Marinette Boat Forum

Helping a friend understand master switch on marinette
single engine two battery setup.
Question : do you leave the switch on all or on house or starter battery?
Does charger work best with switch on "all" or one or two position?
Thanks, Wayne

There's room for confusion, that's for sure. Position # 1 on the switch does NOT mean 'one battery' and position # 2 mean "two batteries'. (I wish they had labeled Position # 1 as 'Position A' and Position # 2 as 'Position B'.) "All" (or Both), of course, means 'both' batteries--they got that right at least!

According to Clint's (well-proven) Theory: You can not charge two batteries with one charger--one of the batteries will be 'unhappy' (and so will you when you need it to work!) The opposite is true when you are USING power from the batteries, as when a motor is stubborn getting going.

That said, leaving the battery switch ON (in any setting) tends to draw a battery down since there's often a sneaky parasitic loss in the system that you may not be aware of (such as a memory in something--that's all it takes). The battery in my RV went dead flat after a few months since I left the GPS cord plugged in--that's all it took! And that fool GPS was not even turned on.

Leaving the switch in "All" (or Both) tends to run down one battery, even if no charger is being used. (See above.) So you want to avoid that as well.

Part of my 'Leaving the Boat List' included putting the Perko Switches in the OFF position. Hope this helps.

Jeff

#1. Every boat is a little different so you have to check and see what works, to learn your boat.
#2. If you want to edit or delete your post, up at the top right of your post are some buttons. Left click on them and you can edit, delete, or quote Jeff on where his money is buried.

..." quote Jeff on where his money is buried."

Those old coffee cans have long ago been dug up and used.

Jeff

"... Those old coffee cans have long ago been dug up and used."

(sniff, sniff..) End of an era.....

Bill