Argold57
New member
Hello:
I have been searching the term" VSR" in the forum but have not found anything that directly answers this question, so I thought I would post.
The setup I have on my 38' cc sailboat is the alternator feeds the starter battery (I am pretty sure) and a dual sensing VSR connects the starter battery to the leisure battery when the starter battery reaches the "on voltage". I'm pretty sure this is the original setup but I am the second owner.
Recently, before a week long trip, I upgraded my leisure battery to 2 x 220 ah of AGM (440 ah total). During the trip, I took the leisure battery bank down pretty far and when I was next motoring, the VSR kept clicking on and off. I'm pretty sure this was because the starter battery reached sufficient voltage so the VSR closed. But then it was drawing enough current from the starter battery that the voltage went down to the VSR "off" voltage and the VSR opened again. It was a calm day so we motored a long way and the VSR clicked on and off for hours until we reached our next port where we connected to mains and charged the leisure battery.
So I got to thinking, what would happen if I swapped the battery connection so that the leisure battery got the charge from the alternator first before the starter? The main risk, I think, would be if I had both a low starter and leisure battery that the leisure would get charged and the starter would not. In a pinch, I could use the battery selector to start from the leisure battery. I'm not sure how many starts I would get from my 80 ah starter without charging (my engine always starts on the first bump).
So here are my questions:
1) Are most setups that use VSR's similar to mine?
2) Is it a bad idea to make the swap I proposed?
4) Is that clicking on and off hurting anything?
3) What issues am I not considering?
4) Is there a better alternative?
a) For example, how about adding a diode so the starter battery cannot discharge through the VSR to the leisure battery yet the alternator would still charge it?
By the way, I have no solar panels on this boat. (yet) Next year we retire and I hope to take much longer trips.
Thanks folks for your advice.
I have been searching the term" VSR" in the forum but have not found anything that directly answers this question, so I thought I would post.
The setup I have on my 38' cc sailboat is the alternator feeds the starter battery (I am pretty sure) and a dual sensing VSR connects the starter battery to the leisure battery when the starter battery reaches the "on voltage". I'm pretty sure this is the original setup but I am the second owner.
Recently, before a week long trip, I upgraded my leisure battery to 2 x 220 ah of AGM (440 ah total). During the trip, I took the leisure battery bank down pretty far and when I was next motoring, the VSR kept clicking on and off. I'm pretty sure this was because the starter battery reached sufficient voltage so the VSR closed. But then it was drawing enough current from the starter battery that the voltage went down to the VSR "off" voltage and the VSR opened again. It was a calm day so we motored a long way and the VSR clicked on and off for hours until we reached our next port where we connected to mains and charged the leisure battery.
So I got to thinking, what would happen if I swapped the battery connection so that the leisure battery got the charge from the alternator first before the starter? The main risk, I think, would be if I had both a low starter and leisure battery that the leisure would get charged and the starter would not. In a pinch, I could use the battery selector to start from the leisure battery. I'm not sure how many starts I would get from my 80 ah starter without charging (my engine always starts on the first bump).
So here are my questions:
1) Are most setups that use VSR's similar to mine?
2) Is it a bad idea to make the swap I proposed?
4) Is that clicking on and off hurting anything?
3) What issues am I not considering?
4) Is there a better alternative?
a) For example, how about adding a diode so the starter battery cannot discharge through the VSR to the leisure battery yet the alternator would still charge it?
By the way, I have no solar panels on this boat. (yet) Next year we retire and I hope to take much longer trips.
Thanks folks for your advice.