Question about On Board Chargers

[tennwalkinghorse]

There are one bank,two bank ,three bank and so on chargers. I am assuming a bank means a battery. Here is my question if you have three batterys all 12volts and two of the three are wired parallel would you need a two bank or a three bank charger? Would the batterys that are in parallel count as one battery or will each battery need its own bank on the charger? :-/

[vtbassin]

I have 3 batteries 2 for the 24 volt trolling motor and 1 to start the outboard.  I have an on-board 3 bank charger that charges each battery separately.  It gives the status of each battery as it charges.

It works well.  I just plug it in after each trip and the batteries are always ready to go.

[jim payne]

Two bank is all you need but the two batteries that are hooked together are just going to take longer to chaarge.

[Ann-Marie]

Instead of the expense of a 2 or 3 bank charger, use a single bank charger and link the banks together with 1 (or 2 for 3 bank) Combiner100s.  You can then use a generic automobile charger on the starting battery to charge all the batteries.

Advantages

1. Cost saving.

2. Since it is just as easy to plug in a 12 volt line as a 120 volt line, the charger can stay at home where it is protected from the marine environment and you save the weight, wiring and space.

3. You get added trolling time - for every minute you run the main engine you add about 10 minutes trolling time to the trolling batteries.  YMMV.

4. If you need extra charging you can hook the starting battery to your tow vehicle with an RV charging line.  This will have all the batteries fully charged by the time you get home.

5. The individual outputs from a multi bank charger are limited to their bank so the charging capacity of the one on the starting battery is only being used to 1 or 2% of its capacity and sitting idle.  With a Combiner100, the output from a single bank charger is used to its rated continuous output with nothing sitting idle until all are charged.

[jim payne]

There are one bank,two bank ,three bank and so on chargers. I am assuming a bank means a battery. Here is my question if you have three batterys all 12volts and two of the three are wired parallel would you need a two bank or a three bank charger? Would the batterys that are in parallel count as one battery or will each battery need its own bank on the charger?  

Does your outboard keep the starting battery charged pretty well? If it does then you can still just use a single bank charger from your garage to keep the other two charged up.

[tennwalkinghorse]

Thanks for the info

[Ann-Marie]

There are one bank,two bank ,three bank and so on chargers. I am assuming a bank means a battery. Here is my question if you have three batterys all 12volts and two of the three are wired parallel would you need a two bank or a three bank charger? Would the batterys that are in parallel count as one battery or will each battery need its own bank on the charger?

Does your outboard keep the starting battery charged pretty well? If it does then you can still just use a single bank charger from your garage to keep the other two charged up.

Correct, typically the starting battery will not require a charger so long as you have not been running other equipment off it. Batteries wired in parallel only count as 1 bank so a portable, single output automobile charger would be all you need to make sure the trolling/accessory battery (bank) is fully charged.