T&T: Battery question

[Pascal Gademer]

I'm a big fan of Golf Cart batteries, at least for house/inverter duty. 
they're cheap, easy to handle and designed for deep cyclng.

your test ins't very accurate as when you have a high load (simultaneous 
high amps appliances) voltage will drop and will triggger the low voltage 
cut out sooner than if you were in a normal use mode ... do you ever run the 
microw.  toaster, all lights, fridge, together? rarely i guess.

The power shoudlnt' have been surging on and off... that tells me there may 
be something wrong with that inveter...  not sure what you mean by "off 
brand", chinese knock off?  not ideal on a boat.

Last month i installed a Magnum 40 on a 70 footer. I'm impressed by the 
unit, so far. It has a high capacity built in charger and automatic transfer 
switch.  for fully automatic operation.  I also installed 16 gold cart 
batteries, sounds like an overkill but the boat has 3 pairs of subzero 
drawers, ice makers, big entertainment system etc...  We needed to get at 
least 20 hours autonomy to only run the genny for 4 hours at night.

on my own boat, i have a Freedom 30 with 8 golf cart batteries, that also 
gives me 20 hours with just a large GE fridge/freezer, and a few other 
things.

the key is to size the whole system.  match your loads to the inverter to 
the batteries to the charger to the generator.  Big inverter, small 
batteries doesnt work...  big batteries small charger doesnt' work either.

two things to consider when picking an inverter...  True Sine ( a little 
more money but worth it) and make sure that the inverter has DUAL inputs. 
One for charging, one for passthru. Otherwise, your charging rate will drop 
as the charger back off once your pass thru loads increase. the xantrex 
Freedom and MS   as well as  the Magnum have dual input.  others like 
Outback dont.

at 5 years your batteries are getting there but it's hard to tell. it's 
seems you put a high load on them but without knowing the exact amps of each 
load and the time they run, it's hard to know.  I'd upgrade the inverter 
first, then see how long normal usage you get before replacing the batteries

Fro gold cart batteries, I get mine from a golf cart guy... he delivers and 
has the best prices around on Exides.  I found him by calling the local 
exide branch (here in so fl).  Prices have gone up on batteries, a lot, and 
now they even add a core charge...  i paid $110 each, with core, for the 
batch i got last month

pascal
miami,fl
70 hatteras 53MY
live helm cam @ www.sandbarhopper.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Laura" <lortmann at optonline.net>
To: <trawlers-and-trawlering at lists.samurai.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 10:28 PM
Subject: T&T: Battery question


> Our current power set up is as follows (40 foot down east lobster boat, 
> 3208
> Cat single engine).
>
>
>
> We have two sets of two 8D batteries  two dedicated to starting engine, 
> two
> for house batteries.  The average age is approx 5years old, and they are
> probably getting tired. We have a xantrex true charge 20 amp multistage
> charger, and an offbrand Vector 1200 watt (2400 watt peak) inverter.
>
>
>
> As a test, we ran all our usual appliances (galley microwave, toaster 
> oven,
> lights, small refrig etc) for over 1 = hours.  The inverter began a high
> pitched screaming noise, and eventually the power surged on and off then
> stayed off. We used a tester to determine that one house battery was down 
> to
> 12.16 volts, 5.97 miliamps and 542 cold cranking amps(42% capacity), the
> other house battery was 3.69 milliamps impedance, 888 cold cranking amps
> (76% capacity).
>
>
>
> Questions:  Do either of the 8D house batteries sound salvageable, and 
> what
> you recommend to replace one or both?  It seems that in past discussions 
> on
> the list, the primary recommendation is for golf cart batteries.  Can you
> recommend sources for golf cart batteries, if that is the way to go.  We
> think we need to use flooded as our engine batteries are flooded and all 
> are
> charged through the same charger.
>
>
>
> 2. Recommendations as to an additional or replacement inverter  higher
> capacity.
>
>
>
> 3          How can we use the inverter to run a 120 volt refrigerator  --
> will the inverter know to switch between the battery and the 110 shore
> power?  We currently have an older Norcold which switches itself, we would
> like to switch over to  120 dorm size.
>
>
>
> Any other comments or suggestions.
>
>
>
> Artie & Laura Ortmann
>
> NARCOSIS Downeaster
>
> Long Island, NY
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