Hello all,
Last fall I found that my alternator was over-charging the batteries. I just got back from taking it to an repair shop and indeed it looks as though the regulator failed. He's ordered the part and will replace it and retest it. He also tested the batteries and were ok (only 2 years old - identical Group 27 Deep Cycle).
We started talking about possible causes of regulator failure and I mentioned I had read here on the forum somewhere that accidentally switching the battery switch to 'off' while the engine is running could kill the regulator. He said for sure that would do it, but so would just switching from 1 to 2 or 'All' (I have the typical red dial switch). Even the split second of switching from any of those, over time, would over-load the regulator.
Our practice for the last 3 years that we've owned the boat was suggested by the previous owner and other friends:
-Start the boat with the switch on 1 to use that as the starting battery
-Once the engine is running, turn switch to 'All' to make sure both batteries are being charged
-Once the engine is off, turn switch to 2 for use as the house battery
So I'm wondering a couple of things from the experienced users here:
1) What is your battery switching 'best practice'? Do I have it wrong? Do I need to start and run the boat on 'All' all the time when the engine's running?
2) Is this true that switching between 1, 2, or All could ruin the regulator? If so, is there a way to wire the switch so that doesn't happen?
3) I have an ammeter in the cockpit, but I'm now wondering if a battery monitor, wired next to the switch inside might be a good idea to keep an eye on battery health and give me an advanced warning about over-charging or other issues. Does anyone have one they like?
Thanks,
Trevor
Last fall I found that my alternator was over-charging the batteries. I just got back from taking it to an repair shop and indeed it looks as though the regulator failed. He's ordered the part and will replace it and retest it. He also tested the batteries and were ok (only 2 years old - identical Group 27 Deep Cycle).
We started talking about possible causes of regulator failure and I mentioned I had read here on the forum somewhere that accidentally switching the battery switch to 'off' while the engine is running could kill the regulator. He said for sure that would do it, but so would just switching from 1 to 2 or 'All' (I have the typical red dial switch). Even the split second of switching from any of those, over time, would over-load the regulator.
Our practice for the last 3 years that we've owned the boat was suggested by the previous owner and other friends:
-Start the boat with the switch on 1 to use that as the starting battery
-Once the engine is running, turn switch to 'All' to make sure both batteries are being charged
-Once the engine is off, turn switch to 2 for use as the house battery
So I'm wondering a couple of things from the experienced users here:
1) What is your battery switching 'best practice'? Do I have it wrong? Do I need to start and run the boat on 'All' all the time when the engine's running?
2) Is this true that switching between 1, 2, or All could ruin the regulator? If so, is there a way to wire the switch so that doesn't happen?
3) I have an ammeter in the cockpit, but I'm now wondering if a battery monitor, wired next to the switch inside might be a good idea to keep an eye on battery health and give me an advanced warning about over-charging or other issues. Does anyone have one they like?
Thanks,
Trevor
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