Battery Maintenance

[j&lgray]

Hey Tugnuts!

I experienced a reminder that is worthy of sharing on maintaining those batteries. Most of our boats have the flooded batteries, that is, they have distilled water under those caps. Well, just because the Excide Battery says that is maintenance free on the case, do not take that to the bank. Last summer, in preparation for out 90 day, 1,600 mile river trip in the Tennessee River Valley, I popped all those cell covers and discovered that you have to add water to those cells. Between the heat of the season and the battery charging process, water is evaporated out of those cells.

I also bought a $7 hydrometer from the auto parts store and checked each cell. I found a marginal cell on one of the house batteries. A cell that was about to fail and that would disable the entire battery. The local auto parts store sold Excide Batteries and gave me a credit on a new one.

Anyway, last weekend, my starting battery was quite weak. So weak, that it would not turn over the engine to start it. Using the battery combiner switch, we got the engine started and all was good. Back on the trailer, I found that both the engine battery and the thruster battery were low on water (been only 4 months since the last fill). So after putting a lot of water in those cells and giving the batteries a good charge, I took them out of the boat and had them tested at a battery shop. The good news: all is fine.

I have decided not to leave my battery charger on 24/7 when there is no draw on the batteries. Even though the smart charger has a maintenance setting that only trickle charges the batteries, I think that some over-charging is occurring and evaporating water out of the cells.

So, check those batteries. Get a funnel and a gallon of distilled water and keep the water above the lead plates. Get a hydrometer and periodically check each cell using the directions that come with the device. While you are at it, clean those terminal connections and if you find a black fuse holder, find out that that wire does and label it with a silver colored sharpie pen.

The Blue Sea volt meter will give you a snapshot on the health of those batteries: 13.4 volts is a fully charged battery; 12.2 volts is a battery that is about 50% discharged and 11 volts is roughly a completely discharged battery.

 

[henrym]

I too don't like leaving the batteries on constant charging, but I like having the batteries always fully charged. Solved the problem by utilizing a heavy duty outdoor covered timer that has a short pigtail male grounded plug that goes into a 110V outlet and then plugged the boats power into the timer. Set the timer for a once a day quick 30 minutes on then off . Make sure the battery charger breaker switch is on.
Lead sulfate is a soft material, which can is reconverted back into lead and sulfuric acid, provided the discharged battery is immediately connected to a battery charger. If a lead acid battery is not immediately recharged, the lead sulfate will begin to form hard crystals. After charging, lead sulfate (sulfation) still remains on the plates. This build-up will continue after each recharging cycle and gradually the battery will begin to loose capacity to store a full charge and eventually must be replaced. If a battery is given an Equalizing Charge once every 10 discharge cycles or at least once a month, Iead sulfate build up is reduced . An Equalizing Charge increases charging voltage to 14.4 volts or higher for a short period. This higher voltage causes gassing that equalizes (re-mixes) the electrolyte solution. Continuous charging at or above 14.4 volts causes excessive gassing and water loss.
Henry

 

[CaptMac]

I've spot checked my batteries - never needed water in over two years. I did replace the two house batteries a while back because I discharged them fully too many times and they wouldn't take much of a charge anymore. But I wasn't using the shore power recharger until recently. The solar panels seem to sit at a higher voltage, but I'm guessing the ProStar controller does a better job of preventing overcharge.
Since the panels are only connected to the House batteries, they were fully charged, but I did notice the engine and thruster batteries were down quite a bit (I haven't used Island Ranger very much these last couple of months). That's why I connected the shore power charger.

Thanks for the heads up - I'll check again.

Mac

 

[Stella Maris]

I would suggest that when it comes time, you replace your battery's with Gel Cell's. I got tired of topping off the battery's every month so I made the decision to switch them out. It cost $1,100 but was well worth it. No more being worry about the battery's running low on water. The charge holds well over the weekend when we are on the hook.

 

[henrym]

Three years ago my neighbor, at great expense, replaced his four large flooded lead acid batteries with gel cell batteries. Last week, after having the batteries tested, he had to replace them again because they would not crank his engines over. Needless to say, he went back to flooded lead acid batteries due to the high cost of gel cells.

 

[Stella Maris]

Three years on a set of battery's is actually pretty good. "Shelf Life" will also be dependent upon the temp and humidity within the area that you use your boat. Battery's do not last as long in extreme heat and cold. My car battery's in Vegas last an average of two to three years.

