Blog - Charging With a Three Battery System

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Charging With a Three Battery System Feb 10, 2017

How to properly use your three battery system.

Author : Jon Bennett Team NOCO Leader

Today’s blog post is about using a NOCO GEN On-Board Charger to maintain a three battery system. When using the multiple banks of the NOCO GEN Series you can monitor a vehicle's battery system’s activity, and provide safe, fast, and efficient charging of Wet, Gel, AGM, and Maintenance Free batteries. Continuing reading for our guide on how to properly use a three battery system for your boat, RV, or generator.

Why Use A Three Battery System?

Shown here is a typical three battery system. You can see that the first bank of the NOCO GEN connects to two 6V deep-cycle batteries hooked up in series. The 12-volt battery is charged through its own bank. A great example to explain the use of this scenario would be on a watercraft. The 12-volt battery is used to start the boat’s engine, and power its accessories such as lights and radar.

Connecting The 6-Volt Deep-Cycle Batteries

Connect the NOCO GEN negative lead to the negative terminal of battery 1. Connect the GEN positive lead to the positive terminal of battery 2. This 6V + 6V series connection will produce 12-volts, but amp hours will remain the same. This system is most often used to power trolling motors.

Connecting the 12-Volt Starter Battery

Connecting the NOCO GEN’s negative lead to the negative terminal of the 12-volt battery, and the positive lead to the positive terminal. This is the starter battery system, and it used to power the vehicle's start-up and native accessories.

Two Separate 12-Volt Banks

By successfully hooking up the three batteries to the GEN charger, you have created a permanent charging solution for your vehicle or generator’s batteries. As the GEN charges each bank separately, it is important to note that each system will produce only 12-volts.

We hope this blog entry helps educate you on properly charging multiple battery systems with the NOCO Gen series On-Board chargers. For individuals looking for more than two banks, NOCO offers a variety of GEN chargers for your needs. You can check out our full line of On-Board chargers here. If you are looking to learn more about wiring batteries and the difference between a series and parallel connection, check out our blog post on the topic here.