Battery Talk

[Rockfish9]

Most ( no all) of the switches are make before break, the most reliable method is to have a switch for each battery ( wired to a third switch as an emergency combiner/isolator)the charging of each battery is acheived through an ACR or Isolator.. each battery having a single purpose... this cuts out the human error ..and need to switch back and forth... it is my understanding that blue seas ( and other manufacturers) now make a single switch that acomplishes this on it;s own.... I still like having the option of excluding one battery all together in case of an internal short...

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

Most ( no all) of the switches are make before break, the most reliable method is to have a switch for each battery ( wired to a third switch as an emergency combiner/isolator)the charging of each battery is acheived through an ACR or Isolator.. each battery having a single purpose... this cuts out the human error ..and need to switch back and forth... it is my understanding that blue seas ( and other manufacturers) now make a single switch that acomplishes this on it;s own.... I still like having the option of excluding one battery all together in case of an internal short...

716-SQ-100AVSR - Dual Battery Charging Cluster

Add a Battery - Blue Sea Systems

The BEP Marine setup is a bit more refined.
It keeps your batteries separated unless you NEED it (Which you really shouldn't, having a dedicated house and a dedicated starting battery really is the way to go.) along with making sure both stay charged when the engine is running.

[Van]

I decided the extra $$ for the AGM battery is not worth it.
New ones are less than 1/2 the price of AGMs, and if I went with them and they didn't last I'll be REALLY pssd'. So I will go with what has been working. Hope I get another 10 years out of these.

I bought a new onboard charger so everything will be new.
Got some wiring to straighten out, clean everything, install new trays and the new charger and I'm good to go.

[likwid]

There's a very good reason why most people think AGM's suck.

If you flatline them, good luck re-charging.
If you charge over 16v for any amount of time (which means ever) you kill them. Even 15.5v for any amount of time is bad.

Most stock alternators/voltage regulators WILL kill AGM's.

ie: to do AGM's right and have them last more than 2 years (which seems to be whats happening, my father just replaced a bank of AGM's that were almost 8 years old now, funny how things work right when set up right) you need to be running a GOOD alternator and a GOOD voltage regular (best? Balmar, but not cheap.).

So basically, unless you want to set it up right, and spend alot of money doing so, go buy wet cells, spend the extra money elsewhere and worry not.