Battery Charging

[jimlsv]

I have 2006 Lsv.Boat has over 300 hours has been great. On turkey day we decided to go boarding,battery was stone dead.I think blower was left on.I could not jump start from my truck battery was so dead.The jump box we have was dead also.Put charger on boat fired up next day.Can i leave the charger hooked up to battery on trickle for extended period of time?Or should i just purchase new battery and be glad it lasted four plus years. We will still be using boat through the Florida winter.The boat sits in boat house out of elements. thanks Jim

[MLA]

Yes, I would replace it when you decide to go out next. Running a battery dead is tough on one, and even worse when the temps get low. Odds are, that battery will not recover.

[zabooda]

I put trickle chargers on all my batteries (boat, RV & motorcycle) over the winter and move the chager around from time-to-time. Four plus years on the boat battery is getting close to the life expectancy but put a good charge on it then go to a trickle charge and see how it goes. If it is marginal when you get out to the water, you may want to replace it. Everything uses batteries and tires and it doesn't matter how much they are used as much as how old are they.

[mmandley]

Little difference in Car battery and Boat battery.

First yes you should use a trickle charger on the battery in the off seasons. I have a nice digital computer chrager i use to keep all 3 of my boat batteries charged up. I can go in the garage at random and hear it starting and stopping to keep the batteries at 100%

As for Car batteries these are designed to stay fully charged and dont like being ran dead. 1 time completly dead can kill a car battery.

Marine batteries on the other had can deal with running low and being dead for a longer time then a standard car battery. This is one advantage to a marine battery. So just because you ran it completly dead doesnt mean its bad now. Recharge it, then take it to the local auto store and ask them to Load test the battery. They hook a small machine and load the battery as if you were starting the boat, it will quickly tell you if its damaged or good.

[MLA]

Actually, there is little difference between a typical car battery and a marine "Starting" battery. Electrically, they function very similar in regards to charging and flowing current, as well as their reaction to hard/deep discharges.

The biggest difference is between a starting and deep-cycle. Starting batteries have more plates and they are thinner for more surface area. This helps then flow high current fast as well as recharge faster. Deep-cycles have less plates, and they are thicker.

Since the OP was talking about not being able to start the boat, I assumed he/she has a marine starting battery installed for this task. Forgive me if this incorrect. If there is a marine deep-cycle being used for the primary starting battery, I would recommend going with a purpose-built marine starting battery for the starting of the engine and general electrical loads, and then an isolated marine deep-cycle for higher, continuous loads such as a stereo.

A starting battery in general, is designed to for fast heavy loads such as starting and engine, then, it likes to be replenished. A marine deep-cycle is designed for continuous loads, and will withstand multiple discharge/recharge cycles. But, leaving something on for a week or so and running any battery down to near zero volts it rough on even the best of batteries. Keep in mind that with a typical 12V battery, 12 volts is considered discharged, and pulling down below 10.5-10.0 volts is not what they are designed to do.

So, bringing a starting battery back up from zero volts, especially when there was a chance for it to freeze (lower the voltage and lower the temps, the more permanent damage is down), is a long shot. I would hate for someone to have it start fine at the dock, then not start later while out in the middle of the lake.