Circuit breaker for charger to battery

[KevK]

I'm putting in a marine style circuit breaker between the charger and the battery. The breaker has two terminals one of which is labelled battery. I am putting it on the positive lead. Here is my question:

Should the terminal labelled 'BATT" still be oriented towards the battery or should it be connected to the charger?

Actually when I mean 'charger' I have a buss bar that combines a 120v to 12v charger and a MPPT solar charger.

Thanks.

[Ballistic]

Originally Posted by KevK

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Should the terminal labelled 'BATT" still be oriented towards the battery or should it be connected to the charger?

snip...
Thanks.

You lost me here...'oriented vs connected', not sure what you're asking.

It should be labeled to whichever circuit it is "making/breaking". If it makes/breaks the circuit for the battery, then label it accordingly. Same thing goes for the charger and solar.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Ballistic

You lost me here...'oriented vs connected', not sure what you're asking.

It should be labeled to whichever circuit it is "making/breaking". If it makes/breaks the circuit for the battery, then label it accordingly. Same thing goes for the charger and solar.

I mean should the BATT terminal on the circuit breaker be connected to the charger in this case?

I can see arguments for connecting the BATT terminal to the charger and can also see an argument for keeping it connected to the battery.

BATT terminal connected to the battery in the case where the only items in that circuit are chargers: It isn’t likely that the chargers will overpower the circuit if the circuit is shorted. However the battery can supply more current than allowed if the circuit is shorted.

BATT terminal connected to the charger: The current in this circuit is driven by the charger and the breaker may only be capable of tripping for current in that direction.

[TitanMike]

It really won't matter. The circuit breaker does just that, breaks the circuit when too much current flows and it doesn't matter which direction the current flows.

The label is probably there so in a boat you can tell which side is "hot" even when the breaker is tripped (over-current or on purpose when used as a switch) but when used with a converter, either side can be hot after tripped.

Most common marine type circuit breakers have no labels on the posts although "Battery Switches" do and the battery is connected to the one most commonly labeled "Common".

[KevK]

Thanks. That was my concern that there was something about DC breakers that made them “one way”. The 120ac to dc charger and the solar charger have fuses so this is really redundant and is essentially a disconnect switch. I have it mounted before the main cutoff switch so I can trickle charge while the rest of the rv is disconnected.