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New Battery time

Kim Schoedel

Member III
It is time to replace my house battery (29). I have been told that it may be a good idea to go with two 6 volt golf cart bats. Thus providing more amp hours?

I currently have two 29's, one for house, the other for starting. The largest demand is in the summer for the house with the refer on. Fall and winter and spring we use the Espar furnace. We are on a large lake and when the wind blows, we sail. No wind, we motor or just sit. The refer runs on A/C at the dock and DC when out sailing. The Espar is not on when we are not on the boat.

I would like to have more (longer) power supply for the house. I tried the search tool but couldn't seem to get a focus on the dual 6 volt bats.

Adding a dedicated starting battery is not an option do to available space. So that leaves me with the factory battery storage area.

Any input would be appreciated. I am not real swift on the electrical thing. Have any 35-3 owners out there been there, done that?

Thanks
 

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Kim, I was able to fit 1 group 27 starting battery and 2 6 volt batteries in my 35. It can be done. I can get you a photo this weekend if you like. I put the 27 inboard and the 2 6vs outboard. You wire the 6v in series to get 220Ah and 12v.
 

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Glyn Judson

Moderator
Moderator
Saving battery juice.

Kim, Something not real swift in the electrical thing department but what can and will extend your refrigerator use, is a trick Marilyn does with ours. In the summer evenings when the temps start to drop somewhat, she insulates the top of the food in the ice box and turns the compressor off until morning or when the temps start their climb. By simply doing that, we can get four to five days use from the batteries without recharging them. And that's a good thing because the way they're set up, it doesn't work to charge them once away from the slip. We have had equal success using thick layers of newspaper, layers of bubble pack and most efficiently and the simplest to insert and remove, 1/4" closed cell foam cut to the shape of the top of the box. When not in use, the foam is slipped under adjacent cabin cushions. Good luck, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA
 

Kim Schoedel

Member III
Thanks Tim,

Have you noticed an increased bank of power for the house? What brand/capacity 6 volts did you use? It looks like I may need to modify the wood trim in the box in order to get the 6 ers in there like you did.
 

Kim Schoedel

Member III
Thanks Glyn,

I appreciate your input on the refer. I had the evaporator designed in a box shape thus having a small but usefull freezer box. I will give your keeping method in mind when we don't have Dove bars or meat in the freezer.
 

Cory B

Sustaining Member
Batteries

Kim,

We have the same configuration as Tim, but put a group 31 where he has a 27 for a few more starting Amps.

For 6 Volts, you can find T-125's or similar, which are a little taller that standard golfcarts, but with the same footprint, and with more amps (and more $$$).

- Cory
1984 E35-3
 
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Steve

Member III
Adjacent storage area

Has anyone tried to use the adjacent locker for additional battery storage?

I have often thought of building a flat support and making use of this area, or actually removing or opening the small plywood separator to use a larger battery such as an "8D" or a few "4Ds". I have heard others talk about tankage here? Our waste tank is forward of this area and leaves a large area aft. Our tankage is SB and bow.

Now the Admiral might not like loosing storage, but heck, just less to bring on board!

Steve e35-3 #156
 

Kim Schoedel

Member III
Yes, the Trojans do seem to take a litte more $$$. I wonder if it is worth it. I stopped at one of those stores that just sell batteries and this one had their own label (Merker) on an Exide (made in the USA) product. Two 135's for $86 plus tax and core. I don't mind spending the extra $ for the right product and the Trojans are more $$. Ultimately I will need to have a professional at the local marina do the install and wireing. They use Interstate products, but will get anything I want. They are familiar with the T's as well.
 

Kim Schoedel

Member III
Steve, I have a different set-up on the H2o, one tank in the adjacent and the other on the SB. Otherwise it would be great to utilize that area either for batteries or extra storage.
 

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Kim, I was forced to buy mine at WM as I needed them quick and local to my boat. Luckily I had my new boat 10% off discount so that helped soften the blow. The 6v are WM model number 1231307. They are a group GC2. My 12v is a dual purpose 80Ah battery model 1231059. They are quite a bit more now than when I bought them last year but I am very happy with their performance.

The bottom of my battery box was rotten so I replaced with some 3/4" marine plywood which gave me a little more depth although they did fit in battery boxes in the factory space.

I believe the 35-3 came standard with port and stbd water tanks and an optional 3rd tank under the vberth. I have all 3 but never use the tank in the vberth which I am thinking about removing in favor of storage.

