Question on Battery Charger Wiring

[Miken]

My Boat has a service battery and Starting Battery wired via a VSR cluster so the Starting Battry Charges first then cuts over to the Service battery when the Starting Battery has reached it's charged voltage.

Over the Winter I have installed Shore Power and have a Mains Charger that can support two battry bank connections.

The Question is

Is it better to wire the charger via it's primary output to the VSR Cluster and let the VSR split the Charge to each Battery or run seperate charge lines from both charger outputs direct to each Battery.

 

[LadyInBed]

I would run separate charge lines from both charger outputs direct to each Battery.
No extra losses and the battery isolator switch (I assume you have one) can be left off.

 

[alan]

I second "lady in bed"; my boat's wired like that (by Beneteau), and it means that you can leave just the battery charger on and all else off, and charge both batteries/banks.

Alan.

 

[SvenglishTommy]

I third. If the charger is a switch-mode model then it will charge both banks fully and then keep them on a float when you are plugged in. I guess the VSR will not wait until the start battery is 'fully' charged anyway, otherwise you would end up waisting a lot of the available power from the alternator.