House battery draining

[zrated512]

Stereo folks; I have an issue with my house battery drawing to much and drawing my battery. Only seems to happen when my sub amp is cranked and continual base.

my question I guess, is anyone of you that have big stereos that draw some power how are your batteries synced? Did you have to add a third battery? If you did, how do you have it hooked up?

My amps consist of the following:

1 wet sounds syn 6 amp hooked up to 6-6.5” wetsounds recon

1 wet sounds syn 2 amp hooked up to 4 bullet high point towers

1 600.1 JL hooked up to 2 10” w3v3 subs.

my sub seem to draw the voltage drop. My boat is a 2018 AR 240 with factory interstate batteries....

 

[212s]

Those batteries are not really meant for deep cycles and your 2300 watts will kill the house pretty quick. You need a third battery. I would recommend you get 2 deep cycle batteries of equal size and rating for the house, and keep one Interstate for the start battery.

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

Subs seem to be a pretty big draw on the juice. Back in high school I had two 12inch woofers in my truck. My battery would dead in my car if it wasn’t running pretty quick. Based on what I see here and out on the water you need some heavy duty deep cycle batteries, the more the better and battery tender hooked up when you aren’t on the water. These boats don’t have alternators and the electrical system can’t top off the batteries. At least my experience. I got a amp and two 8 inch tower speakers. End of the day my house battery is down to low 11 amps. Even if I cruise around for a hour at the end of the day the best I can get on the house battery after the motors are off is 12.3 amps. Starter battery is always 12.7, and pre sound system upgrade they both always had 12.7.

 

[Cowboy14]

I have this exact same type setup regarding use of a Skar 1000w amp. Ran power and ground directly to the house battery. Now my house battery alarm keeps going off after only a short period of time with the radio playing while running on the water. I mean to say that I am running wide open for about 20 minutes to a spot and then shutting it down to fish and suddenly (5 minutes) the house alarm goes off saying to start the boat to charge the battery. starting battery is still fine. I have both switches turned on when running. I don't have the yellow emergency switch on. I thought the alternators were supposed to charge the starting battery first and then automatically start charging the house. House battery is only about 12 months old and not used very often but kept charged during winter etc... Really starting to think I have damaged it or got a bad one to start out with. 1000 watt amp might be killing it faster than I can charge it back up also? How do these dual engines charge the batteries if they don't have alternators like you mentioned?

 

[lazergeek]

Do you keep it on a maintainer when your not using the boat? What is your restiing voltage on the house battery with nothing running? Anything below 11.99volts and if its been below that voltage for any period of time the battery is probably damaged. I run 1500 wattt amp on my stock house battery and have no issues but I also keep it on a maintainer 100% of the time. The motors have Stators ot altinators so the output is not very high. 20 min ride will not be enough to keep your house battery charged. I would start with getting a maintainer for when your not on the water. Then take the battery to be load tested. If its bad replace with a deep cycle. If you find thats still not enough capacity add another deep cycle in parallel. But always keep charged when in storage. Hope that helps.

 

[fatboyroy]

@Cowboy14 Not really an amplifier reference but it has same watts so posted here for reference. You probably need at least two 100aH battery to run your amp for 1 hour (note you can only drain normal battery 50% of its capacity unless its LifePO where you can use almost 100%), If 1000w amplifier draw the same amp as the inverter example below, your boat charger probably wouldnt be able to keep up with the charging (83.3 amp is very high draw).
@FSH 210 Sport probably know exactly what our boat charges, I do not know lots of specific on electrical components.

How many amps does a 1000 watt inverter use?
If you have a 1000 watt inverter and want to run a full load for one hour, it will draw 83.3 amps. You need an 83ah battery, but you should get a 100ah battery to compensate for inverter inefficiency. You get a runtime of 1.2 hours. But batteries discharge faster the more amps are drawn, so expect the battery to drain after an hour.

 

[Cowboy14]

Do you keep it on a maintainer when your not using the boat? What is your restiing voltage on the house battery with nothing running? Anything below 11.99volts and if its been below that voltage for any period of time the battery is probably damaged. I run 1500 wattt amp on my stock house battery and have no issues but I also keep it on a maintainer 100% of the time. The motors have Stators ot altinators so the output is not very high. 20 min ride will not be enough to keep your house battery charged. I would start with getting a maintainer for when your not on the water. Then take the battery to be load tested. If its bad replace with a deep cycle. If you find thats still not enough capacity add another deep cycle in parallel. But always keep charged when in storage. Hope that helps.

