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Upgraded sound system...do I need seperate battery?

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*KCCO*

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I purchased my first boat last year. When we were putting it away for the winter I had the sound system upgraded in it. I had a 10" subwoofer, 4 new 6" speakers, and a Rockford Fosgate M600-5 Marine 5 Channel Amplifier to power everything. I am wondering about the need to have a separate battery to power the sound system or if I should be alright with just the main battery? I have not even seen or heard everything installed yet, so I just want to be prepared for next year. I spend a lot of time at a sandbar enjoying the music, and want to make sure I am not setting myself up to be stranded out there. How quick will a battery typically drain, etc?

I appreciate any tips/advice from anyone more experienced with the issue. Thanks in advance!
 
I would recommend a second battery. You'd be surprised at how much power and for how long you draw when playing music at the sandbar. Also a starting battery doesn't hold a charge well when putting it under a constant power draw. Look for deep cycle or agm batteries for your new sound system.

For a couple hundred bucks, it's a worthwhile investment. Hope you enjoy the new tunes!
 
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A 2nd battery will be the smart move for sure. But you can also just get a booster pack as your just-in-case.
 
A second battery is great insurance against getting stuck out on the lake.

We have a tailgate bus, and it had two batteries as the starting battery (both wired in parallel).  I added a third battery (with a cheap manual switch) to run the stereo while tailgating.  We switch it in parallel with the other two batteries on the way to the game so it charges.  When we get to the tailgate, we open the switch to save the starting batteries and the sound system runs off just the third battery.  I can't remember how big the amp is in the head unit (it's just a typical car stereo) but we've run it VERY LOUD for hours (I'm talking 4 hours before the game and 2 hours after the game) with the base turned up running some big speakers and the battery has never run down to the point it shuts off.  And that's at near freezing temps (40 degrees).  Now, after that would it have enough power to start the bus???  I don't know...

But, I'm just saying the average sized car stereo, running as LOUD as it can, nearly full blast (without distortion that is) into two 12-inch band monitor speakers might be able to run for days on a car battery...

As far as the second battery in my boat goes, I use the latest failed battery from one of our cars.  It may not run a car starter at zero degrees (that's a lot of current at a very low temp), but it runs my boat stereo for hours at 90 degrees in the summer.

So, you may not have to even buy a battery, just use the next one you'd trade in.  Or buy a new one for your car and use the old car battery in your boat.  Again, it doesn't start the boat motor, it just runs the stereo at the beach.

I've had two "failed" batteries in my boat now (when ever one fails, I use that in my boat, and the old boat stereo gets traded in as the core exchange), and I've never run them down with the boat stereo since it's so much warmer on the boat.  I just have the stock stereo though.  No extra amps or subs.  And I don't run it really loud like we do on the bus.

Just some ideas for you to consider.

Definitely spend the extra money on an automatic charging relay (instead of a switch).  There are many other threads on this...
 
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*KCCO* said:
I purchased my first boat last year. When we were putting it away for the winter I had the sound system upgraded in it. I had a 10" subwoofer, 4 new 6" speakers, and a Rockford Fosgate M600-5 Marine 5 Channel Amplifier to power everything. I am wondering about the need to have a separate battery to power the sound system or if I should be alright with just the main battery? I have not even seen or heard everything installed yet, so I just want to be prepared for next year. I spend a lot of time at a sandbar enjoying the music, and want to make sure I am not setting myself up to be stranded out there. How quick will a battery typically drain, etc?

I appreciate any tips/advice from anyone more experienced with the issue. Thanks in advance!
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Give your service center a call. The cost from my dealer for the switch with the new deep cell battery blew me away in the good sense.

Was not worth my time for the price. I bumped the acc switch one night and came back to a low battery, so it paid for itself.

Tip- don't have switch set to all when on the sandbar.

Or as mentioned- a good jumper power pack for just in case days.
 
Highly recommend a second battery for the stereo and as kaydano said, instead of a switch, the automatic charging relay. To save costs, I also like the idea of using old batteries if you can get away with it but if there's a dead cell, the amp may shut down (hopefully it has low-voltage protection). If you can spare the cash for a new one, use a deep cycle battery for the stereo to prevent killing it (starting batteries don't like to be discharged that low).

On our last boat, we used two batteries dedicated just for the stereo, had ~1500 continuous watts of power through some darn efficient (at least for class A/B) Sony Mobile ES amps and could play it full blast for at least 6 hours or so (not exactly sure as I don't think we ever ran them dead). Looks like the Rockford M600-5 has a class D (digital, much more efficient) sub channel so you should easily be as efficient as our Sony amps were.

