Charging

[Redngoo]

I guess this question is for the folks running a house battery. I still have not made a move yet. I was looking at adding a 125ah lithium. Though from what i read and being told its best not to try to charge from the engine alternator. Honestly though i fish more than i run anyway. This is the reason for the need of a house battery and the pick of a 125ah battery. But are yall supplementing a charge on the water. If so how?

[G48]

I have a 100 ah Ionic house battery that runs 2 solixes, m360, Mlive, ethernet switch and a stereo. I go 8 hours and my SOC is down to about 62%. The lithiums can take a deep discharge ( Ionics can go down to 20-25% SOC safely) without a loss in output. I personally don't use an onboard to charge because of that fact.

[Chuck H.]

I have my 100 ah house battery connected to my cranking battery by a Yandina Combiner 100 Lithium. Whenever the cranking battery is being charged by any means, ie., alternator, charger, etc., the combiner opens and allows the house battery to charge also. When the cranking battery is not being charged, the Combiner stays closed which completely separates the two batteries. I learned about the Combiner on this forum. Yandina is a board sponsor. I also have a Stealth 1 DC charger attached to my batteries. The batteries are charged whenever the big motor is running. The house battery is then also charged.

[ilostmypistons]

I have my 100 ah house battery connected to my cranking battery by a Yandina Combiner 100 Lithium. Whenever the cranking battery is being charged by any means, ie., alternator, charger, etc., the combiner opens and allows the house battery to charge also. When the cranking battery is not being charged, the Combiner stays closed which completely separates the two batteries. I learned about the Combiner on this forum. Yandina is a board sponsor. I also have a Stealth 1 DC charger attached to my batteries. The batteries are charged whenever the big motor is running. The house battery is then also charged.

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This works great I've installed this exact same system 3 times in the last 30 days and have been getting great results from all

[Marc Marcantonio]

I have a Stealth 1 charger that covers both AC charging and DC charging of all 5 of my batteries. The AC charger has two banks, one for my AGM X2Power starting battery, and one for my lithium 100 aHr house battery. My three lithium trolling motor batteries are charged by the DC charger both when the AC is plugged in, or when the outboard is running. Cool system and works great.

[Redngoo]

I have my 100 ah house battery connected to my cranking battery by a Yandina Combiner 100 Lithium. Whenever the cranking battery is being charged by any means, ie., alternator, charger, etc., the combiner opens and allows the house battery to charge also. When the cranking battery is not being charged, the Combiner stays closed which completely separates the two batteries. I learned about the Combiner on this forum. Yandina is a board sponsor. I also have a Stealth 1 DC charger attached to my batteries. The batteries are charged whenever the big motor is running. The house battery is then also charged.

Maybe im lost here. I understand what what the yandina 100 does. Does the stealth 1 dc not do the same?

[yam911]

I have my 100 ah house battery connected to my cranking battery by a Yandina Combiner 100 Lithium. Whenever the cranking battery is being charged by any means, ie., alternator, charger, etc., the combiner closes and allows the house battery to charge also. When the cranking battery is not being charged, the Combiner stays open which completely separates the two batteries. I learned about the Combiner on this forum. Yandina is a board sponsor. I also have a Stealth 1 DC charger attached to my batteries. The batteries are charged whenever the big motor is running. The house battery is then also charged.

Slight correction for you.

The combiner is merely an electrically activated switch. Closes when sufficient voltage is present and opens when insufficient voltage is present. Parallels (connects) the two batteries when the switch is closed so that both get charged. Unparallels (disconnects) the two batteries when the switch is open so that neither battery can have a effect on the other.