I don’t actually keep one on either the starting or house during the summer. But during the off months, winter, I do. I recently, in august, added the house battery after I upgraded the stereo. but I actually thought I was running the boat enough to charge both batteries. But I bet I was slowly killing the house battery. I will pull it and get it checked. Probably will add an onboard noco like I use for my 2 trolling batteries.

 

[Cowboy14]

@Cowboy14 Not really an amplifier reference but it has same watts so posted here for reference. You probably need at least two 100aH battery to run your amp for 1 hour (note you can only drain normal battery 50% of its capacity unless its LifePO where you can use almost 100%), If 1000w amplifier draw the same amp as the inverter example below, your boat charger probably wouldnt be able to keep up with the charging (83.3 amp is very high draw).
@FSH 210 Sport probably know exactly what our boat charges, I do not know lots of specific on electrical components.

How many amps does a 1000 watt inverter use?
If you have a 1000 watt inverter and want to run a full load for one hour, it will draw 83.3 amps. You need an 83ah battery, but you should get a 100ah battery to compensate for inverter inefficiency. You get a runtime of 1.2 hours. But batteries discharge faster the more amps are drawn, so expect the battery to drain after an hour.

I can’t find an amp usage number for this amp. The manufacturer can probably tell me. I think I will just add a deep cycle for the amp and run the house battery as backup for fish finder and starting.

 

[212s]

I can’t find an amp usage number for this amp. The manufacturer can probably tell me. I think I will just add a deep cycle for the amp and run the house battery as backup for fish finder and starting.

Skar Audio's website has the fuse ratings:
RP-150.4AB | 1,000 Watt 4-Channel Car Amplifier
...it shows 120a fuse required. Since you didn't know the rating, I'm guessing you don't have a fuse or breaker connected inline with your + power line?

And if it draws that kind of amperage and you use it at high volumes while floating, then you're battery is not being fully charged by the engines. Most likely it's been getting weaker and weaker every outing and is now damaged like the others said. You need to recharge the house battery fully when you park the boat to maintain the battery.

 

[Cowboy14]

Skar Audio's website has the fuse ratings:
RP-150.4AB | 1,000 Watt 4-Channel Car Amplifier
...it shows 120a fuse required. Since you didn't know the rating, I'm guessing you don't have a fuse or breaker connected inline with your + power line?

And if it draws that kind of amperage and you use it at high volumes while floating, then you're battery is not being fully charged by the engines. Most likely it's been getting weaker and weaker every outing and is now damaged like the others said. You need to recharge the house battery fully when you park the boat to maintain the battery.

Yes, I agree, I wasn’t aware that I was slowly draining the battery as much as I was trolling and driving, I just thought it was getting charged back up. The connex screen has shown it at 12.3 then 12.1 and now running around 11.7-9. So I have manually charged it back up to full but it’s obvious that my amount of usage probably still needs a better suited house battery. Maybe a higher amp hour battery? I still want it to be able to help out in a starting situation where I have to go to emergency mode. Might even consider getting a separate deep cycle for just the amp and add another NOCO on board charger. Since it seems I need to top off my batteries after every outing regardless.

 

[212s]

The connex screen has shown it at 12.3 then 12.1 and now running around 11.7-9.

At 11.9v your battery is at 40% which means it's very low, sulfated and no longer holding a proper charge. If you have a smart charger that can condition the battery you might be able to bring it back somewhat but it'll never be a good battery anymore. I'd change it out with a deep cycle AGM or similar and get a good on-board charger like the Noco Gen5x2 or Gen10x2. Even a good deep cycle battery should never go below 12.0v or 50%. If your usage goes lower than that, then you either need to turn down the volume a bit or get a third battery so you can have two house batteries in parallel to power your stereo.

Lithium batteries are great for boats and stereos because you can run them down to 90% without issue and they weigh half as much as a lead battery. But the charging and DVSR switching system doesn't work as expected due to the higher idle voltage of lithium batteries and without modifying the DVSR system, you run the risk of draining your start battery.

 

[Cowboy14]

At 11.9v your battery is at 40% which means it's very low, sulfated and no longer holding a proper charge. If you have a smart charger that can condition the battery you might be able to bring it back somewhat but it'll never be a good battery anymore. I'd change it out with a deep cycle AGM or similar and get a good on-board charger like the Noco Gen5x2 or Gen10x2. Even a good deep cycle battery should never go below 12.0v or 50%. If your usage goes lower than that, then you either need to turn down the volume a bit or get a third battery so you can have two house batteries in parallel to power your stereo.

