Boaters Guide to AC Electrical
Many seasoned boaters have an aversion to using AC Electrical around boats in marinas.
Water. Electricity. That’s a natural concern.
Marinco has been designing, building and supplying the best marine AC electrical products since 1972. Safety is always the first concern. And the best way to ensure safe shore power product usage is through training and education.
Marinco makes it easy to know how to use these products. They publish a great booklet entitled: “Boaters Guide to AC Electrical”, known around the marketplace as the “Shore Power Manual”. It’s the definitive resource when it comes to shore power. This guide drills out the mystery and concern, with straight-forward, easy-to-understand tips on AC Electrical.
You can order this booklet by visiting their website: http://www.marinco.com/view/96/guides
Editor’s Note: John Tinghitella formerly VP Sales / Marketing for the Marinco Electrical Group spent many years in the trenches of the marine electrical products market. He’s moved on and now runs the hottest negotiation training group in the business.
On-Board Charging
It started out promising to be a great day.
Gear is loaded. You’re at the boat launch or marina. Wife and kids are ready to go. And then…
…You turn the key…nothing happens. Dead battery. Now it’s now a lousy day.
We all have war stories of preparing for a great day of boating or fishing, only to get snagged by boat batteries that somehow died since the last boat use. No rocket science here. Know this: batteries lose 1% of their charge each day they are not used. Boats often times sit for long periods between uses. You can do the math.
There is a better way. If you have not embraced the concept of on-board charging, you need to. It’s simple … buy, install and use a marine-grade battery charger. The technology has come a long way. While the boat is either trailered and stored in your garage, driveway or wherever, you leave it plugged in. So instead of discharge between boat uses, your batteries are well maintained and healthy.
Today’s 3 stage chargers recognize when the battery is fully re-charged, and then go into “maintenance” or ”float” mode. That keeps it topped off…so when you’re ready to boat, the batteries are ready to crank.
The Guest range of on-board battery chargers are simply the most reliable, best performing and longest lasting products in marine electronics. Check ‘em out!
Editor’s Note: John Tinghitella formerly VP Sales / Marketing for the Marinco Electrical Group spent many years in the trenches of the marine electrical products market. He’s moved on and now runs the hottest negotiation training group in the business.
Contour Zone: The Next Great Leap in Boat Electrical Technology
BEP Marine and the Marinco Electrical Group have invested heavily in a new digital switching platform that’s sure to revolutionize marine electrical functionality.
BEP Contour Zone is a state-of-the-art, networked power control and monitoring system designed to intelligently integrate and simplify onboard electrical and mechanical systems for greater functionality and an improved boating experience. The intuitive Display Interface enables control of DC loads, tank levels, and a host of other functional features
Compared to traditional marine electrical layouts, CZone decentralizes the DC power distribution system and locates circuit control and protection modules closer to loads to shorten cable runs and reduce the size of conductors, thereby decreasing the cost and weight of the boat wiring harness. CZone replaces complex inter-helm boat wiring with a single data wire.
Highly customizable, CZone is the only system that is cost-effectively scalable on boats ranging from 15 to 90 feet. Modules can easily be added to best suit the OEM’s and end user’s needs. The Plug and Play system is designed for simple, fast installation requiring no factory set-up. If a module is damaged, the system will automatically program the replacement module when it is plugged in, removing the need for an on-site professional technician
Editor’s Note: John Tinghitella formerly VP Sales / Marketing for the Marinco Electrical Group spent many years in the trenches of the marine electrical products market. He’s moved on and now runs the hottest negotiation training group in the business.
Best of both worlds — Guest Chargers + BEP VSR
The Guest range of Charge Pro Plus chargers combine reliable Guest charging with state of the art BEP voltage sensing. The benefit for the boater is simple…you can charge your batteries while on the water (DC to DC) as well as the normal AC route. The BEP VSR module is integrated into the marine electrical system and simply sends alternator current to where it’s needed most while you’re underway. Sort of like a charging traffic cop deciding where to send the juice. And it’s seemless to the user. You get to do what you should do…fish, boat and have fun.
Editor’s Note: John Tinghitella formerly VP Sales / Marketing for the Marinco Electrical Group spent many years in the trenches of the marine electrical products market. He’s moved on and now runs the hottest negotiation training group in the business.
Connecting two batteries with different capacities
Hi Kevin,
Many thanks for making this service available – reading the previous posts has been a real eye-opener.
I have what I think is a silly question, however I’d like to check:
I have two batteries, both lead-acid sealed 12 volt. One is a 70 amp/hour, which wasn’t up to the job of providing enough current
to turn the engine over in the mornings after sleeping over on the yacht. So, I went out and bought a 110 amp/hour which is.
