2013 230 Battery Replacement

[dhanni848]

Time to replace the batteries on my 13 230. The question I have is does someone know which battery is the "starter" and which is the "house"? Mine has the same battery on both sides. It has the factory battery switch with choices of 1, 2, or 1/2. There is a battery on port and one on starboard. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[bturner]

I don't know your boat so someone will likely will come along with better information but this would be my thought.

If you have a 1, 2, 1/2 switch your set up probably isn't separated. To check, pull the negative off battery one, switch the battery selector switch to 2 and try the start the boat. If it starts test the electrical. The low hanging fruit here would be the stereo as this is logically the system you want to isolate from the starting battery. Does it all work? If the stereo and other systems still work everything is connected to 2.

Next pull the ground off battery 2 and this time have the selector switch on 1. My guess is that everything is going to work which would mean that although you have a dual battery setup, the starting and house circuits are not isolated.

This is not that uncommon and makes wiring the boat for the manufacture easy. If the goal was to buy a starting and deep cycle batteries for specific use, you're probably better off getting quality dual purpose batteries unless you have a crazy stereo system or are running something like trolling motors all day.

As to what batteries to buy, well let the holy wars begin on a topic that is covered it great detail with true believers on both sides of the topic. You can find tons of threads buy doing a search on this site as well as the inter web.....

[dhanni848]

I don't know your boat so someone will likely will come along with better information but this would be my thought.

If you have a 1, 2, 1/2 switch your set up probably isn't separated. To check, pull the negative off battery one, switch the battery selector switch to 2 and try the start the boat. If it starts test the electrical. The low hanging fruit here would be the stereo as this is logically the system you want to isolate from the starting battery. Does it all work? If the stereo and other systems still work everything is connected to 2.

Next pull the ground off battery 2 and this time have the selector switch on 1. My guess is that everything is going to work which would mean that although you have a dual battery setup, the starting and house circuits are not isolated.

This is not that uncommon and makes wiring the boat for the manufacture easy. If the goal was to buy a starting and deep cycle batteries for specific use, you're probably better off getting quality dual purpose batteries unless you have a crazy stereo system or are running something like trolling motors all day.

As to what batteries to buy, well let the holy wars begin on a topic that is covered it great detail with true believers on both sides of the topic. You can find tons of threads buy doing a search on this site as well as the inter web.....

Makes sense and will give all that a go. Definitely NOT getting into a what battery war! No crazy stereo here, just factory so will probably just go the dual purpose route. Thank you!

[MN Ryan]

The scenario bturner described is how mine is setup and how I figured out which is 1 and which is 2. I labeled mine near the switch as port and starboard so when I forget, I don't have to redo the process.

[XBIGPUN66]

We upgraded to group 27 for more reserve time with stereo at the tie up

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[GMLIII]

dhanni848 Let's start the battery wars to create some excitement as we approach the Memorial Day weekend. I replaced my 2 batteries in my 2017 G-23 with 2 Optima Marine AGM batteries with 750 CCA size 24 M. I could not be happier. I have had no problems in the last 3 years of using them.

[Scooter G]

I'll give you a second 5 stars there GMLIII. Super spendy buggers, but you are never left worrying about your batteries.
You just have to keep them charged in the winter, they don't like 1/2 empty. I had one replaced after 2 seasons, had a elec. drain in the boat and spaced the charging etiquette. They replaced it under warranty at no cost.
Running 4 subs at 120 decibels half the day chillin' in the bay, no worries.

[srock]

They are not designated house or starting unless you decide to do that. I run mine 1 on odd days and 2 on even days. If you replace them, you could run as a starting battery and the other as house deep cell, AGM or whatever.

I will give my 2 cents opinion on batteries as I always seem to be replacing a couple every year. I just run lead acid starting and deep cycle house as I have found no real advantage or extended life from expensive AGM's of which I have been through maybe 8 pairs. This comes from my experiences with a 36 Tiara with 2 starting and 2 house. Bass boat with starting and a 24v trolling motor, live wells... the list goes on. My Nautank 230, Malibu, 2001, Master crafts, Supremes....and other sold ski boats. Diesel trucks and tractors. LIPO's on dirt bikes. I am now running the least expensive and tossing them when dead.

[bturner]

This is the 9th season on my Blue Top. Took it out of my previous boat before selling it. The 2 that went with the boat were 10 seasons old. If you do AGM (or at least Blue Tops as that's the only ones I have experience with) you have to have the correct charger and you have to do the maintenance on them during the off season. I pull mine every winter and keep them in the basement. Charge them the first of every month using the Optima charger I bought for them 12 years ago.

If I had at a boat with the Perko 1, 2, 1/2 switch I would ditch it for a Blue Seas "Add - A - Battery" kit so I didn't have to muck around with switching to different batteries. I would personally consider this a must if going to AGM to keep them properly charged but here we go down the rabbit hole. I've probably installed 5 or 6 of these over the years. Never had a single issue or complaint on a one of them.

https://www.westmarine.com/blue-sea-...m-8646275.html

Boy have these gotten expensive.

[GMLIII]

I have a NOCO on board charger and keep these AGM batteries onconstant charge in the off season while in the boat . Zero issues

[dhanni848]

I have the onboard charger where the cooler goes and just plug a cord in, any experience with that and AGM? I had the blue tops in my 210 and never had issues from them, but $350ish a pop is tough to swallow! Spending a lot of time at the baseball field these days instead of the lake.

Not looking to change my switch as it is integrated in, and yes those have doubled in price now!

[SatherG230]

I realize this an old post, but someone may be searching for this info.
You can just add the Blue Seas ACR for about $100. https://a.co/d/7qx6KB6. Depending on the age of your switch, you may want to replace it, too, as the older ones have the tendency to come apart and no longer work when you need them. The older switches simply had screws holding the front to the back. Mine broke just beyond the tip of the screws. The newer switches snap together and are through-bolted so they should not come apart.