battery charging

[sonny1]

bit of advice needed please . given that my outboard hasnt been started since early september should i charge the batteries up? . further to that question ,as the batteries are linked if i charge one will the second battery charge as well as one is easily accessible while the second is very difficult to access. i was going to get the motor serviced but the local dealer is closed and i would have asked them .

[sonny1]

I would get a bin set up and give your engine a run for an hour or so. It will charge your batteries and will do your engine good. If it won’t start then turn the yellow isolator under the seat to connect the house battery to the starter battery and try again.

If you just want to charge your batteries then connect the charger to the starter battery and it will charge both (assuming you just have a normal battery charger, not some fancy pants thing).
If the easy to access battery is the house battery then turn the yellow isolator to On and connect the charger to the house battery. Once charged then switch the yellow isolator off again.

[sonny1]

thanks for that info @ChrisParish . i do have a nice big bin so i could do that the next sunny day we have, it would also give me something to do as im bored witless at the moment , this retirement is certainly not how i envisaged it after 51years at work , i thought i would be permanently camping and boating,,,, hey ho ,there,s plenty worse off than me if boredoms my biggest worry

[harrison]

Yeah, second what @ChrisParish advised. Ensure yellow emergency parallel is on, connect charger to accessible battery, and the VSR will sort out the logistics. In fact with a VSR or ACR it shouldn’t even be necessary to have the parallel switch on, as they automatically direct charge between batteries depending on individual charge level.

Also agree if motor not winterised then good to fire it up.

[sonny1]

@harrison Sonny’s system has a VSR in it and the specs I glanced at this morning were unclear if the charging was bi-directional. Having double checked the data sheet you are quite right and it is a bidirectional relay - as soon as either source goes above 13.4v it connects the two.