Dual Battery Switch

Dual Battery Switches for Boats

If your boat has just the one battery it can be a good idea to invest in a second. Having a spare gives you more flexibility, as well as a back-up option in case one fails or you accidentally drain it. Cars and other motor vehicles might be fine with just their one battery, but when a car runs out of juice you might just need a tow. When you’re out on the water without boat navigation lights, things can get outright dangerous depending on where you are and what the weather is like. And of course, having a second battery just straight up gives you more battery capacity. With a dual battery switch you can select one battery, the other, both or neither. It’s an essential part of taking advantage of a two-battery set-up.

Boats need electrics for a lot of the same things that other vehicles do: lighting, starting the engine, and powering anything else integrated into the boat itself. For that reason it’s often a good idea to have navigation and radio equipment with its own, rechargeable battery. Of course, making several different electrics run off one (or two) batteries requires some additional set-up to make everything work. You’ll need all sorts of electrical and lighting equipment for boats to go along with the dual battery switch. Besides selecting the battery, you’ll probably also want to be able to control output to specific sub-systems. With electrical marine toggle switches you can turn on and off power to specific parts of your boat and often they’ll come with multiple labels so you can decide what each switch should do.

When selecting a dual battery switch, the first and most important thing to look for is that it’s actually a dual battery switch and not just an on/off switch. You’ll also need to make sure that the switch can handle the amperage required for the boat’s start-up sequence and when you’re installing the batteries you’ll need to make sure there’s not too much voltage drop to any part of the boat.