When charging your batteries at the dock with shore power do I have to gave batteries turned to on position or can just flip switch in cabin to charge them?
265 Express
265 Express
Battery Charging
- Thread starter Bob Meola
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Fowl Hooked
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Bob Meola said:
Normally the leads are wired directly to the battery terminals.( or to the battery lead on the back of the battery switch. If so wired, the switch does not have to be left on and generally shouldn't be.
Yep, the charger should be wired directly to the battery banks and not depend on the switches. I'm pretty sure this would be the case on every boat since wiring through the switches could cause problems when the switches were set to "both" for example.
I always leave my battery switches off when I leave the boat so that the batteries can't get run down if someone switches off my shore power while I'm away.
I always leave my battery switches off when I leave the boat so that the batteries can't get run down if someone switches off my shore power while I'm away.
Yup, yup. 
If wired properly, the switch should be able to be set to OFF and the battery charger will still charge the batteries (wired direct to the batteries). This is so you can leave the charger on while away from the boat without having the DC system powered up.
If wired properly, the switch should be able to be set to OFF and the battery charger will still charge the batteries (wired direct to the batteries). This is so you can leave the charger on while away from the boat without having the DC system powered up.
Fowl Hooked
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Yep x 3. Misread the original question. They can be turned to off and still charge, can also be left in the on position and will charge. As I use the fridge and want it to stay cold, I leave them on and haven't had any problems.
As long as the draw is less than the charge rate, the batteries will maintain charge. If the draw of powered equipment is more than the charge rate, eventually the batteries will run down. Depending on the 'smarts' of the charger and the difference in charge rate versus discharge (load), the batteries could take a long time to become effectively dead.Fowl Hooked said:
In your case, your dc powered fridge is connected to one specific battery. In that case you could leave that battery switch ON and the other OFF. That way, that battery should always be fully charged.
Owners option. We leave both batteries in the on position. One is dedicated for the port engine and the other is starboard and the electronic (there is a third too). We keep cold drinks in the fridge too.