meter and an ammeter but you do need to know how to interpret the readings.

Edited March 10, 2013 by bottle

[ditchcrawler]

Hi, I have 2 leisure batteries and an engine one all in a line. I have space to add another for the engine and connect the old engine one into the leisure bank, hope fully this will give us longer electrics when cruising, any tips or ideas?

We reguarly cruise for 5-6 hours but by the end of nightime charge is nearly gone, would the extra batt help, would i need to check an upgrade the alternator?

So how big are those two batteries, what condition are they in and how old are they, what do you use the electricity up on? do you have lots of high wattage bulbs, mains TV, Microwave oven?

[Adora Belle]

What the other two said.

 

 

 

 

Then you are using to much power for the battery capacity (batteries old/knackered) you have and/or the amount of charging you do (alternator could be larger [amps] or run the engine longer)

 

It does not matter what size the battery bank is, if you are using more than you put back, you are on a loser.

 

Also remember what ever you use, you have to put back more because of the inefficiency of charging.

 

Battery monitoring is essential, Smartgauge (simple) or volt meter and an ammeter but you do need to know how to interpret the readings.

 

Thanks for your reply, we do have a voltmeter, which reads 14.4when engine running or hooked up, 12.0 when not and is usually near 10 by the end of the evening.

Usage wise we have a fridge on during the day, and occasionally charge phones. In the evening its fridge, lights and water.

We try and limit charging phones and shower pump whilst engine running.

I will look into a smart guage also.

 

So how big are those two batteries, what condition are they in and how old are they, what do you use the electricity up on? do you have lots of high wattage bulbs, mains TV, Microwave oven?

 

Not sure of the battery sizes but main usage seems to be the fridge, and having a teenager phone charging, there is no tele or micro or washer.

I will look into replacing the existing batteries first and later a solar charger perhaps?

Thanks all

[ditchcrawler]

Thanks for your reply, we do have a voltmeter, which reads 14.4when engine running or hooked up, 12.0 when not and is usually near 10 by the end of the evening.

Usage wise we have a fridge on during the day, and occasionally charge phones. In the evening its fridge, lights and water.

We try and limit charging phones and shower pump whilst engine running.

I will look into a smart guage also.

 

 

 

Not sure of the battery sizes but main usage seems to be the fridge, and having a teenager phone charging, there is no tele or micro or washer.

I will look into replacing the existing batteries first and later a solar charger perhaps?

Thanks all

At 12 volts your batteries are no where near charged and at 10 volts they a done for so they probably require replacing not adding another.

[bottle]

we do have a voltmeter, which reads 14.4when engine running or hooked up good enough but could be better , 12.0 when not batteries are flat, dead and is usually near 10 The batteries are probably dead, knackered, need to go to battery rest home (scrap yard)by the end of the evening.

 

if you replace the batteries you will definitely need to change the way you use and charge your batteries.

[trackman]

A fridge will probably go a long way to flattening 2 typical batteries in 24 hours even at this time of year if you only charge them for that sort of time with an average size alternator.

We have 4 domestic batteries, 110Amp hours each. We turn the fridge off at night in winter to reduce the power used. In summer a 68W solar panel will usually make up the power the fridge uses in 24 hours, but we still run our engine for at least an hour daily to make up for the other power we use. In winter it's a lot longer.

In addition it's good practice to charge batteries for a lot longer once a month or so when they are in regular use.

We have no TV, the fridge, water pump, lights and charging phones and a small netbook are our only power uses.

[ditchcrawler]

A fridge will probably go a long way to flattening 2 typical batteries in 24 hours even at this time of year if you only charge them for that sort of time with an average size alternator.

We have 4 domestic batteries, 110Amp hours each. We turn the fridge off at night in winter to reduce the power used. In summer a 68W solar panel will usually make up the power the fridge uses in 24 hours, but we still run our engine for at least an hour daily to make up for the other power we use. In winter it's a lot longer.

In addition it's good practice to charge batteries for a lot longer once a month or so when they are in regular use.

We have no TV, the fridge, water pump, lights and charging phones and a small netbook are our only power uses.

I cruise for about 4 hrs, I have a 240 volt fridge running from an inverter, I use a laptop and my batteries are not below 75% when I start the engine the next day using about 65 Ah in 20 hrs. The OP is running the engine for 5 hrs, but at the end of that the batteries are still flat, there knackered. 220Ah of batteries should be able to supply 70ah before requiring recharging.

[Arthur Brown]

A battery that has been discharged to 10v often is probably totally dead. Check that the charge indication is OK then try to get two or three leisure batteries, wire them carefully as the instructions on smartgauge.co.uk

 

Once you have good batteries check carefully and in detail that the alternator is charging them at a proper rate and charging them fully. 5hrs daily should be good if the alt is adequately rated. Ideally the batteries should charge at a good current til they reach 14.4v then hold that voltage for a while then settle at 13.6 ish and hold that for ever while on charge.

After an hour resting they should settle around 12.7v and the resting voltage should decrease as capacity is used. It's best to recharge then when (or before) the rest voltage reaches 12.2

[Adora Belle]

Thanks everyone, i will invest in new battteries i think. I admit i didnt worry when they went below 11v but will be more careful in future. We only use the boat at weekends and dont live aboard.

Is it recommended to leave it hooked up when not there, mostly we un hook and isolate the battery?

[Grace and Favour]

Thanks everyone, i will invest in new battteries i think. I admit i didnt worry when they went below 11v but will be more careful in future. We only use the boat at weekends and dont live aboard.

Is it recommended to leave it hooked up when not there, mostly we un hook and isolate the battery?

 

I would suggest that the best thing you could do would be:

1/ Replace the batteries

2/ Fit a solar panel *which will trickle charge your batteries whilst you're away

[bottle]

Is it recommended to leave it hooked up when not there,

 

I would if there is an 'intelligent' three stage battery charger onboard and it is all wired correctly.

[alan_fincher]

If you are charging phones through a 12volt car adapter the current used is fairly minimal, and if everything else is in order should have no great impact.

 

That said if is only weekend use won't your phones stay charged long enough not to need charging on board?

[larkshall]

If you are charging phones through a 12volt car adapter the current used is fairly minimal, and if everything else is in order should have no great impact.

 

That said if is only weekend use won't your phones stay charged long enough not to need charging on board?

 

 

The OP mentioned the dreaded word 'teenager' so no phone will not stay charged. Suggest surgically removing teenager from phone, its not as though they need one.