Battery box for more than one battery

[Whitelighter]

I’ve obviously seen the boxes for single batteries, but what if like me you have 6 in a row?
Do you put each in its own box? If so how do you connect them up without breaking the seal and defeating the point?

 

[Ian h]

How about a custom made 1
https://www.tek-tanks.com/fabrication/battery-boxes/

 

[Whitelighter]

J

How about a custom made 1
https://www.tek-tanks.com/fabrication/battery-boxes/

Perfect.

I shall give them a call

Lovely idea but £744+vat each. Might need a rethink

 

[Dill et Bound]

Battery Boxes are really easy to knock up using offcuts of ply 12 mm ply
Make them bigger than the batteries by about 25 mm to allow you to wedge them tight in..
It also allows for the contents of a battery should one split.
Nail them together and then rough them up inside and out.
Give the box a coat of resin then fiberglass inside and out.
Paint the outside with Grey Damboline bilge paint or similar.
If you want you could paint the inside with epoxy resin, but I probably wouldn’t bother.
Just an extra coat of resin would do as...
If you do split a battery you tend to notice and the acid... if indeed it is would take time to eat its way through GRP.

If you make the box higher than the batteries by 50 mm I probably wouldn’t bother with a lid.
But a lid can be made up in the same way, but remember to allow for cables to exit the box.

Also take into account the position of the box... You need clearance to lift the batteries out.
Also fixings need to be sealed , and secure... Batteries are really heavy... And boats move about quite a bit.
,

 

[rafiki_]

Jez, my Azi has 2 batt boxes, port side for domestic, stbd for engines and bowthruster. Both vented through hull glands.

 

[Ian h]

J

Perfect.

I shall give them a call

Lovely idea but £744+vat each. Might need a rethink

Ouch I only came across them via google . know they have a good reputation for tanks but we all have limits to how much we prepared to pay

 

[Momac]

how do you connect them up without breaking the seal and defeating the point?[/QUOTE]
Battery boxes aren't usually sealed... are they?

 

[rafiki_]

how do you connect them up without breaking the seal and defeating the point?

Battery boxes aren't usually sealed... are they?[/QUOTE]
Mine are and vent out through a hull gland.

 

[Momac]

Battery boxes aren't usually sealed... are they?

Mine are and vent out through a hull gland.[/QUOTE]
Useful learning experience this forum.

 

[Assassin]

how do you connect them up without breaking the seal and defeating the point?

Battery boxes aren't usually sealed... are they?[/QUOTE]

No, they aren't because of the gases they emit during charging and discharging, but while they can be sealed to prevent the ingress of water they also need to be vented to atmosphere as the gases are explosive, usually it would be a 2 way valved system with very low pressure and as this pressure is reached they open to expel gasses and prevent the ingress of water through the vent pipe.

 

[Dill et Bound]

When I said sealed....I was referring to the fixings to hold them down or in place.
Although I am sure that in many cases the boxes are vented..
And have to be to save us from the gases that can be emitted.
In most cases the batteries are located within the engine space which is vented anyway.
And the original post asked the simple question about locating batteries together in a box.
Something that custom making solves very easily and cheaply, which is what the poster required.

After all.
The battery boxes for a single battery that you buy off the shelf are simple plastic boxes with a lid held on with a couple of straps

 

[Momac]

Battery boxes aren't usually sealed... are they?

No, they aren't because of the gases they emit during charging and discharging, but while they can be sealed to prevent the ingress of water they also need to be vented to atmosphere as the gases are explosive, usually it would be a 2 way valved system with very low pressure and as this pressure is reached they open to expel gasses and prevent the ingress of water through the vent pipe.[/QUOTE]

My boats battery boxes have lids held in place by webbing straps. The lids overlap the walls of the base container sufficiently to keep any water out but I am sure they do not make a gas tight seal. There are gaps to let the cables in and out . There are no vent pipes.
The starter and domestic batteries are in the engine bay (sterndrive boat) which is a well ventilated space.
The bow thruster battery under the floor near the bow thruster has it's own box but the space it sits in is not ventilated.
All batteries are sealed type.

There is an extractor fan in the engine bay which is to be run 4 minutes prior to starting the engines.

I thought this all quite normal and is certainly as intended by the boat builder.

 

[Dill et Bound]

I thought this all quite normal and is certainly as intended by the boat builder.[/QUOTE]

In the majority of cases it is Martyn.
And also probably in the case of the original poster.

And I am sure that the cost of a sealed vented battery box that allows for safe location within an accommodation space on your average Azi or Ferri to allow perhaps for the installation of a water machine , stabilization system or the like in the machinery space .....
Is in my long experience in building boats not likely to be a deal breaker one might imagine.