What should be on house battery

[chambers1517]

I installed a second battery with a switch and an automatic combiner for charging both batteries. I have a stereo with a 5 channel amp and sub on the deepwell. The standard boat wiring is on the starting battery. This means trim, blower, lights, bilge pump etc is on the starting battery. There is a seperate wire that feeds all accessories that I could hook to the deepwell but if I run down the house battery I won't be able to run the blower before starting. Should I leave the accessories on the starting battery or move them to the house battery? If I move them only the starter would be on the starting battery. Without a major rewire these are my only two options.

 

[CaptainKickback]

Re: What should be on house battery

Hey chambers,

If it were my boat I would not want anything unnecessary on the staring battery. So, starter and bilge blower. Safe starts.

I would put the bilge pump (assume there is a float switch) on the strongest battery (unswitched), which will probably be the starting battery most of the time.

Everything else on house battery.

I know some here on iboats don't worry about dragging their starting battery down, but where I boat, everyone wants as much cranking time as possible.

Sea ya...

 

[H20Rat]

Re: What should be on house battery

Ideally, only the things that are directly responsible for starting the boat (aka, the starter) go on the starter battery. Everything else on house. The bilge blower is not critical to starting the boat, you can always pop open the hatch, air it out, and of course, sniff test. (it would be fairly easy to forget a bilge blower on and end up with a dead starting battery fairly quickly)

Agree with the post above regarding bilge pumps though, put it on the stronger one, doesn't matter which.

 

[5150abf]

Re: What should be on house battery

The starting battery is just that and should only be used to start the engine with the house battery powering everyting else.

If you find you are killing the house battery don't be afraid to go to 2 house and a starter.

I run a 16' fishing boat and run 3 batteries, 2 house and a starter, I night fish and while all my lights are LED I do run them all night, add in 2 livewells a stereo and a troller and I am eating alot of power but have never gone dead with the 2 house batts.

 

[Oshkosh1]

Re: What should be on house battery

...and always carry a "jumper pack" just in case!

 

[Chris1956]

Re: What should be on house battery

Put the blower and starter and ign switch on the starting battery. That way if you run the house battery dead, it will still be safe to start the motor, and you will have power to the starter solenoid to do so. Your gauges use no power when the motor is off, so that is not a concern.

If you will always fully charge up the house battery after each use, you can put the bilge pump on it, otherwise put the bilge pump on the starting battery as well, as it will always be fully charged.