[Redngoo]

So lets fast foward. Boat sitting in the garage after day of fishing. With the combiner and stealth 1. I dont use a onboard charging system. I have a single charger for the cranker. (I was going to purchase a second stand alone for the new house battery). If im understanding correctly the stand alone cranker charger would be charging both the cranker and house battery, correct? This cant be good since it would slow the rate of charge. Will there be a way to isolate each battery for charging in the garage. Many times i fish multiple days. I need hot batteries the next mornin. More times than not its way past dark thirty before I'll get to start the charge for the next day

[yam911]

So lets fast foward. Boat sitting in the garage after day of fishing. With the combiner and stealth 1. I dont use a onboard charging system. I have a single charger for the cranker. (I was going to purchase a second stand alone for the new house battery). If im understanding correctly the stand alone cranker charger would be charging both the cranker and house battery, correct? Yes. This cant be good since it would slow the rate of charge. Will there be a way to isolate each battery for charging in the garage. Many times i fish multiple days. I need hot batteries the next mornin. More times than not its way past dark thirty before I'll get to start the charge for the next day

Not understanding your comment that the two batteries being charged in parallel will slow the charge. Batteries are charged in parallel all of the time.

[Marc Marcantonio]

Slight correction for you.

The combiner is merely an electrically activated switch. Closes when sufficient voltage is present and opens when insufficient voltage is present. Parallels (connects) the two batteries when the switch is closed so that both get charged. Unparallels (disconnects) the two batteries when the switch is open so that neither battery can have a effect on the other.

You can get the Stealth AC charger with separate banks for the starter and the house battery; this is what I have. The DC charger is an actual charger that uses voltage from the starting battery when it is over 13.1 volts to activate and then charge the trolling motor batteries. All five of my batteries charge faster with this system than any I have ever used in 45 years of tournament fishing. And my trolling motor batteries charge with the outboard on the run. Great system and available from board sponsor Drewtick.

[Redngoo]

Marc and yam911, my troling motor batteries are charged with a lester 24 volt charger, i still run wet cells for this application. My big concern will be my northstar and whichever lithium i choose. I currently ch!rge my northstar with a dual pro(delta volt) th!t is mounted on the wall in my shop. I like the ideal of the combiner and the stealth dc for when I'm on the water. My concern with the set up is when im charging in the garage. Charging 2 batterys from one charger. Will this not take twice the charge time in the garage? I was gifted a minn kota precsion charger(single bank) that had planned on utilizing for the house battery. I dont mind purchasing the combiner and stealth 1 dc. At this point if i went this route my concern would be charge time in the garage using a single charger to charger 2 batteries. Hence arises another issue. The northstar reccomended the delta volt charger and from my understanding i was told the lithum could not be charged with the delta volt due to the algorithm.

[Chuck H.]

Slight correction for you.

The combiner is merely an electrically activated switch. Closes when sufficient voltage is present and opens when insufficient voltage is present. Parallels (connects) the two batteries when the switch is closed so that both get charged. Unparallels (disconnects) the two batteries when the switch is open so that neither battery can have a effect on the other.

Thanks for that, yam911.

[Marc Marcantonio]

To be clear, there are 2 Stealth Charger types. One is for DC charging which charges your trolling motor batteries.

The second is an AC charger. I use an AC charger for my AGM starting battery and it has a second set of leads that charge my lithium house battery.

[Redngoo]

Marc do you use a combiner with the ac unit? Or is the combiner need in this situation. Or it is both a ac charger and a combiner?

[Marc Marcantonio]

No combiner needed with this. There are several models of Stealth chargers in both AC and DC.

My AC charger is a simple pos and neg wire to my AGM starting battery, and a pos and neg lead that goes directly to the lithium house battery. When the AC charger is plugged in, it charges both batteries at the same time, quickly and completely.

This Stealth AC charger is compact, about the size of a sandwich, waterproof and lightweight. I stack my Stealth DC charger on top of it with zip ties. Both together are the size of two sandwiches. Very simple and reliable.

You can also then add a battery switch like I did. This allows me to use the house battery as a jump start battery if my starter ever fails. I run all my Lowrance LIVES off the house battery. Should something happen to the house battery I can put the switch in the "both" position and run them off the starter. Or I can run everything off of both batteries in parallel. Best of all worlds, but still lets you charge off of house current quickly and completely by having separate charging leads to both batteries from the Stealth AC unit.

I will have a full explanation published in an article in the next issue of WesternBass.com magazine.