battery condition indicator.

MIKES342

My dock in central Ohio dosen't have electricity so I ordered a generator for my 260 when I purchaed it .  I haven't used my fridge becasue I am afraid I will run the batteries down although I would like to have it working on the days I go out.  With that being said does anyone have any idea how long the fridge willwork before the battery needs charged by the genny.  Also is there a battery condition indicator anyone could recommend

Black_Diamond

You can do the math based on the amperage pulled and your battery capacity, but if it's more than a few days I bet they'd be dead.  By battery condition monitor, I'm guessing you really just need a voltage meter.  You might get by with a solar array though for keeping the battery charged, that would be my route. 

MIKES342

interesting a solar arry.  Do you have any information?

Michael T

Hey Mike, when we were originally considering a 260 I did a lot of research and got, as usual, great advice here. In short, I was told by a tech I trust to crank the fridge up to 7 or 8 and get it real cold before I put the boat away at the slip and then turn it down to a 2 or 3 (just don't leave a bunch of filet mignons in the freezer).Iif I wanted to extend my battery life I was told to use a portable solar charger IF I bought the controller for it so that it didn't damage my battery(ies). Of course, (like a feedback loop), I sing the praises of AGM batteries for house applications. I found that the solar "blankets" that could be rolled-up would be far easier to store and manage, but they were a little less efficient than the fixed "boxes". I also found out that several generator manufacturers make units well suited to boaters. If we bought the 260 I was looking at the small super quiet Honda gen that could be linked with a Honda built wiring harness to a twin to give enough power for multiple draws and even to run the A/C heat. I also found that Yahama made a special high initial surge model to handle the start up loads of A/C heat. I think it was a 2300? It was compact, quiet and a decent price. Good luck! MT

TikiHut2

MT and BD are both add some great input. The sailing guys who cruise consistently usually anchoring out for weeks at a time have been all the way around marine solar panel system design. As much as solar technology has improved it's still pretty tough to keep up with the fairly heavy use of refrigeration with solar. Simply moving a panel slightly askew from an ideal angle, or a partial shadow from rigging stifles panel efficiency pretty dramatically. Reducing your load as MT explained is a huge help. Choosing high efficiency panels and using a controller to manage charging are a must and an education in themselves.

Do a search on some of the sailing/cruising forums to find some helpful spreadsheets to effectively calculate your demand so you better understand how to design a system and choose controllers, storage batteries and panels to fit your needs. If you're doing long weekends It's almost more practical to just use a small genset like MT explained. If you don't have power otherwise and have a dock side solar array for maintaining your batts and frig it'll be far easier and you won't have to figure out on-board mounting or storage challenges.

All that said, Here's a link to a good run down on your monitor question and slew of other marine challenges spelled out by an OCD rag boat guy that I've been reading for years. Hope that's helpful. Good luck, Mike

(LINK)

gslpro

Mike,   If you don't want to put in a house battery system, run the fridge.  For goodness sake, you bought it...use it.  For redundancy, get a jumper pack of decent size from walmart, stick it in the boat somewhere with a small extension going to a 110 outlet.  When you are on shore power, it charges the jumper pack as well as the boat charging your batteries.  When out on the water, if you ever do run it down enough to have an issue starting, you can jump yourself...(Hold you snide remarks.)  Also, I had one of these on my old Chris Craft, and I loved it.  Cuts out the 12v before it drops low enough to not start, and when you turn on the key, it reopens the system for you to start.  Was great, for when you heard the radio die, you knew your batteries were low.  Always started the boat right up though.

browncbr1

I always turn my battery switch to #1, and let the fridge run all weekend. When I hook up to shore power it charges batteries automatically. We leave the dock almost all day each day, but I haven't been anchoring out yet as weather makes it difficult. Never had to turn my switch to #2 yet. I will only go to #2 or both if #1 won't crank to motor.

MIKES342

I appreciate all the information.  I do have a marine genny installed and live 5 miles from the marina.  We do not have shore power at the marina and I do run the genny sometimes when we just go and sit on the boat probably 4 nights a week.  The consumption of gas is about 3 gallons per hour if I read the specs correctly. 

If I could use the fridge overnight say 10 hours and then charge it up withthe genny the  next moring that would be sufficient.  The reason for the battery meter was just to try and make sure I knew at what state the battery was in.  Charged, half charged or needs charged.  I guess I just need to try it.  I guess since my genny is connected to 1 battery it should start the genny then I could start the engine in the worst case senario.

Well I guess it is time to try. 

Once again thanks for all the information.