I just found this photo on my computer from some projects last year. The top of the photo is toward the stern. You can see how wet the wood is in here and there was some framing on the base that kept the original batteries from sliding around. My new batteries sat on top of these frames which was another 3/8" above the normal 3/4" floor of the compartment.
 

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Cory B

Sustaining Member
Tank Locations

I believe the 35-3 came standard with port and stbd water tanks and an optional 3rd tank under the vberth. I have all 3 but never use the tank in the vberth which I am thinking about removing in favor of storage.

Up until hull # 166(?) which was probably late 84 or early 85, they came with a 50 gallon tank to starboard, with the optional 35 gallon tank in the vberth. Someone must have noticed the boat was lopsided or something so they split the starboard tank into 2 in later years.

As to Trojans vs not-Trojans, we went with non-Trojans at a decent discount from a local industrial battery supplier. I don't know how much or if any Trojans are better, but I'm sure at least some of the extra $$$ goes for the name. So far so good.

- Cory
1984 35-3 Hull #163 with water tank to starboard and a rarely used tank under the VBerth
 
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hodo

Member III
Kim, make sure you get the deep cycle batteries for the house bank. I just replaced 4 6v trojans for a friend,that were being used as a house bank, but they were starting batteries, not deep cycle. I have used Interstates for years, and not had any problems. The set I put in my prev boat lasted 7 years,and would have lasted more if the new owner had serviced them and not left them on the charger for several months.
Good Luck, if you've been nice maybe Santa will bring you some for Christmas:egrin:
Stay warm, I'm going down tonight to see how Mischief Maker made out during the storm.
Harold
 

Kim Schoedel

Member III
Thanks for all the input.

Now you have me thinking about battery life. And a few other things. The PO put in 2 Interstate Group 29's in August of 2004. The PO did not use the boat much and I don't know if he had overcharged at some time with the old charger. I believe it was a 40amp that made a loud buzzing sound when on so I never left it on for any length of time. The boat didn't have refrigeration, I installed the conversion and it draws 2 to 3 amps. Replaced the old charger with a Xantrex 20 amp 3 stage "smart" charger in November 05, just after purchasing the boat.

The reason I am changing the bats is two fold. This summer on a 4 day outing. I had run the house battery way down, do to stupidity. Lots of wind, very little motoring, refer on, Anchor light on at night and made the mistake of leaving the battery selector on "both" over night. Yep she didn't start the next morning. Last week I have found that in one weeks time (without the charger on), both bats went from over 12 volts, down to 9-10 volts. The only thing hooked direct is the Espar (not left on) and the automatic side of the bilge pump. Bilge pump is working fine, very seldom runs.

I have been told from several sorces that it is ok to leave this charger on whenever at the dock. I didn't really believe this was ok but yes, I have done that for the last 3 months. I periodically check the water and the bats to make sure they are not getting cooked. Never had to add water. No smell either.

The marina is going to check for any adverse draws first but of course at this point I do not trust these batteries at all and would feel much better with the replacement.

Sorry for the long post here but thought it best to tell the rest of the story. It makes me think that I should have received a much longer life out of these 29's after reading about some of you getting 5 to 7 years of battery service.
 

Frank Langer

1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
Kim, just a word of caution--I also left my shore power cord plugged in so my charger could keep the batteries charged, only to find that my zincs only lasted about 4 months. Now I leave my shore powere unplugged and only plug it in periodically to maintain battery charge, and the zincs are lasting twice as long.

Although I am attempting to learn about electricity, I find it a real challenge. :confused: I know that keeping the shore power plugged can apparently cause a problem if there is stray current in the marina, which I understand is not uncommon.

So just a caution that if you are leaving your shore power plugged in and charger working constantly, you may want to keep a closer eye on your zincs. Alternatively, you could check for any stray current...

Frank.
 

jkm

Member III
Frank

I was going thru a strut zinc every other month so I installed a galvanic isolator to deal with the stray current.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to help much so I'm just going to unplug the shore power.

Think I'll just plug in occasioanlly to charge up the batteries.

John
 

Frank Langer

1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
John, I wonder why....

John, I wonder why the galvanic isolator wouldn't have solved that problem, unless the stray current is on your boat itself.:thinker:

Maybe someone who knows more about this stuff will have an idea of why this is happening.

With boats of this size, there is no end to learning....:confused:

Frank.
 

Kim Schoedel

Member III
Just a quick update on the battery project. I gave the Marina the ok to replace the house bat Interstate 29 with two 6 volt Interstate 2400's. And will also replace the starting bat with the same Interstate 29 that is in there now.
Thanks again for all the input and ideas. I know I should be doing this project myself but my nick-name is "Sparky the Electrician".
 
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