Battery Talk

[piemma]

Originally Posted by OLD GOAT

I just installed an Interstate group27 deep cycle two years ago.
This is the second such battery. The first didn't swim very well.
I only have the one battery on board.
Do you think I should carry a second for offshore dreaming???

I personally would never run without 2 batteries. When I anchor up or when I drift and shut the motor off I switch to battery 2 to run all my electronics. When I get ready to fire up the motor I switch to both so I always have one fresh battery to fall back on. To me it's cheap insurance.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by piemma

I personally would never run without 2 batteries. When I anchor up or when I drift and shut the motor off I switch to battery 2 to run all my electronics. When I get ready to fire up the motor I switch to both so I always have one fresh battery to fall back on. To me it's cheap insurance.

Wrong way to do it! When you go to start switch to battery 1 only, if you switch to both the current will flow to the weaker battery until both are equally charged. So if you switch to both and battery number 2 is dead, battery number 1 will start loosing charge as soon as you flip the switch, if you engine doesn't start on the first or second try you could be SOL. Unless you have battery isolaters on both batteries. After you start the engine you can switch to both batteries.