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hi everyone jeff cote here with

boatingtechtalk.com so we've got a

question from a fellow boater

by the way some of you must have noticed

i like leaning in i'm not a close talker

but

i do like to feel engaged all right so

can

asks jeff i have a three output smart

battery charger

by the way pretty common most of us if

you don't think you have one you

probably do

probably 90 of all the boats i've ever

been on

have a three bank or three output smart

battery charger they're pretty common

i have three agm battery banks a start

a house and a bow thruster okay

normal after returning from a trip and

connected to shore power oh this is good

so

great context by the way great setup i

like it

my house battery is empty but the star

battery is almost fill

for full i understand that my charger

has three phases

bulk which is basically max amperage

try to go for a target voltage

which is generally about 14 4 on a 12

volt battery

and then after absorption is a period of

time and then float

so okay good basically this is a great

little setup and it's true

battery chargers unless it's ancient but

like anything above

20 years or 20 years and more recent

should be a smart battery charger and it

should do bulk absorption flow

great how does it know the different

charge level of the batteries

by the way curiosity love

it being curious is everything in life

you can get a lot of answers if you're

curious okay

so first of all as of now so this is

uh we're in 2021

there is still no battery charger in the

marine world but this will change

but as of now there is no battery

charger in the marine world

that can actually output three battery

banks and have

independent completely individual

controls

on all three battery banks meaning

it's like dinner at my mom's house my

dad's house too but

mom ruled the house so it's mom's house

what she made is what we ate

she didn't make a meal for me for my

brother and for my dad it was whatever

we were having we were all having and

the reality is that your battery charger

is the same thing

even though it's smart it's not smart on

three legs

otherwise you know what honestly some

boat builders will do this and we've

done this on design

otherwise what they're doing is they're

actually putting individual battery

chargers on each battery

but to be honest that might be an

overkill for many of us

especially in this case where you have

all agm batteries

so generally what you're supposed to do

is you're supposed to put

the largest battery bank the one that's

going to need the most amount of charge

to be on leg number one

and then next i would put leg number two

and three are generally above the same

now this also varies

charger to charger but you know given a

choice i put my house on leg one

and then i put my auxiliary batteries on

like two and three

leg one your house battery is really

what's gonna influence the charging

and they're gonna go through bulk

absorption float and it's going to go

whatever it takes to bring those

batteries to basically a full capacity

your other batteries your agm starter

battery and your egm thruster battery

are going to have the same charge curve

replicated on those outputs

and that's okay and yes it would be

better of course

absolutely it would be better for every

battery bank to have a battery charger

yes and if we're chasing perfection

that's what you should do

but also at one point we have to make

choices and choices

involve compromises and even in the

world where we design

everything from scratch and yes i am

blessed with doing that quite often

i rarely and i mean not even 100th of a

percent

have i ever installed dedicated battery

chargers for every single battery

it happens but it's like winning the

lottery it never does

so yes your agm start battery in your

agm thruster

battery are going to be overcharged

slightly

and yes they're not going to have a

perfect sort of charging regiment but

think about your diet

how many of us eat a perfect diet

perfect

no compromises the exact amount at the

right time

everything about your diet is perfect

that's a pretty lofty

yes and it's ideal that we do that but

it's not practical

and so i would say it's okay it's a

healthy compromise and i like chasing

perfection this is what i've been doing

for 15 years in the electrical field

but sometimes you've got to say that's

probably good enough

right and yes but where are you gonna

put three battery chargers that's three

ac breakers on your panel

that's three battery chargers bail

mounted somewhere right it's going to

take space

so it's okay your thruster and your

engine battery might be slightly

overcharged

but you know what it's been like that

for decades

decades since chargers had multiple

outputs

so i wouldn't worry too much about it

and if you do worry about it and you

want to chase perfection

before the year the end of the year and

this is 2021

there will be a battery charger that

will do multiple battery banks

and each of the legs will be

individually controlled

it's going to be more expensive of

course more sophisticated

of course and it will happen but in this

case

considering that you have three

batteries that are the same chemistry

agm

i wouldn't worry too much about it and

if you do are able to worry about that

then you have a pretty near perfect

electrical boat

so either way congratulations and it's a

great question to ask

thanks for asking thank you for watching

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questions please

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thanks again for watching

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