The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

The Correct Shore Power Charger Profile To Use For Lead-Acid Batteries

As I have written before, (needs updating) most shore power chargers are far less smart than they claim to be.

The problem is that unless chargers are connected to and compatible with monitoring systems like Victron Cerbo with Distributed Voltage and Current Control (DVCC) enabled, or Victron BMV with VE Smart Networking, they have no way to know when a lead-acid (or lithium) battery is fully charged, which requires measuring the charge current into the battery, exclusive of loads, (amps not volts), using a shunt1.

To get around this most shore power charger default programs tend to drop out of acceptance (typically 14.4 volts2) way before a lead-acid battery is properly charged and that can lead to sulphating and reduced life.

So what’s the answer? Well that depends on how we use our boat and the charger, but here are a couple of examples:


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