: Looking for help buying the right on board charger....will trade small children ;D. Please don't be annoyed, but I can't reply or send any messages until I have a "post." So here it is!!

#3 batteries on board.

I saw several on Ebay, but really don't know what I am looking at. Really for recreational use, 1 or 2 times a week type of thing. I would like one that "trickles" or provides for the longest battery life. Have 2 Exide GEL batteries if that makes a difference.

Well my goodness!! All I wanted to do was buy one for my wonderful husband for FAther's day.....If it's this much trouble maybe I should post will trade husband and Bass boat for a few good striper for my grill and a jet ski for me!

ANywho....any info or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Should I maybe buy two different chargers?

How many batteries do you have on your boat?

ProMariner or the XPS BPS chargers work just fine.  They are easy to install and the ProMariner (they also design the BPS chargers) have an excellent warrenty.

Yes, having two gels makes a hellava difference.

What ever you get, make sure it's programmable to gel batteries. Not just any charger will work on them, they have a totally different voltage map then other batteries and a standard charger will damage them. You might want to make sure it can be reversed programmed so if you ever get rid of the gels and go another type you don't have to replace charger again.

Another problem you're probably going to run into, most chargers like for batteries to be all of the same type, ie gels, AGM's, flooded cellls etc. If you're running gels for TM and flooded cell for cranking, you migh run into a problem their. You need to verify you can mix them up and still use the same charger.  If not, you will need a 2 bank for the gels and a single charger/maintainer for the cranking battery.