What Type of Battery Should I Use for My Thrusters?
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- "I have heard two different opinions about thruster batteries", says Ron. "Should I be using a deep cycle or a cranking battery and how should I charge that battery?"
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Thanks, means a lot.
Hi thanks for the video - what about when the batteries power both windlass / thrusters, as well as fridges lights etc? TIA
Short and to the point, brilliant.
Question: thrusters, windlass and starters should use cranking batteries, is it reasonable for some or all to use a common battery? I know, it's an open ended question, with capacity, usage, forces, charging ability, etc, etc... any reasonable general guidelines?
Hi Donald, in many cases, thrusters have their own dedicated batteries. While operating, thrusters can cause significant voltage drop and therefore most designers provided dedicated thruster batteries.
@@PacificYachtSystems Thanks!
@@PacificYachtSystems Hello PYS, I love your content! I installed a stern thruster on my 2015 Mastercraft X46 wakeboard boat. It has two batteries with the Off-On-Combine switch and I wired the thruster directly to one of the batteries. This works ok but interferes with the audio and under heavy usage I get a low voltage error for the engine and a fault code. I want to add a third battery and argofet 3-1 isolator. From watching your other video's, I know you connect directly off the alternator to the Isolator. Question is for the existing linked dual battery bank, do I remove the connecting cable and connect separately from the isolator? Do I need to then change how I run the power through the switch and bus? Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
HELLO JEFF I have a 48 sea ray which has 2 seperate battery systems ,12 volt for start and house and a separate 24 volt bank for a bow thruster.I have read and plan to use the 24 volt bank (thruster)to share to an inverter to run the 2 small refrigerators while at anchor or long cruising so i don't need generator all night on the hook. I would like to go to lithium but it seems the BMS limits the amp output for the Thruster requirement. The Vetus thruster is 24 volt pulls 320 amps for 3 to 5 secs but many of the smaller amp hr battery ratings seem to go with the BMS rating. Meaning 12v 100Ah has 100 amp limit BMS.The only way I see this working is to get 2-- 24V batteries @ 200 Amp hr with 200 amp BMS in parallel to give total of 400 Amp limit to deal with the Thruster.I realize this just got expensive to keep food cold quietly . The 24 volt lithium do fit in the 2 - 12V 8D battery boxes so the series cabling needs to go parallel . There is limited Information on cranking or heavy load thruster application with lithium batteries in marine or anywhere. It seems people go lead acid for cranking ,lithium for storage but I don't want 3 battery banks on the boat and the thruster batteries sit for the most of the time unused. Do you know of many Lithium bow thruster applications out there? Seems like bigger high amp lithium batteries with high amp BMS are coming on the market at more reasonable prices.
Your concerns are legitimate, as I've never seen a thruster run off a lithium bank. We recommend lead acid batteries (flooded or AGM) for high amperage applications.
Great! I absolutely luv these. Even though I dont have a thruster...
Could the same thought process apply to windlass? More than 30 sec but...? High load relatively short...
Would also like your opinion on this.
He mentions windlass is ok for cranking battery around 1:50ish
@@adventuresofgwennel great catch... I missed that...thanks!
Yes, absolutely
Hi Jeff, I just got back from my boat and I found that there are zero fuses on the batteries (and their cables) as well as the battery charger.. I have owned the boat for little over a year and I am now starting to tackle the electrical...
My question(s) is... how do I ensure I have the right sized cable and fuses? And where does the fuse need to be?
Thanks
Perhaps I should elaborate a little more... I am going to be switching to 2 200ah agm batteries and the resources I've found seem to be saying I need a battery cable as thick as my leg?
It's very frustrating and I cant seem to find a definitive answer, if I go by the loads, does that mean I have to change all the cables if I ad an inverter? Ugh...
Good question. what decides wire and fuse size isn't the battery bank size but the the actually amperage (i.e. current) you intend to draw from a battery bank. Manufacturers are very specific in what fuse they want you to use for their products. Make sure the wire connecting the appliance (light, pump, bilge, inverter, etc...) is sized to handle both the amperage and the voltage drop.
I’ve just stumbled across this video while trying to search for the correct battery for my bow thruster. I have a QL CT600 thruster which the manufacturer manuals recommended a minimum 100A/H 800 CCA battery.
