ghostlymoron
Well-Known Member
This seems to be the ideal battery switch in conjunction with a vsr. http://www.bluesea.com/products/products/5511e/e-Series_Dual_Circuit_Plus_Battery_Switch/featured
Battery isolation switch
- Thread starter ghostlymoron
- Start date
pvb
Well-Known Member
Whilst it's an undoubted improvement on the dreadful and antiquated 1-2-Both switch, I still don't think it's ideal. If you ever find you have a flat start battery, and need to use the domestic battery to try to start the engine, it would be much better to have a bypass switch which connects the domestic battery direct to only the starter, rather than also to a flat battery. This is easily achievable with separate switches.
halcyon
Well-Known Member
Or turn engine isolator off and start via the VSR, if you have a flat starter battery.
Brian
VicS
Well-Known Member
Theres a big range of switches available from Blue sea
If you want a VSR based system you might also like to look at the BEP VSR / battery switch clusters which group together two isolator switches, an emergency linking switch and a VSR http://www.power-store.com/?id=199
Some people dont like them, and some poor quality ones a few years back got them a bad name as well, but the simplest way of extending a single battery system to a dual battery system is with a 1,2, both switch . Simple to understand, no bits of electronic wizardry like VSRs or diode splitters and their own particular quirks or drawbacks. However if you see VSRs or diode splitters as the way forward its best IMHO to avoid a 1,2,both switch at the outset.
sailorman
Well-Known Member
i have a vsr + a quality 1,2 both
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Starting an engine by connecting a good battery in parallel with a flat battery is not a problem, as anyone who has ever jump started a car knows. I have one of these switches, and if I ever really want to connect one battery to both circuits, I can put the switch to "Combine" and pop the breaker of the battery I want out of the game. This might happen if one battery failed completely and I needed to use the other for all purposes until I could get a replacement, but I don't think it's very likely.
ghostlymoron
Well-Known Member
I can't get my head round that. Any chance of a sketch?
Cap'n Creosote
Well-Known Member
When I bought my boat it was wired with 3 ordinary vehicle type isolating switches, wired as in the diagram, but without the VSR.
I often forgot to throw the 3rd switch after starting the engine. So I fitted a VSR as shown.
I can now ignore the 3rd switch. But it's nice to know it's there if needed.
The system has been trouble free ever since. It's a very effective system for not a lot of money.
But I'm still agonising about, whether I should have connected the VSR before or after the SW number 1?
I often forgot to throw the 3rd switch after starting the engine. So I fitted a VSR as shown.
I can now ignore the 3rd switch. But it's nice to know it's there if needed.
The system has been trouble free ever since. It's a very effective system for not a lot of money.
But I'm still agonising about, whether I should have connected the VSR before or after the SW number 1?
sailorman
Well-Known Member
my vsr is directly on the batteries as i have a windgen
Pladdatoo
Well-Known Member
This is exactly what I have just installed.......after much agonising and contemplation + help from this forum...please don't tell me now that I could/should have done it differently (lol!)
pvb
Well-Known Member
Your options are a bit more limited in a car's systems.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
True, but connecting a full battery to a flat battery doesn't cause the catastrophe that people assume would result in a boat.
pvb
Well-Known Member
The OP was asking about the "ideal" solution. When jump-starting a car (your comparison), you're connecting a full battery to a flat battery, but with the important difference that the second car's engine is running. In a boat, there usually isn't the luxury of having a second engine to back up the better battery. As a consequence, whatever you can do to lessen the load on the second battery has to be an improvement, so switching the flat battery out of circuit if possible is the ideal.
Cap'n Creosote
Well-Known Member
This is exactly what I have just installed.......after much agonising and contemplation + help from this forum...please don't tell me now that I could/should have done it differently (lol!)
As far as I can see, if I had connected the VSR across the 3rd switch, then turning any or all of the switches off while the engine is running wouldn't have done any harm. The alternator would still be connected to battery 2.
But I'm not brave enough to experiment.
halcyon
Well-Known Member
VSR is connected engine side of isolator switch, isolating engine battery then operating VSR links engine to service battery for starting, dropping out after a timed period if engine does not start. So you do not leave them connected when engine stops.
As someone said somewhere in this thread there is no need to isolate batteries for link starting, just press button and start, this system of linking flat engine battery to service bank via a relay, has been standard on some twin engine motorboats for many years. Using the VSR means it will drop out after the timed period if the charge voltage is to low, locking in if the charging voltage is okay.
Brian
