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Blue Sea Add A Battery


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Jim/Bryan...or anyone else with ACR experience....

I'm looking at the Blue Sea Add a Battery set up to use with a start battery and a house battery. No other switches. 3 Questions.

1) If the "Add a Battery" switch is OFF, can and will the ACR still combine the batteries? I'm looking at putting in a Dual Pro charger and am unsure if it should be a single bank or two bank. I would prefer a dual bank charging the two separately.

2) Any problem with paralleling an AGM and a Lead-Acid through the ACR? There seems to a lot of different opinions on this.

3) Any difficulties connecting the ACR to the key switch start circuit on an older Yamaha F225? I'm assuming it's easy and straightforward....just curious if anyone has run into issues.

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Q) If the "Add a Battery" switch is OFF, can and will the ACR still combine the batteries? I'm looking at putting in a Dual Pro charger and am unsure if it should be a single bank or two bank. I would prefer a dual bank charging the two separately.

A - I see no reason why a single bank charger wouldn't charge both. We always set them up with 2 bank chargers though, so i have never tried it with a single.

Q) Any problem with paralleling an AGM and a Lead-Acid through the ACR? There seems to a lot of different opinions on this.

A - Over my pay scale. There are people out there with far more expertise in batteries than me. I do not see why it would be an issue though.

Q) Any difficulties connecting the ACR to the key switch start circuit on an older Yamaha F225? I'm assuming it's easy and straightforward....just curious if anyone has run into issues.

A - Why would you connect it to the key switch?

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The Blue Sea "SI" ACR is the one I am referring to. The "SI" being starter isolation. By connecting it to the key switch, I mean starter circuit. With SI connected, the ACR switches off when the key is turned to START, decoupling the batteries when starting the motor. It is an optional connection, but I figure it's probably the smart thing to do....otherwise why offer it. Right?

Edited by tainted
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It is always best to read and follow the manufacturer’s documentation. The manufacturer envisions, designs, validates, tests then documents the correct method to properly implement the equipment. That is always superior to blundering along w/ the seat-of-the-pants “act first then think” method.


The wiring and installation should always meet or exceed all ABYC standards.

The Blue Seas SI-ACR P/N 7610 is part of the Blue Seas 120A Add-A-Battery Kit.

The installation diagram does not depict the battery charger wiring, but that should be a dual bank charger, wired to each battery bank, per ABYC.

WRT to mixing battery chemistry, using an AGM and a flooded cell, that is not advised. That combination will function, but the dual-bank charger can select only one chemistry, so one bank will be charged per the recommended profile and one won’t. Also, when the ACR is routing power, one battery will be working harder.

The most important part is that the AGM wants lots of charging current and the flooded cell doesn’t. As such, the charging current output for the Dual Pro charger is too low for the AGM battery.

This reply has links to manufacturer’s information on AGM and flooded-cell batteries and charging. This [rul=http://www.thehulltruth.com/4993905-post7.html]reply shows that AGM wants at least 0.2C charging rate and flooded cell wants c/10 rate.

Wire the ACR to the key switch per the instructions.

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1) If the "Add a Battery" switch is OFF, can and will the ACR still combine the batteries? I'm looking at putting in a Dual Pro charger and am unsure if it should be a single bank or two bank. I would prefer a dual bank charging the two separately.

depends on where you wire the ACR, behind the switch it will not combine when the switch is off, on the battery side it will combine.

I prefer the single bank charger over multiple bank chargers because most of them have some kind of master and slave config, otherwise they would be 2 or 3 chargers in a common housing....

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I'm looking at putting in a Dual Pro charger and am unsure if it should be a single bank or two bank. I would prefer a dual bank charging the two separately.

yachtjim, if the OP questions are read and understood, then the OP is inquiring about a proposed Dual Pro charger, so the reply I posted remains accurate and complete.

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This reply has links to manufacturer’s information on AGM and flooded-cell batteries and charging. This [rul=http://www.thehulltruth.com/4993905-post7.html]reply shows that AGM wants at least 0.2C charging rate and flooded cell wants c/10 rate.

This reply has links to manufacturer’s information on AGM and flooded-cell batteries and charging. This reply shows that AGM wants at least 0.2C charging rate and flooded cell wants c/10 rate.

Fixed link typo...

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