I notice most modern boats use a Optima Red top battery (Or Yellow Top) as they’re supposed to offer lots of power and longevity.
The Optima specs are 50A/H 815CCA.. would I be right in thinking this battery would not be suitable as it has half the recommended A/H?
actually this is my question too. I appreciate if someone answer this. my situation percisely is explained in next comment.
Thanks for all these tips. I’m assuming that the logic for a thruster should be about the same as a windlass? We have 4 L16RE 6V in series/parallel for a 12V house bank. Currently, they are connected to a Lofrans Tigres windlass via a 150 amp breaker at the main unswitched distribution, and 20’ of 2/0 wiring. New, they were good for 740 amp hours at 12 volts. Maybe less now, but they’re not consuming water. The manufacturer’s data sheet indicates they should be good for 3 hours at the windlass’ max load. Do you see any issues with this setup? Thanks!
Hi Robert, your battery bank size is pretty compared to the size of the windlass load and even though the house batteries are deep cycle, (i.e. rated in amp-hour capacity and NOT Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) or Marine Cranking Amps (MCA)) you are OK to run your specific windlass on your house battery bank size.
Can you give me some tips to keep the drop voltage under control. I got a narrowboat 55ft. The cables between batteries and electric engine have around 10m, 70mm2 . I use 2 sealed batterys type 644 95A . The alternator have 90A/h. The voltege drop is 2V read on the dashboard voltmeter when the engine running.
The bow thruster is vetus 3Kw
The surveyor tell me to ad a battery close to the bow thruster.
Hi George, you are on the right track, to offset voltage drop, you can increase the cable size & bring the battery bank closer to the large loads. Inspect all your DC connections on the cabling as a weak crimp will cause voltage drop under high current.
Great series of videos, great job. If I’m using my electric windlass, is it better to operate it with the engine running or switched off?
Also, what’s the best configuration for charging on a twin engine boat that has 2 x 60A alternators and three battery banks, 2 engine batteries and a domestic bank.
Thanks!
Your first question regarding the windless is interesting. Can't imagine a situation, other than maintenance, where you wouldn't have the engine running while using the windless.
My suggestion is to run the engine, effectively running the alternator and recharging the battery while using the windlass.
I have a azimut atlantis 34, equipped with a vetus 75kw bow thruster. boat has a hatch near borthruster specifically for bowthruster therefore it's a 50cm battery wires to bowthruster. and battery charges with a Noco gen 5 x 1 bank. (5 amps for 1 bank) only chatges when generator is on or shorepower is connected.
I wonder what is best battery I can use in that hatch (has limited space. for example 100ah battery doesn't fit there) curewntly there is a normal 75ah lead acid battery there. works ok it seems. my question is do you recommend I use a Lifepo4 lithium battery there with 50AH? my concern is it is not recommended to pull 250 amps from lithium battery and a 50ah lifepo4 seems can provide 25ah max. but same range is recommended for leadacid and I wonder what battery do you recommend for this scenario?
Semi related question but not sure how to ask it . In the instance of a poorly functioning starter/motor . Which end of the cable would be expected to be hotter ? The power supply(battery) end or the motor end ? Would the opposite be true for a Poorly functioning battery vs a healthy motor ? Thanks
The starter side will be hotter, nonetheless, fuse the starter circuit at the battery, since it's the source of power.
On another topic, do you use isolated or grounded DC system for thrusters?
Hmmm, from my experience the thrusters are grounded. Anyone else???
@@PacificYachtSystems I mean grounding of the negative side of the battery, not the thruster itself. We have “E-11.5.2.7.2The negative terminal of the battery, and the negative side of the DC system, shall be connected to the engine negative terminal or its bus” but that kind of defeats the purpose of having separate battery bank for the thruster for shorter cable runs and lower voltage drop. Any thoughts on that?
What about using AGM batteries for thrusters to take advantage of their high amperage capability?
That's a good one, and AGM lead acid batteries also don't need to be maintained.
Lithium ion batteries have steady voltage through most of the discharge curve.
Thanks for the reminder, steady voltage under discharge is a major feature of Lithium.