question charging two batteries

lawrosa wrote:

NowWhere2 wrote:
Hello,
I'm using a portable battery charger and wondering if I have to disconnect the two house batteries from each other when charging?

Or can i just leave everything hooked up and just put the charger on.

J

Leave them toghther.

Hook to the positive of one and the neg of the other.

.......

Usually the charger clamps go on the same posts of the bank as the rig uses. If you are a non-believer in the balanced bank, then you will have an upstream battery with the rig's wires to that one.

So in that case, I am unclear if it is still advised to clamp one to one and the other to the other. (Of course you should do that if you have wired your two parallel batts in the "balanced" manner for draws and charging. Still need to use the same posts the rig does for pos and neg.

Batteries are people too...

Well, work around them long enough and you will be calling some of them @#$%^&!

And throwing kisses at the well-behaved ones. Mat Colie's answer made me smile.

Well Now,

The question you are asking has some ramifications that many do not know about.

Assuming (you know what they say about that) that you have a more or less run of the mill portable automotive battery charger, then yes, you can charge the bank with it all connected.** I suggest that you keep a mental track of the discharge and about every full discharge, you separate and recharge each battery to 100% density.

** There is, however, a problem. You will probably not be able to recharge the bank (pair of 12V in you case) to 100%, simply because lead/acid batteries do not like to play with others. One will hog and no let the other have the juice. They could be consecutive serial numbers and this would still be a cloud.

Back before the depression, I did a lot of work on other people's expensive boats. This is something I ran into often. So, it is in convenient, but you can survive it.

Matt

Just wondering what your charging them with?

Why are you not using the campers charger?

Then yes, you can leave them hooked up.

sorry, 2 , 12 volt

Please, please tell us what kind of batteries.

This answer goes FAR beyond your question...

Multiple batteries multiply charge acceptance. Permit me to use my bank as an example because the values are extreme...

The bank is charged at 400+ amperes. When voltage and specific gravity has risen to float transition, the bank is still taking in excess of thirty amperes. Yet my loads remain at the same ampere rating. So the genset and charger are not allowed to sit twiddling their ---- sucking expensive fuel.

But Phart Chargers will sense the battery with the higher voltage profile so do not assssssume that when the charger decides to quit both batteries are charged. Check them individually after the genius mechanism gets done with them.

NowWhere2 wrote:
Hello,
I'm using a portable battery charger and wondering if I have to disconnect the two house batteries from each other when charging?

Or can i just leave everything hooked up and just put the charger on.

J

Leave them toghther.

Hook to the positive of one and the neg of the other.

What charger are you using?

What batterys to you have? 12's or 6's