Battery charging

[Bill Mahan]

I need some advice on the best kind of battery charger to buy for my situation. I have 2 12v Group 24 batteries that I take off my CD25 in the fall and that I want to store and charge either in my somewhat heated basement (preferable) or my unheated garage over the winter. They are flooded batteries, they range from 525-655 MCA; one is deep cycle, the other a combination deep cycle and starting. The batteries are pretty much fully charged when they come off the boat in the fall. I need a charger that will both bring them up from low charge (their situation now as they have been sitting all winter) to full charge and, in the future, to just maintain the batteries at proper charge all winter. Naturally I'm looking for that elusive combination of safety and simplicity. Thanks for any suggestions. Bill M.



mahan@midmaine.com

[Hanalei]

#1

[Hanalei]

#1

[Neil Gordon]

For what it's worth, the batteries on LIQUIDITY get no charge except from the alternator. They sit on a shelf in the garage most winters, although this year they stayed on the boat. They always end the season fully charged and start the next season with more than enough to crank the motor and get the alternator filling them back up. (I put the meter on them periodically though the winter... they don't lose much in storage.)


Regards, Neil
s/v LIQUIDITY, Boston
CD28 #167



neil@nrgordon.com

[wayne grenier]

I need some advice on the best kind of battery charger to buy for my situation. I have 2 12v Group 24 batteries that I take off my CD25 in the fall and that I want to store and charge either in my somewhat heated basement (preferable) or my unheated garage over the winter. They are flooded batteries, they range from 525-655 MCA; one is deep cycle, the other a combination deep cycle and starting. The batteries are pretty much fully charged when they come off the boat in the fall. I need a charger that will both bring them up from low charge (their situation now as they have been sitting all winter) to full charge and, in the future, to just maintain the batteries at proper charge all winter. Naturally I'm looking for that elusive combination of safety and simplicity. Thanks for any suggestions. Bill M.

I have been using a standard off the shelf sears 6/12 volt battery charger for years-get a good hydrometer I believe that's what its called-to measure the specific gravity in each cell-the first thing I learned about deep cycle batteries is once they are deeply discharged it takes a long time to bting them back up.I left one on overnight and the next morning the voltmeter barely moved-I was going to declare it dead but I figured what the heck-and left it for the rest of the day-and it started coming back up-very different from a car battery-which will allways come back overnight-also-a battery can read "good" via voltmeter and specific gravity and still be dead-a good way to tell the condition of your battery is to put a load on it-most service stations have this type of tester-if not-simply turn all you circuits on and see if your battery has enough juice to still crank the motor over-



grenier@localnet.com

[Bob Davee]

For what it is worth, flooded lead acid batteries do not like to be discharged. They will serve you longer and more efficiently if you keep them fully charged all the time. A small trickle charger (cheap) on the battery all winter is what they like best. A good charge before you put them away for the winter and a touch up charge every two months is the best. If you are very careful they will last a very long time and give excellent service. Leave them discharged for any long period of time and they will fail you when you least expect it. Oh yes, only add distilled water, and NEVER let the water level get down to the plates.
Bob Davee



RLCapeDory@aol.com

[Larry DeMers]

In your situation, bringing the banks home in the winter and storing them in the garage or basement, you need a trickle charger to keep the surface charge up while they are stowed. Then when they are taken to the boat, you need a method to return the capacity used, quickly and fully.
Deep discharge batteries need a multi-step recharge process to get the capacity back into them without losing electrolyte in the process, and it has to be done reasonably fast so that the boat can be used when desired.
The way I would recommend doing this is with a 3 stage charger made for this very job. West Marine has some smaller portable (to some extent) 3 stage chargers made by Charge Pro that are 3-Stage chargers, portable and priced in the $65 range. You could use this charger to maintian the "Float" level of your two batteries over the winter, then take the banks and charger out to the boat inthe spring, and continue using this charger to replenish the capacity used during the season.
Check it out at the URL below.

Cheers,

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
Lake Superior

I need some advice on the best kind of battery charger to buy for my situation. I have 2 12v Group 24 batteries that I take off my CD25 in the fall and that I want to store and charge either in my somewhat heated basement (preferable) or my unheated garage over the winter. They are flooded batteries, they range from 525-655 MCA; one is deep cycle, the other a combination deep cycle and starting. The batteries are pretty much fully charged when they come off the boat in the fall. I need a charger that will both bring them up from low charge (their situation now as they have been sitting all winter) to full charge and, in the future, to just maintain the batteries at proper charge all winter. Naturally I'm looking for that elusive combination of safety and simplicity. Thanks for any suggestions. Bill M.

demers@sgi.com