DC Electric Panel Meter

[Mike Brown]

I have a 43 and am curious about what volatges others see on their meter installed in the DC electric panel. We see quite a bit of fluctuation while hooked into shore power. It ranges from 12.8 to 12.1 depending on what is operating at the time, such as the fridge and/or freezer. BTW we had 2 4D wet cells rated at apx 183 AH each, plus the Grp 27s for the engine and another for the bow thruster. What do others see?
Mike

[sam]

I have Lifeline AGM batteries and the 40 amp truecharge charger. I used 4 6v units or the house bank, and one 12v for the engine and one 12 v for the thruster. I too see quite a bit of variation at the voltage readout on the VDO panel. I also hear the shore charger fan spool up and off a lot. I am just about convinced that the shore charger is not doing its job correcly, as I see too low of a voltage when it should be floating at around 13.4 v when the temperature switch on the Xantrex true charge 40 set at warm.I rarely see the 14.3 v that should be present during the absorption period of charging.
I do see 13.8 when under engine power and the alternator is charging.
I am about to change the alternator out from the stock one to a 7 series Balmar with external voltage regulation to get a better charge program when under engine power. Has anyone else installed a non stock alternator / voltage regulator?

[Mike Brown]

Sam, what do you see when you're out on the hook for a weekend? I may be erroneously assuming low voltage readings while on the charger will equate to low voltages when out at anchor. I know when I first plug back in the readings go to 13 plus but once they reach a float stage they drop off to under 13. Makes me wonder if the display is reading from the batteries or the output from the charger.

[sam]

I have been underwhelmed at the performance offshore. I am just now beginning to sort out. On a recent overnight race with chartplotter, nav instruments, radar, and refrig / freezer running I saw the voltage drop into the 11+ v range after approximately 8 to 10 hours. This prompted me to question the full charge status of the batteries before the trip, hence questioning the shore charger. I am considering some sort of battery monitoring gauge / system also.

[Mike Brown]

I've seen the same performance and thought it a bit low for all the battery power we have. I'm going to give them a chance as new batteries won't give you full performance until apx 10-12 discharge cycles. If there's no improvement then I'm going to install a single bank Victron battery monitor.

[foster]

Hi,

I installed a Mastervolt 90A regulated alternator in replacement of the OEM Hitachi 80A non regulated.

The battery controller and shunt are Mastervolt DC and Master Easy. The batteries are 4 160AH SlimLine AGM that fits in the original Bank.

The only problem I have is that the alternator has only one belt instead of the two.

The shore power is A MASS COMBI 100A / 2500W charger Converter and the fatory 40A charger is for the bow thruster and engine start.

[Mike Brown]

Foster, looks like you did a sizeable upgrade to your charging system. Just curious do you see the same fluctuations on the voltmeter display as some of us do? Or has your upgrade taken care of it?

[foster]

Hi,

For the moment the battery capacity is important and I have not discharged enough to get the maximum alternator output. This is a little complex and needs a few days to understand completely the regulation rules.

If anybody knows about this I will be happy about comments.


Denis Foster

[Mike Brown]

I'm afraid I'm still very much a sudent of battery power and regulators. I have read though that new batteries must be cycled apx 10 times before they'll produce maximum power. As I haven't had the oportunity to do that yet I'm going to be patient and see how things work out as time goes on.

[Gavin White]

Greetings from Down Under
After 2 seasons I ended up replacing the factory supplied acid batteries with 4 x 6 volt 110 amphrs gel batts and upgrading the regulator. On the original system after 3 days the warning alarms were going off and no end of motoring would get me back anywhere near 12.5 on the gauge. I am saving up for an additional alternator as per www.yachtwork.com. Have a look at that site Sam. On shore power now the gauge sits on about 13.5 and drops 3-4 points when pumps run etc.

Cheers

Gavin