Lithium batteries are great for boats and stereos because you can run them down to 90% without issue and they weigh half as much as a lead battery. But the charging and DVSR switching system doesn't work as expected due to the higher idle voltage of lithium batteries and without modifying the DVSR system, you run the risk of draining your start battery.

That’s great info. I am going to put the “damaged” or “potentially damaged” battery on my noco charger and let it force charge it. If it saves it, I will use it in my car trailer. Probably get a deep cycle agm battery and Put a NOCO 5x2 like my trolling motor setup and just run with that and plug in both systems every time I come back in.

 

[MrBubbaGump]

Do you keep it on a maintainer when your not using the boat? What is your restiing voltage on the house battery with nothing running? Anything below 11.99volts and if its been below that voltage for any period of time the battery is probably damaged. I run 1500 wattt amp on my stock house battery and have no issues but I also keep it on a maintainer 100% of the time. The motors have Stators ot altinators so the output is not very high. 20 min ride will not be enough to keep your house battery charged. I would start with getting a maintainer for when your not on the water. Then take the battery to be load tested. If its bad replace with a deep cycle. If you find thats still not enough capacity add another deep cycle in parallel. But always keep charged when in storage. Hope that helps.

This^ you need to charge the battery on a charger like noco 10x2 I run 1100 Watts (a 400 and a 700 watt amp) for 6-8 hours on my house battery close to max volume the battery gets as low as 11.3 bolts toward the end of the day but I put it on the charger until I use it next time. Rinse and repeat every time.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

@Cowboy14 Not really an amplifier reference but it has same watts so posted here for reference. You probably need at least two 100aH battery to run your amp for 1 hour (note you can only drain normal battery 50% of its capacity unless its LifePO where you can use almost 100%), If 1000w amplifier draw the same amp as the inverter example below, your boat charger probably wouldnt be able to keep up with the charging (83.3 amp is very high draw).
@FSH 210 Sport probably know exactly what our boat charges, I do not know lots of specific on electrical components.

How many amps does a 1000 watt inverter use?
If you have a 1000 watt inverter and want to run a full load for one hour, it will draw 83.3 amps. You need an 83ah battery, but you should get a 100ah battery to compensate for inverter inefficiency. You get a runtime of 1.2 hours. But batteries discharge faster the more amps are drawn, so expect the battery to drain after an hour.

Best info I ever saw was a thread / post I saw a long time ago and can’t find it again, the poster stated output for each engine is 14 Amps or 200 watts at 3500 rpm’s and above.this poster was putting in a stereo with amps etc.. if memory serves there is 10 amps available for charging with both engines running at 3500 rpm’s +. The engines will not charge the house battery with only 20 minutes of WOT throttle, that’s only about 3.3 Ah of charge. Your DVSR will close the paralleling switch once it sees 13.2 volts allowing the engine to charge the start battery first then start charging the house battery and then it will open the switch at 12.7 volts to keep your start battery fully charged, so your twenty minute run may only have 10-15 mins of charge (or less) going to the house battery. There’s a little red light on the DVSR module that indicates when it’s been activated.

Keep in mind our alternators are PMG style or permanent magnet generators. This means magnetic field or flux density of the field are fixed and are always at full output. The regulator / rectifier changes the AC voltage to DC, then regulates the output by shunting unwanted voltage to ground. This is unlike an automotive style alternator that can increase or decrease the magnetic field / flux density to create a lot of charge or very little charge.

Flooded lead acid batteries as well as AGM batteries have a certain amount of resistance that slows charging when compared to a LiFePO4 battery. Having said that, you need at least a 10A charger per battery to properly charge a flooded lead acid battery. The charger should / must also have a manual equalizing charge profile ( not to be used on an AGM battery) that you can use at least once a month during the season. When you run an equalize charge you need to disconnect the DVSR ground wire so the DVSR does not close the paralleling switch while it’s getting an equalize charge. The equalize charge not only cleans the plates more deeply, it mixes the electrolyte as it gets stratified over time.

You can probably get some more life out of your flooded house battery by putting a hard charge on it, with an old school charger where you can push 20A on it for a while, then drop it back to 10 amps. Check the electrolyte with a specific gravity meter before you do the charge and I think you will find the battery is not very well charged, and the cells won’t be balanced either, they will probably show a decreasing level of charge from one of the battery to the other. When that’s done check the specific gravity again to verify that cells are balanced and the battery is fully charged. Make sure the cells are properly watered before you start, not too much or it’s going to make a mess. If the cells are still not up to where they should or are still unbalanced then keep pushing a charge on the battery until the cells are balanced.

Hope that helps!