Hello, I have installed a 12v/17a model of this mains charger on our sailboat. We have 2x group 27 FLA 80Ah batteries in parallel for the house bank, which lead me to selecting 17a for as close to 1C possible, but after the charger is working for one minute, the combine relay adds a group 24 FLA 65Ah battery, which is otherwise isolated for the engine starter.
I have the charger’s capacity setting presently at 160Ah for just the house bank, however, I’ve considered for the majority of its run time, it would be charging 225Ah across all 3 physical batteries.
My question is, would it be better to have the charger addressing the 2 house batteries at 65Ah over their capacity for that first minute until the combine relay closes, or leave it as set presently and have the overall capacity lower than actual for the duration of its run time? We’re never in a hurry to charge and my experience with batteries otherwise has always been ‘slower is better’, but I can’t find any in depth explanation of what this capacity setting actually facilitates.
Thanks in advance!
