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stephenb avatar image
stephenb asked

Charging a Starter Battery With A Multiplus

We have a Victron Multiplus 12 800 35 in our campervan. We would like to use the trickle charging function to trickle charge our van's starter battery from the Multiplus (which in turn is connected to a 200ah Victron Lithium but the multiplus may also run off AC).


As I understand it, the trickle charge should be around 4amps and will only charge the starter battery when the inverter is 'on', which wont be all the time, just enough to top off the starter when we are stationary for a while. So is it okay to just run a 10mm2 (7.5m run) cable direct from this trickle port to the starter battery? Or is there anything special we need to do?

MultiPlus Quattro Inverter Charger
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stephenb avatar image stephenb commented ·

Does anyone have any input?

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2 Answers
ejrossouw avatar image
ejrossouw answered ·

Hi @Stephenb. I assume it is a multiplus compact which has the additional connection for e.g. a starter battery? The cable should be fine and in future you may find the victron software toolkit useful to calculate voltage drop and suitable cable sizes.

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jdubbayew avatar image
jdubbayew answered ·

I am wiring this feature on my multiplus 3k also.

Your starter battery and house battery will need to share a common ground.

This diagram shows a battery isolator. Unsure if this is necessary or not.

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/1.2KVA-12V-MultiPlus-230-Volt-system-example-with-Argo-Fet-and-MPPT.pdf

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Tony Correlli avatar image Tony Correlli commented ·
Hello, I am just now considering hooking up the trickle charge from my MultiPlus 3000 to the starter battery. In the drawing I notice the trickle charge wire after the battery shut off switch. So when boat is unattended and battery switch is off, it will not be charging ?? Thanks
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