I also look at the inconvenience of having to be a contortionist to reach the two forward battery's.

The cost is considerably higher however the convenience is worth it.

 

[NewMoon]

Gel cells are great for deep cycle applications, IF you have a proper charging system. They must be charged at lower voltages than other types. They're not optimized for starting, but will work if they're big enough they have plenty of CCA's available.

AGM's, on the other hand, have charging requirements much closer to ordinary flooded batteries (although having a charging system optimized for them is better). Our AGM house bank (g31 Deka's) is eight years old now and still going strong. Our AGM starting bank (Optima) was just replaced with new Deka's after eight years. I also have 7 year old AGM's in my truck which sits outside in freezing weather all winter here in Utah. They're just starting to go a little slower starting the truck diesel when it's below 20 degrees or so in the morning.

 

[j&lgray]

At the Seattle Boat Show, I overhead an interesting conversation with the sales rep for Trojan Batteries who have quite a reputation in the marine community. He was talking of house batteries that are two 6-volt flooded batteries that are attached in series, that is, negative to positive and positive to negative, thus making a 12 volt battery. With their mid-range priced battery (about $140 each) you would get 240 amp hours. For the house batteries, is all about how many amp hours you have. The Exide Batteries put in by the factory have 105 hours each or 210 total. With the general rule of only using 50% of a deep cycle batteries life, we have about 105 amps to use between charging.

Now the Trojan sales rep was saying that their batteries will withstand 400 complete discharges before failing and with the deep cycle 6 volts, you can use more 50% of the battery capacity.

For us, you have to determine your needs before making decisions on the system. If you stay hooked to shore power, like to stay at marinas or run the charging system (engine or generator) frequently and only sometimes stay out overnight on anchor, the batteries we have from the factory are great-no change needed. We did this on our 90 day in-land river trip with no issues and we anchored half the time and would move a lot. But if you like to anchor out for days at a time without running a charging system, a better house battery system or a solar system would be necessary. A lot of batteries could be had for the price of the solar systems right now.

My cruising buddy in his 26 foot Rosborough only has outboards with limited charging systems and use an inverter to heat water (we got made!) and they are investing heavily in LED bulbs to reduce the amps used while bolstering their house battery capacity. A bulb to use in the anchor light costs $43!

 

[rt11002003]

I went through a period of battery problems during 2007 and 2008 on the Albin 27 we owned at that time. When we bought the boat it had flooded cell, no/low maintenance batteries. We kept the onboard battery charger running all the time via shore power because the boat was 175 miles from home.

My first problem came with the house batteries. They were flat. Attempted to charge them with my portable charger, but they wouldn't take and hold a charge. Had the yard look at them, they charged them and the charge lasted about a month. I started looking around and found the charging wire from the onboard charger wasn't hooked to the charging post. It was connected to a bolt on the charger. That explained that problem, I thought. I connected the wire to the correct charging post.

Then, I started having the same problem with the same bank. The yard rebuilt the battery charger. The problem continued. The yard kept trying to cure the problem. The charger finally boiled the batteries in that bank dry. So much for the yard taking care of my problem. I replaced the 20 year old charger with a new high tech charger which could handle flooded cell, AGM and gel cells. It had multiple charging stages, including float when fully charged. Installed new batteries. End of problems.

My new Ranger R-21 EC came with a similar high tech charger so I don't expect any problems even if I leave the charger running all the time.

My BMW R1100RT (motorcycle) has a gel cell. The battery was replaced last Spring, after 8 years on a high tech charger. The new battery has been on the charger for almost a year. My J80 had a gel cell and I kept it on a charger for a couple of years. I've had excellent experience with the new chargers including leaving them running for extended periods, even with flooded cell batteries. One needs to keep an eye on the flooded cell batteries even if they are advertised as no/low maintenance.

Gene

 

[henrym]

One of the easiest ways to check the condition of the individual cells in a flooded lead acid battery is with a battery hydrometer. My old fashioned glass float hydrometer broke, didn't want one of those cheap plastic jobs and was unable to find a replacement locally. CarParts.com has a glass float temperature compensated professional battery hydrometer for only $4.66. It was made in Taiwan but is of quality construction. The down side is it cost $8.99 to ship it but it is well worth the total cost of $13.65. My house batteries would indicate a low charge after about 5 days of sitting there. With the hydrometer, I was able to locate the battery with the compromised cell.
Henry

http://www.carparts.com/autoparts/Produ ... p?Ntt=4619