Going with a full class D amp on our new boat and hoping to go at least 4 hours or so on one isolated stereo battery but won't know till we get the new boat and get the amp and sub installed. Hope that helps give you an idea but there are several other members on here with systems already installed so I'm sure they can give you a better reference.
 
Thanks for all the great info! Seems that without question, I need to get another battery installed. Any thoughts on what is a typical or fair price that I should expect to pay for parts/installation with the automatic charging relay mentioned and a deep cycle battery?
 
You're welcome. Just some very rough, quick numbers:

Battery (standard deep cycle, nothing special) - $125 (although I'm preferential to Interstate batteries which cost a little more)

Yandina C100 battery combiner - $70 (do a search for this in this forum for more info or other similar alternatives)

Battery box - $15

Misc. cables, connectors, etc. - $40

Labor (2 hours?) - $150

So you're looking at roughly $400 or so, give or take?

*KCCO* said:
Thanks for all the great info! Seems that without question, I need to get another battery installed. Any thoughts on what is a typical or fair price that I should expect to pay for parts/installation with the automatic charging relay mentioned and a deep cycle battery?
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I'm obviously a big believer in the stand alone stereo battery/batteries! 
 
gnc1017 said:
You're welcome. Just some very rough, quick numbers:

Battery (standard deep cycle, nothing special) - $125 (although I'm preferential to Interstate batteries which cost a little more)

Yandina C100 battery combiner - $70 (do a search for this in this forum for more info or other similar alternatives)

Battery box - $15

Misc. cables, connectors, etc. - $40

Labor (2 hours?) - $150

So you're looking at roughly $400 or so, give or take?
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Excellent! Thanks for the great info! Can't wait until the thaw here in Michigan, and my first full summer on the lake!
 
I would differ in my recommendation of just any battery. 4-6 hours powering a class D 600 watt amp draws more power than you think. I'm also running a big system and have dedicated AGM batteries to power the sound system. At 2000+ watts, my old deep cycle batteries would die after about 4 hours of play time. Since the battery upgrade last year, I push my system hard for 6+ hours and still have juice to start my motor off battery 1 at the end of the day.
 
You're welcome KCCO! I assumed a middle-of-the-road setup as far as the battery goes but as kaydano and spinzone both indicated, there are other options out there too. It just comes down to how much you want to spend and how much 'play time' you want/need. Obviously, a used or lower-end non-deep cycle battery is going to be cheaper and you can spend more - even up to the AGM battery(s) like spinzone uses. Space permitting, put in the largest battery box you can. That way, it's just a matter of swapping out the battery later on and you hopefully won't be limited by battery size.

This is a pretty simple upgrade too but if you aren't comfortable with it, let it up to the professionals. An incorrect install or worse yet, shorting out a battery can cause serious damage or much worse.

Hope we're all back on the water real soon!
 
+1 on installing a larger battery box. Gives you flexibility on sizes.
 
By the way, I think the first holes I drilled in my boat were for the second battery box. Took me a while to pull the trigger as I recall...
 
kaydano said:
By the way, I think the first holes I drilled in my boat were for the second battery box. Took me a while to pull the trigger as I recall...
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My first hole i cut on the boat was a 10" one in the side of the lounger. Betcha it took me longer! haha To the battery issue, there are also different types of AGM batteries as well. Mine are TPPL (Thin Plate Pure Lead) biggest difference is how low you can drain them and still easily put a charge back to them. Some batteries if you drain too low, you may just pooch the battery. I believe some chargers MAY have a chance to bring the battery back to life with a special mode, but a lot don't. 
 
^ +1 what BC says. He's running one of (if not the biggest) system on this board. Other than his stereo brand preference, he's got an admirable setup.
 
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spinzone said:
^ +1 what BC says. He's running one of (if not the biggest) system on this board. Other than his stereo brand preference, he's got an admirable setup.
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 That was a cheap shot!! haha, I still love my Wet Sounds! Company took great care of me when I had questions and concerns. I don't know too many other Presidents of companies take time on a Sunday to email back some guy that they've never talked to or heard of who happened to email them! Then to follow up and give advice actually telling me NOT to buy all this stuff I had in my head because I could save a lot of money by just going with this other product from them. Now, as it turned out, I went with both! haha But to me that speaks volumes about a company. It shows they truly care about what it is they do. 
 
They are a great company and make a great product! I got to ride on a 10,000 watt ski boat with Wetsounds this past summer. The sound was amazing!

Ford vs. Chevy.
 
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