Battery maintanace

[scott lewis]

I run a 12 voly trolling motor (trojan battery)

Bought a ver y large capacity battery basically to insure full life on tournamant days

The question is how do I maintain it. I usually run it for 2-3 hours when fun/practice fishing.

should I Discharge it all the way then recharge it.

what is the best way to discharge??

I charge it after every use

I don't think this is good if the battery is not drained enough

Battery experts please help, I want to get maxinum life from this thing

scott

 

[Texas Transplant]

Wet cell batteries do not exhibit the same charge/discharge problems that nicad (cell phones and such) do. No, you do not have to fully discharge your trolling motor battery.



Tips



1) ONLY use distilled water in it. Check quarterly, more often if you have high usage and much charging.



2) Make sure the connections to the battery remain in good shape.



3) If you store your boat for the winter, remove/disconnect the batteries and store them in the garage in a fully charged condition. NOT DIRECTLY ON THE FLOOR. Put down a couple of 2 x 4's, and put them on them.



4) When you come home from a trip or tourney, charge them up soon afterward. Don't leave them in a 'discharged' or 'low' state for too long.



Tex

 

[Bruce Yeaton]

Pretty much what Tex said is right on.



Not too long ago I saw a show about batteries. The show was about charging batteries at a dock slip using the onboard chargers. Most are automatic and found tthat they do not charge the batteries to full capacity. What this person did was use a manual charger along with his onboard. Once a month he used the manual charger to "equalize" the cells to get the most out of his battery. After the auto charger kicked off he hooked up the manual charger and charged it even further. Unfortunately I don't remember for how long....

I don't recommend this unless you know what you're doing.

I am going to try it in a couple weeks, but will personally watch and listen to it... don't want to over charge.

 

[Bruce Yeaton]

Just found this. I'll research some more and try to find that show / article.



Battery Charging



Completely charging wet cell deep-cycle batteries requires the battery voltage to be raised beyond the gassing point. This is the voltage at which the battery begins to bubble and gas is given off. If charging stops short of this point, sulfate is left on the plates and deterioration of the battery begins. The gassing point varies with battery temperatures. At 77

 

[Bruce Yeaton]

Here is a link to a FAQ about Deep Cell batteries. Good info.



http://uuhome.de/william.darden/dcfaq6.htm



Another link from Interstae batteries




http://www.interstatebatteries.com/www_2001/content/faqs/tech_talk/maintenance/charging.htm

 

[TOMMY RICH]

True...if your using a standard charger I always charged it until the green light come on then switched to manual and let it charge for about an hour....seemed to really put that extra boost to em'. I use my on-board charger now then top it off with my manual...seems to work good.

TEE

 

[Michael Snow]

completely discharging a deep cycle battery shortens the life of it.

 

[James D.]

on the manual charging thing, i think i read an article and Larry Nixon (i think) hooks up the manual chargers for a time period to get the full charge from them. maybe some of the newer chargers will have a "gassin or sufation" phase to them in the future.



be careful about over charging also as i have overcharged a few batteries with an older manual charger and they did not perform well at all. might be a fine line between gassing them and cooking them. i always forgot to take the charger off and cooked em.



jd