On Board Charger

[cpropes2005]

Anyone see any issue with leaving the on-board charger plugged in all of the time? I seem to have a small parasitic draw that has been killing my batteries. I almost always turn the switch to the off position but it still seems like if it is more than a couple weeks before I use the boat again I will come back to weak batteries.

I think the easy answer is just to make plugging in the charger part of my routine every time I cover the boat but I just want to make sure there are no ill effects of leaving it plugged in all of the time. For reference my boat is a 2015 with the stock dual battery setup and on board charger.

[TheBabyBadger]

Anyone see any issue with leaving the on-board charger plugged in all of the time? I seem to have a small parasitic draw that has been killing my batteries. I almost always turn the switch to the off position but it still seems like if it is more than a couple weeks before I use the boat again I will come back to weak batteries.

I think the easy answer is just to make plugging in the charger part of my routine every time I cover the boat but I just want to make sure there are no ill effects of leaving it plugged in all of the time. For reference my boat is a 2015 with the stock dual battery setup and on board charger.

I don't wanna sound like a jerk, cuz asking never hurts, but I'd say that's what it's there for. I'd be more concerned about the parasitic draw than the on-board charger, personally.

If I'm wrong, please correct me. Good luck man!

[Poison]

It is designed to be left on.


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[cpropes2005]

Haha, no worries. Reading it back to myself it does sound like kind of a dumb question. This is the first on board charger I have ever had so I guess I am just used to my old mentality of only using a battery charger if a battery is low.

Related dumb question. Does the position of the battery switch have any impact when using the charger? I would suspect that they have the charger wired independent of the switch but I have never actually traced the wires to find out.

[MLA]

If the main battery switch is off and the both batteries are low, you have big problem thats going to be fairly simple to find. Not many thinks should be wired direct to the battery and none should be wired to both batteries.

So, IMO, fix the draw or bad battery issue. Why? because if it is a battery issue, you will end up with bigger issues with a charger trying to charge a bad battery. 2nd, even a small load can keep the charger working nonstop, which its not indented to. Not good for a battery and not good for the charger.

Yes, a marine on-board smart charger is intended to remain plugged in.

Yes, the switch position matters. need to be off.

[siv24]

Here's a question. Is there a way that I can wire my onboard charger, to my battery pack (2 batteries), on my hoist? They are kept charged by a solar panel. Old thread, but maybe someone will see it....

[zabooda]

Options: Get a 12 volt inverter to provide 120VAC to the charger , tie into the hoist battery pack and have the panel maintain all 4 batteries or have a switch to have the solar panel maintain the hoist batteries or boat batteries or perhaps all of the batteries. The inverter will have some power loss and something to maintain whereas a direct 12 volt connection for your solar panel would be simple but I would recommend a diode in line to ensure there will be no drainage of your boat batteries.

[MLA]

I would suggest a 2 bank charger for a 2 bank system. Otherwise, you would have to keep the battery switch on, which is less then ideal. The other thing is taking into account the potential draw of the charger v's you solar's output.