Deep Cycle Charging

Installing my tower setup this week, and I have decided to run 2 deep cycle batteries and a seperate starting battery.

Can I safely charge the deep cycles with my alt without damaging them or ruining the longevity of the batteries? I believe my alt is either a 51 or 55 amp alt.

I was thinking of running the deep cycles in paralell on one side of a perko switch and the starting on the other..making sure to not have the switch to the "BOTH" setting.

From the research I've done, the main issue with charging deep cycles is high voltage (read optimas tech sheets). You should have a regulator or charger with voltage limits.

I'm installing the Yandina C100 combiner to charge my blue top off my starting battery. I haven't installed it yet, but this was the most economical way I could find. I'm hoping its everything they say it is.

Seems like to many batteries for a 55 amp alt...I would upgrade to 100-160 amps. I wouldn't worry about charging off alt.

An alt. will only give you a "bulk charge" ... this will essentially only be giving you a charge in the range of 80-90%. Which will in time, kill your deep cycles.

I don't understand why people are to lazy to either pull their batteries out and charge them. If it's a matter of convenience, just install an onboard charger, such as a Xantrex True-Charge.

I have a deep cycle on my boat for the stereo. I dont have a way to hook up my battery to a wall outlet. I was wondering if this portable minn kota would do the trick.

http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/batteries/detail.asp?pg=portablecharger

Leo,

It's definately better than nothing. I would suggest giving your batteries their bulk charge... then once it says you are charged, allowing the batteries to settle then giving them a float charge to top them off. This will take a while but if your going that route, it's really your only choice.

Why not pull your battery and take it home to charge it w/ a proper charger? Sure it's a pain in the butt, but it's only an additional 5 mins to pull the battery/batteries after storing your boat.

An excerpt from windsun.com

"Battery Charging

Battery charging takes place in 3 basic stages: Bulk, Absorption, and Float.

Bulk Charge - The first stage of 3-stage battery charging. Current is sent to batteries at the maximum safe rate they will accept until voltage rises to near (80-90%) full charge level. Voltages at this stage typically range from 10.5 volts to 15 volts. There is no "correct" voltage for bulk charging, but there may be limits on the maximum current that the battery and/or wiring can take.

Absorption Charge: The 2nd stage of 3-stage battery charging. Voltage remains constant and current gradually tapers off as internal resistance increases during charging. It is during this stage that the charger puts out maximum voltage. Voltages at this stage are typically around 14.2 to 15.5 volts.

Float Charge: The 3rd stage of 3-stage battery charging. After batteries reach full charge, charging voltage is reduced to a lower level (typically 12.8 to 13.2) to reduce gassing and prolong battery life. This is often referred to as a maintenance or trickle charge, since it's main purpose is to keep an already charged battery from discharging. PWM, or "pulse width modulation" accomplishes the same thing. In PWM, the controller or charger senses tiny voltage drops in the battery and sends very short charging cycles (pulses) to the battery. This may occur several hundred times per minute. It is called "pulse width" because the width of the pulses may vary from a few microseconds to several seconds. Note that for long term float service, such as backup power systems that are seldom discharged, the float voltage should be around 13.02 to 13.20 volts.
Chargers: Most garage and consumer (automotive) type battery chargers are bulk charge only, and have little (if any) voltage regulation. They are fine for a quick boost to low batteries, but not to leave on for long periods. Among the regulated chargers, there are the voltage regulated ones, such as Iota Engineering and Todd, which keep a constant regulated voltage on the batteries. If these are set to the correct voltages for your batteries, they will keep the batteries charged without damage. These are sometimes called "taper charge" - as if that is a selling point. What taper charge really means is that as the battery gets charged up, the voltage goes up, so the amps out of the charger goes down. They charge OK, but a charger rated at 20 amps may only be supplying 5 amps when the batteries are 80% charged. To get around this, Statpower (and maybe others?) have come out with "smart", or multi-stage chargers. These use a variable voltage to keep the charging amps much more constant for faster charging."

Leo, that charger will work just fine, as long as you get one with the 3-stg charging.

It says multi stage charging. I am assuming that is the 3 stage.

i have a 2 battery set up with a perko. can i hook up the charger to one battery and set the perko to "both"? will this charge both batteries or will i need to charge them seperately? *hijack off*

Leo, the 105 does not, the 110 and 210 have 3-stg (bulk, absorbtion, maintenence).

CR, I've been told you can set the battery to both if they are the same type/size/age. If not, you will want to charge seperately.

Thanks Ryan, I will be purchasing one soon.