shore power and battery charging

[Mike k]

Hi, does the mains shore power charge the leisure battery AND the starting battery. How do you tell if its charging anything apart from waiting for the lights to go out.

many thanks

 

[SolentPhill]

Normally yes shore power does charge batteries depends on your set up. If you have a meter even a cheap volt meter put it on dc and put on battery, your get a 12. Something reading. Then start the engine and the power should go up to around 13v Mark. Now you may have a switchover that charges one battery at a time. So you may not get a reading from both batteries.

If you don't have a meter get one they useful and dead cheap.

 

[volvopaul]

Look at the charger, if it has 2 red and one black cable output wires then it charges both sets of batteries, if only 1 red then it charges the domestics only, check the batteries with a multimeter, with the charger off, take the reading then switch the charger on and take a reading if its higher then its charging both sets.

 

[VicS]

The charger may have dual outputs as described above

It is also possible for a charger with only one output to charge both via a VSR


Volvopaul of course is refering to measuring volts!

 

[capsco]

The OP did not mention a battery charger, does he think that the shorepower alone does the charging?

 

[rafiki_]

If you have a built-in charger, it is not always obvious. This is the case with Rafiki. The built in charger charges only the domestic and port engine starter on Rafiki. The starboard and winch batts are charge off the engines.

Best way to check is to use a multimeter. Check batt voltage level with shore power connected and disconnected. If there is a difference in the batt voltage, then you have a charger.

With a previous boat, whilst she had shorepower, she had no built in charger, so we just used a car type charger when on shorepower.