Livewell switch question

[agelesssone]

OK, TK,

Got another ?? for you. I have a thirty six volt trolling motor, three batteries hooked up in series.

If I hook up a livewell timer switch to only one of these batteries, will I still only have 12 volts going to the switch/livewell pump motor. Could hooking one up like this burn out a pump or cause it to pump faster/harder?

I checked the voltage at the switch and it showed 12 volts but the pumps seemed to pump faster. Possible? No change?

Thanks in advance.

Merv
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[agelesssone]

OK, guess no one wanted to takle this question!

[tkwalker]

OK, TK,

Got another ?? for you. I have a thirty six volt trolling motor, three batteries hooked up in series.

If I hook up a livewell timer switch to only one of these batteries, will I still only have 12 volts going to the switch/livewell pump motor. Could hooking one up like this burn out a pump or cause it to pump faster/harder?

I checked the voltage at the switch and it showed 12 volts but the pumps seemed to pump faster. Possible? No change?

Thanks in advance.

Merv

Merv, sorry on the delay, I've been out of town ... You are correct tapping one battery will only give you a 12 VDC potential. Also correct, batteries in series like a flashlight adds the voltage ... Batteries in Parallel keeps the same voltage but triples it's Amperage capabilites (more staying power ) ... You could even add three more batteries in series and parallel them to your exsisting three batteries and have 36 volts with the tripple amperage ..

But your question is answered ... It is like taking a variable resistor and tapping of the amount of voltage drop from a 36 VDC source. Always when hooking any series or parallel configuration up All batteries should be of the same age and identical Volt/Amp . Your output is only as good as the weakest battery after they average. So never mix batteries for optimum performance.

Now with that said ... When your livewell timer kicks in the battery that is under load it will bring all three down some minute amount so the 36 VDC to you trolling mtr. will be reduced by the same amount when the livewell is running ... But you should not notice it that much unless you are running the mtr wide open or at the end of the day when the batteries start to get weak ... Hope this helps .... <'TK>< :)
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[jad2t]

When you checked for voltage and read 12 VDC at the switch, where was your ground reference? I'm wondering if you used ground reference at the battery used for your switch but you may actually have grounded the pump after the second or third battery in series. This would cause you to have 24 or 36 VDC going to the pump but yet you will read 12 VDC on your meter.