Onboard battery charging

[Sea Gristle]

Got a couple of dead batteries (new this summer) that lost charge (DEFINITELY not getting out enough!). They are connect by an Perko OFF-1-2-BOTH switch. Can I charge up a battery without removing the Ignition/ground wires? If I throw the switch to BOTH and put the charger + wire on Battery 1 and the - wire on Battery 2 can I charge both batteries at once? Thanks!

[Steve00]

SG--Used to have the same problem till I installed a Duel Pro SE onboard battery charger on my Parker 23 SE. Whether I need it or not I charge my batteries in the boat on a monthly basis. My batteries are also hooked up to a Perko switch similar to yours. The battery charger cables go directly from the charger to each battery with an independent monitoring of the charge to each. Sometimes when the charge is low I will leave it the charger plugged in over night with the batteries fully topped off to 100 percent. When I charge the batteries I leave the Perko Switch on off. Here's the Dual Pro homepage Pro Charging Systems (http://www.dualpro.com/products/professional/). Dual Pro's battery chargers come in various models charging 1 to 4 batteries simultaneously.

Steve

[WildeOne]

It's best to isolate the batteries from any loads and each other and use a multichannel charger, in your case two ch. I haven't used my boat in over a year, but have an onboard charger for three batteries. The charger is functionally three independent chargers in one box. I charge every three or four weeks for about ten hours ( the charger is a total of 20 A). This keep the batteries in an always ready state and prevents any small loads from pulling the batteries down. The only load is one bilge pump directly wired to one battery and controlled by an automatic switch. The bilge pump almost never comes on, except in hurricane conditions. I always leave the battery switches set to "OFF", except when the boat is in actual use.