I’d like to use both of these batteries – with the large capacity to run the boat systems and the smaller as a reserve / starter battery. The wiring to a main switch that allows Battery1/Battery2/neither /both is in place.
I think that I can simply connect the two batteries despite their different capacities, so that when ‘both’ is selected they will discharge together and/or charge together.
I believe that if one has a higher voltage than the other at the point of selecting ‘both’ then the higher will discharge to the lower until they are equal. I don’t believe that the fact they both have different maximum capacities will affect their use.
Am I right? Is there any drawback to connecting two batteries of different capacities?
Thanks!
Evan
Evan,
You are correct. You can certainly connect two batteries with different reserve capacities in parallel with your battery switch. 
You may want to consider modifying your boat wiring system by adding an emergency paralleling VSR like the one from BEP Marine instead of the battery switch.
This switch will automatically parallel the batteries when the engine alternator is charging the system. When the system is not charging and the voltage is below 12.6 volts, the circuit will open up. This device also offers an emergency paralleling feature that can be manually operated or remotely from a button.
Thank you for writing.
Kevin
Battery charger wiring configuration
Kevin,
I have a 3-Stage 20 Amp Battery Charger with 2 outputs, each producing 10 Amps from their respective red & black leads. It is designed to charge 2-12v batteries simultaneously, i.e., Ouput 1(10Amp) Output 2 (10 Amp).
I wish to connect the Charger to two 12V batteries that are connected in Parallel with AWG#8 tinned-copper stranded cable. Both 12V batteries are identical, GROUP 31 – Heavy Duty Marine Deep Cycle (Trolling Motor application), each with Reserve Capacity of 225 min.
QUESTIONS:
Which is the recommended way of connecting the charger to charge the Parallel batteries ? ….
Are any of the connections below, not acceptable?
- Using Charger Leads from both Output 1 and Output 2 – connect the RED and BLK leads to their respective terminals on PARALLEL batteries 1 & 2 ? …
- Using the Charger Leads from Output 1 (10 Amps) – connect the RED lead to POS of battery 1 and BLK lead to NEG of battery 1 ? …
- Using the Charger Leads from Output 1 (10 Amps) – connect the RED lead to POS of battery 1 and BLK lead to NEG of battery 2 ? …Also, using the two scenarios above …
- Can I use the unused Charger Leads from Output 2 (10 Amps) to double up on the leads from Output 1 (thus 20 Amps total output)? …
Brian
Brian,
Your battery charger will perform like 2 separate chargers. It is designed to charge two isolated batteries, two batteries in series, or two batteries in parallel.
All of your proposed battery charger connections would work except 2 and 2b. 2 and 2b would only be using 10 amps of the 20 amp capacity of your charger.
The best setup is 1. It is the least confusing and minimizes the risk higher resistance in the charger output wires.
Hope this helps,
Ground leads and polarity on battery charger installation
Steve wrote to us with a couple of installation questions about his battery charger.
Kevin,
I just bought a Guest Cruising Series 30 amp charger and the wiring diagram calls for individual ground wires routed to each battery bank.
My old charger had 3 positive leads to the battery banks and a single negative lead. The ground wires used jumpers between 1,2, and 3 banks so only one exit ground lead was necessary. This is how I would like to set up my new charger since all of that boat wiring is currently in place.
All of my battery banks are currently grounded together, but isolated by positive Will this work?
Steve
Steve,
You can certainly tie the 3 ground wires together since your system has a common battery ground. The new charger that you purchased actually has 3 separate chargers inside and is designed to work on a 12 volt, 24 volt, or 36 volt system.
Rather that trying to explain all the different combinations of connecting the charger, the manual says connect the charger directly to the battery.
Please make sure that your common ground wire is large enough to handle the entire 30 amps that the charger is capable of supplying.
Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin,
One more question…
I just installed my unit and I do not have access to the boat until next week. I realize now that I connected the AC connections backwards. The white wire is connected to “LINE” and the black wire is connected to “NEUTRAL” I also understand that AC is alternating, so it may make no difference.
Will I damage the unit with it hooked up like this? It worked fine when hooked up and didn’t notice that I did it wrong until I got home and looked at the manual.
Steve
Steve,
Connecting the AC wires backwards is common. It doesn’t really matter on the potted Guest battery charger. However, following the standard practice of Black is Line and white is Neutral will make it easier for anybody in the future to work on your boat.
Problems can occur on appliances that have their neutral (white) connected to their case ground (green). If they are wired backwards, the black wire in the outlet will be connected to the white wire on the appliance. If the white wire is connected to the case, then the circuit is completed through the green(ground) wire and the circuit breaker/fuse will hopefully trip.
Thanks,
Kevin
