Marine Battery Switches

Marine Battery Switches How-Tos

Blue Sea Systems Tech Tip: Battery Switches Explained

Blue Sea Systems Tech Tip: Dual Circuit Plus Explained

Here you can learn how charge coordination works with our Tech Tip's thorough explanation.

The Dual Circuit Plus system is best known for its ability to prolong the life of the battery and prevent it from dying. It is useful in the following scenarios:

• Reducing the time that is ordinarily required to check the battery.
• Using unpredictable, vulnerable electronics.
• When it can be paired up with an Automatic Charging Relay (ACR)

This switch is designed to supply extra power to devices that are hooked up to certain battery banks. Separating the energy of the designated electronic and the engine bank helps to preserve the battery's power and prevents the most sensitive electronics from being damaged by voltage spikes while it is starting up. Together with an Automatic Charging Relay (ACR), the two charges combine and flows to the alternator. This combination creates a battery charge that is twice as effective and helps the battery live at least three times as long. Here are some things to consider when pairing the Dual Circuit Plus system with the ACR:

• You will need to turn the switch into the On position when you are operating it with the power on.
• If you do not use any power and are storing your application, keep the switch on the Off position.
• When you are jump-starting the application, be sure to turn the switch to the designated half point. Once the engine has been running for a minute, switch it to the On position.

We do recommend advising with a mechanic or a technician before switching to this method.

Blue Sea Systems Battery Switch (Video)

Learn how to add an additional battery to your boat via a Blue Sea's Battery switch. Presented by Blue Sea.

Video Transcript

Hi! Chuck Hawley with Blue Sea Systems.

You know one of the main tenants of marine safety is it you have to be able to start you engine so you can both charge your batteries and see if you can get home.

One of the things that conspire to make this difficult is if you only have a single battery. The second is if you want a boat that has two batteries but a conventional one to both battery switches.

Now one of the challenges is that a lot of people will leave it on the both position and then run both their batteries down so they don't have a backup battery.

Well Blue Sea Systems has come up with a great solution to this problem and it consists of two quality components. The first is the dual circuit plus battery switch. Now this looks like a conventional battery switch but it's got a difference.

Now the back side, instead of having the normal three terminals that almost every other battery switches in the industry has, it has four terminals. One that goes to the engine battery, and to the engine, one that goes to the house battery and to the house loads.

By turning the switch on, you connect the house loads to the house battery and the engine to the engine battery and the two circuits are completely isolated. Now, that's great when you're trying to keep your starting battery from being discharged. But if the engine's on how are you going to charge that house battery that's isolated from it?

Well that's where the Blue Sea systems automatic charge really comes from. This compact package is a voltage controlled relay which means that as the voltage rises, the relay closes and it combines both battery banks together. As the voltage drops down when your engine's off it isolates both battery banks and you simply run a cable from this terminal to your house battery, this terminal to your engine battery and then a small ground cable. It does all the rest. And it keeps you from having to be involved in the electrical system by switching batteries on and off.

Now, if you're on the first case we only have single battery, this is the ideal way to intelligently add a second battery to your system. Buy a battery box and a battery and some cables and these two items and you'll have a bullet proof electrical system.

These items are packaged together in two different ways - one is in the original Add-A-Battery and this is for boats that have alternators up to 120 amperes or for smaller boats that have smaller alternators or mini Add-A-Battery. Both of these are attractably packaged and available to you from Blue Sea Systems.