Wondering about using a battery switch with a deep cycle battery

[Sly Selea]

Is it safe to run a battery switch on "both" (to charge both batteries while underway) when one is a starting battery and one is a deep cycle battery? I'm concerned it may harm the deep cycle battery. I'm also concerned I don't understand completely the purpose of a battery switch, but that's for another post.

[HONDAM]

You will be fine.

Do you already have a battery switch installed or just considering your options?

[sherman51]

its not going to hurt anything. alot of people use a starting battery for starting the boat, then use a deep cycle as the house battery.

sherman

[Sly Selea]

You will be fine.

Do you already have a battery switch installed or just considering your options?

Bought it, thought i better check with someone here before i installed it. My thought is like what Sherman said.

[jimbobber]

it is smart to isolate your electronics from the motor , do this by switching the switch over to the starting batterie while trolling turn it back to both to charge the deep cycle when running in or out. ive been doing it for years still on the same batteries as 4 yrs ago. jimmy

[Sly Selea]

Jim, I'm curious as to why would you not leave the switch on both while trolling as that's when most of the battery drain occurs on the deep cycle from the electronics.

[sherman51]

i just leave mine on both when im running. then if im anchored or drifting i switch to my house battery for my electronics and lights. then i know my starting battery wont get run down. i,ve been doing it this way for many years. then i took the batteries out of my boat for my motorhome back in dec for deer hunting, and my mh batteries were bad. so im going to put the new batteries in my boat. i would be much better off if the old batteries go bad in the mh instead of in the boat,LOL.

sherman

[HONDAM]

The best thing to do is to return the battery switch and get a battery management cluster if you can afford it. It runs about $150 and what it does is it automatically distributes your charging power to first then starting battery and once that one is full it takes all the charging power and uses it to keep the house battery up. No switching required because its all automatic and does not allow one battery to drain the other.

It comes with really good directions and is a breeze to install, also if you already have a perko style switch in most cases no rewiring is needed just take the wires off the perko switch and put them on the right post per the direstions and thats it.

I just added it to the online store so you can easily find it, for more info click the link below.

http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/Battery-Distibution-Cluster--Single_p_445.html

Here are some pictures of an install that i did with one of these:

This is an overview

The Cluster with leads

Heres the connection for the house circuit

Heres where the motors hook up (not yet connected)

[Hockey390]

Does anyone know if this battery cluster would work if I am running 1 main engine with alternator and 1 kicker without?

[Line Dancin]

what jimmy was explaining is to keep the engine "noise" off the circuit allowing you to use your sensitivity more and being able to pic things up better. When you have noise on the circuit you have to adjust the sensitivity to a point where you miss a lot on the graph. It can also add noise into your marine vhf and lower your range.