ANNUAL battery thread

[tonyiiiafl]

I have a Pronautique smart charger. First thing I got rid of was the Charles charger. I use Trojan for the house and have used interstate (genuine) for start and genset. After thinking last night I will replace all. I so wanted to go with AGM but cannot justify the cost. Flooded have been good and it gets me down there checking connections every month as well as water.

[Phrancus]

Two years ago I dropped in every battery that I had left from my car adventures. Meaning lead-acid and even replaced the house batteries for maintenance-free (meaning closed/sealed) 12V batteries. Sold the boat.

In the next I will not do so. Not just because I haven't done that much with cars that supplied left over batteries but because I want to move to a set-up where the engines do their things separate from the house. The house depletes till empty, the starters remain untouched. And for the house I will move to new abbreviations (lifepo or what was it) that allow complete depletion.

Not that they are worry free: the lead-acids were a risk when depleting 50% and the new are a worry when (over) charging. Nevertheless, they pack a lot more power for the same volume (not yet for the same buck)

Should I have a bunch of lead-acids around or a great deal on them, go for it and postpone the jump to the next generation. With the right care you can do whatever you want to do anyway. The rest is just to keep our minds busy.

[Midnightsun]

The house depletes till empty, the starters remain untouched. And for the house I will move to new abbreviations (lifepo or what was it) that allow complete depletion.

Yep, agree 100%. You should not even be able to combine start and house IMHO, only time they should see each other is while charging through an isolator/combiner or some other means of interconnecting a charging source otherwise the start bank should be considered sacred/Do NOT touch. This is exactly how I am set up right now and swear by this.

[tomschauer]

Over the years I have bought the cheapest and most expensive batteries (no Lithium). It seems they all last 5 years, and between 5 and 6 years there is a "self destruct" mechanism inside the battery that ends the life of the battery.
Years ago, i used to pull them from the boat and trickle them every month, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the life.
Last year I bought a new flooded, and a new glass matt both dual purpose 1000 cca, both duracell at the same time. One was about $200 the other was about $350. The AGM has a three year full replacement warranty.
I will bet they both die at the same time!

[Hoplite808]

If you are hauling out for the winter why not remove the batteries and take them home to stay in a warm garage on a maintainer? The extreme cold exposure definitely isn't good for them. Might help extend the life. If its up on the hard the batteries aren't needed to keep the bilge pumps.

[tonyiiiafl]

I have a thought on pulling batteries. I leave in to see what happens over the winter. They usually go in at 100%. Past years they came out of winter in the 90% range. This is first year this low. I guess I would rather have them go bad over the winter to give me the indication of needing replacement rather than after a great few days away on a get away that I am in the bilge coiling a rope around the flywheel to pull start those 454’s.

[Midnightsun]

Common lead acid battery lifespan is more affected by heat during normal summer use than winter storage as can be seen here. In other words, someone in Florida will not get as many years of reliable service out of a battery in comparison to someone in the northern states or Canada. https://support.rollsbattery.com/en/sup ... 20improved.

On the contrary, batteries stored fully charged with ground wire disconnected in very cold conditions tend to self discharge at a much lower rate compared to room temps or higher. Removing and keeping them on maintenance charge is better although I do not believe you would gain much at all in terms of overall longevity. It is common practice to leave batteries on board in areas where one winterizes a boat and there are really no known ill affects by doing so as long as they are stored full and disconnected to avoid any vampire drain that may exist.

[Midnightsun]

Source of the post I have a thought on pulling batteries. I leave in to see what happens over the winter. They usually go in at 100%. Past years they came out of winter in the 90% range. This is first year this low. I guess I would rather have them go bad over the winter to give me the indication of needing replacement rather than after a great few days away on a get away that I am in the bilge coiling a rope around the flywheel to pull start those 454’s.

I agree with you 100%. Battery was simply failing due to time, conditions and usage causing the high discharge rate over winter.

[Viper]

I've been saying this for years; removing flooded batteries has been considered old school for many years now. Leaving them on board for the winter properly put to bed is key though. Taking them home can actually be worse, they discharge quicker in warmer temps, they tend to get overcharged, and they don't like being moved. Batteries naturally self discharge but it's at a very slow rate over the coarse of winter temps. If they're put away properly; fully charged, fluids topped up, cleaned, and disconnected, they will be fine come Spring launch. If they don't make it through the winter then they were either not put to bed properly or they had a problem to begin with and you don't want them heading into the new season anyway.

Removing batteries for the winter these days is like saying they should be placed on wood when on a concrete floor...again, old school and doesn't apply anymore, directly on the concrete is actually better because it tends to be cooler.

As a reminder for those of you that have smart chargers and flooded batteries, to help extend battery life, you should be utilizing the equalization mode. Smart charges are programmed to do this automatically once every 30 days or so but that's only if you're plugged in that long. Once you disconnect shore power, the clock starts over again. So usually the charger never goes into equalization mode which is a good tool in prolonging plate life. As such, you should initiate equalization manually. Just follow the cautions involved as you don't want to apply those voltages to some accessories that might be running at the time. This also emphasizes the need to make sure you shut battery power off to all accessories if you've been at your dock for a while and suspect the time is approaching when the charger will equalize automatically while you're away from the boat.

[bud37]

In my opinion you should always be there to monitor the equalization process ( fluid levels, ventilation etc ) if this is something needed.

To add, one thing missed when talking about batteries self discharging is to keep the top of the batteries clean and dry. Sometime put a dvm from the pos to points on the top of a dirty case, quite surprising.really helps.....