My baby has arrived - couple noob questions...

[biffdotorg]

The above recommendations on a charger are great. Noco and ProMariner are awesome products. But skip the word trickle or maintainer, and use the ones suggested that are a minimum of 10-12a per bank. Trickle/maintainers are for long term storage. And many of these true chargers will double as a 2a maintainer in the off season.

If you have a need for a charger elsewhere, you can use a standard battery charger, if you think you will only need it this one time to get them back to life. If running the electronics stock, you may be fine without an onboard charger. But after owning a two bank system, the convenience is so nice to just plug a cord into the side of the boat.

Good luck

 

[Wheelspin]

I think we're not quite discussing the exact same scenario. I believe you are thinking permanently mounted, whereas I was discussing it in the context of the flushing procedure. It wouldn't be permanently mounted for that purpose. It would be something you hook up when flushing to speed up the process. For that purpose, you would most certainly NOT want it to fail to the open position. If it fails open, and you have the hose on but engine off... you just lost an engine. (or 2)
If it fails closed and the engine is off, nothing goes wrong. If it fails closed and the engine is on, you would eventually get an overheat condition flagged at the helm to notify you to shut it down.
Either of those seems preferable to flooding an engine out...

But in the context I believe you are thinking of, permanently mounted, well... I wouldn't even consider it at all. Not worth it.

 

[Wheelspin]

I may actually nab these and an alligator clip lead and rig up a 1 person flush do-dad out of them. Mount them to a plastic piece or board, put a hose splitter on the output, and a lead with alligator clips to the battery.
It would enable me to make it a 1 person job instead of 2. (or climbing in and out of the boat...)

It's just the kind of thing I would spend 3 hours putzing with for fun to save 2 minutes worth of annoyance 10 times a year.
(IE I might not earn the time back, but it's amusing to tinker with over a beer on it's own.)

 

[HangOutdoors]

Yes , you are correct. I was thinking in the context of anpermant tow valve shut off. My bad