EIDB question

[jrj701]

I think this has been covered here before, but i can't seem to find it. I have a 2 bank Guest battery charger/conditioner 10A per bank. Can i take both positive leads and wire them directly to the center terminal of the isolater to charge the 2 battery's versus having to wire one set of leads to each battery? It seems like it would be much easier to mount the charger next to the isolater in the engine compartment and hook it up there instead of adding wires to an already crowded battery area. If so, where would you run the two negative leads?

[ajholt7]

With mine I just wired the charger to one battery and the combiner let's it charge both. My combiner has an led on it so I know they are combined. I use a single bank charger.

[chpthril]

I wouldn't for 2 reasons: 1) the Diode Iso that Tige uses can have up to a .7 volt drop across the diode (normal with diodes). 2) I wouldn't recommend wiring both charging bank wires to, in a sense, a single battery. Most dual bank chargers charge the banks at a different rate as they tend to be set up for a starting battery - which only typically needs a topping off, and a deep-cycle that is more then likely well depleted. I'm not sure what of effect it might have on both the charger and batteries if both charger + leads were wired together.

If you go the easy route and tie into the center post of the Iso, just use one + lead of the charger. The neg will need to go to the battery's -.

[dogbert]

I'm with chpthril on this. Otherwise you're headed for trouble.

[ajholt7]

I am using the blue sea relay. I guess that is why I can get away with just connecting to one battery.

[chpthril]

I am using the blue sea relay. I guess that is why I can get away with just connecting to one battery.

Yes, The Blue Sea ACR is basically a voltage level controlled relay, so there is no voltage drop across the contacts when the relay is closed. When you connect a single-bank charger, or one leg of a multi-bank, the batteries and the ACR see this about the same the alt charging.

One thing I would suggest, is to look at how your dual-bank charger distributes the charge, if you have one. Some chargers will distribute a higher amperage to the "House" bank then the "Starter" bank because it assumes the "house" bank is more depleted. If you, or anyone reading this, has a 2-bank charger, check and see if it has dedicated banks for the starting and house batteries..