Carver Owners Forum

The old gal goes into the water Tuesday.

I am switching over to all AGM batteries. I just do not want to keep checking battery water. I have a 4D AGM odyssey for starting, 2 Interstate AGM 6V GC batteries (in series) for house, and a group 24 Odyssey battery for Genset (Kohler with Honda 2-cylinder engine).

To make this work so all batteries are not jammed in there together, I need to move the Gen Set battery. I was thinking of moving it to either under the dinette set where the water heater and forward A/C is. Should I be concerned of fumes building here for a battery explosion?

Or to the forward bilge (in the galley) of my 390CPMY. Yes, I would run new heavier cables to the Gen Set to offset the distance. Only other thing I thought of was putting the 4D under the aft bed with the A/C and that in my opinion is NOT a good idea as to get it would be hard in a situation, and too much "out of site/Out of mind."

Thanks as always!

tonyiiiafl wrote:Source of the post Should I be concerned of fumes building here for a battery explosion?

Yes, the off gas is a real concern to be considered.Ventilation to outside would be optimum.

Make sure your current battery charging system for the AGM's is compatible with charging and maintaining that battery type properly not just a catchall.

i have an agm profile i will use. what about in the fwd bilge or under dinette?

tonyiiiafl wrote:Source of the post i have an agm profile i will use. what about in the fwd bilge or under dinette?

Really doesn't matter where, good practice would be to ventilate that space remembering that battery off gas density is lighter than air so the fact it rises should be considered as to where to vent effectively.

I am sure many don't but that is on them and good you are aware of this.

I just wondering about your house bank. 2 6v in series isn't a lot of house bank. Of course you may not need it either,

There's hardware under the dinette and aft bed that is not ignition proof so unless the batteries are in sealed boxes and vented to a safe space, I would not put batteries in those locations.

The house bank of 220AH works. I usually stay in slips. However when I use a mooring, TV, water pump, fridge at night until 8 AM batteries will get to 72% charge. The solar brings them back to 95+% by 1 PM. if I had more room I would add 2 more . I do have the genset I run each afternoon for 30 minutes to have hot water, that runs the charger too!