Second charger? OR upgrade!

SERENDIPITY

I have a starter battery that starts my generator and gets only charged by the generator.The generator switch when on constantly draws/drains the battery when not being used during the week.Should i install a second charger just for that battery.OR upgrade to a smart  charger.I presently have a 40 amp charger with
2 starter batteries and two 6 volt house batteries connected ,What do they mean by a 3 bank charger?Difference from a 30 amp or a 40 amp charger?

  tks Rick

Stodge

So my question was going to be how many banks does your current charger have.  With a 3 bank charger you have 3 separate outputs for 3 batteries or banks of batteries.  If you have 2 batteries in parallel that makes 1 bank.  In my case I have a Port starter, Starboard starter and a house with 2 batteries in parallel.  That's 3 banks.  My genny uses the Port Starter.

Given your setup, it sounds like you have 4 banks.  Not sure if there are too many 4 bank chargers out there.  So you might be better off looking for a small dedicated charger for the 4th bank.  

davidbrooks

My charger was the original and only setup for lead acid batteries.  With all the advancement in battery technology my thoughts were to first upgrade my charger to one that could handle AGM batteries and then slowly as my pocketbook could afford it replace batteries.  The rationale was that if i didn't do that i would just ruin good batteries.  If you go that route do your research, there are a lot of options out there.  

Dream_Inn

Interesting.  I've never seen a 342 that has 4 banks of batteries (actually 5 batteries).  Not really sure why you'd want to have the generator on a separate battery.  I guess I should say I've never seen the need to have it on a separate battery.  If it were me, I'd probably wire it up to be 3 banks and use the current charger.  Either an engine battery or house bank would be on the genny as well.

Ok, just read it again.  The two house batteries are tied in series since they are 6VDC each.  Interesting.  Must be golf cart type batteries?

DanD2

I would just tie in your genny starter cables to the port battery. That's how most 342's are set up. It also sounds like youcurrently have a 3 bank charger

@davidbrooks if you decide to do what you stated, please make sure that your charger can handle different battery types on different banks. I have not looked in a couple of years but it's hard to find a charger where you can put lead acid on one bank and AGM's on another.

davidbrooks

@DanD2 Already did it.  You are correct but what i did was set it up for AGM for all.  My house batteries are AGM and starting batteries are old lead acid.  Acid batteries can handle the charging cycles of AGM vs the other way around.  Plus they are old and likely gonna be replaced this winter.

DanD2

@davidbrooks good deal. you did it right....I did not want to get into charging profiles, I knew you could get away with a couple of types but without research, could not remember which way it was.