Re: Anyone use any battery conditioning products?
Battery life is more how a battery was maintanied than brand or type.
First if it a flooded battery keep the battery water level at the proper height and only use distilled water.
Second all batteries self discharge.
They self discharge faster in hot weather so in summer must fully charge every month.
In cold weather every 2 months is good.
I always say most batteries dont die they are killed by onwers.
Example take the boat out Saturday for some fishing and a trip to the beach.
Use the trolling motor on your deep cycle and run it down 60 percent.
The starting battery runs the boat motor, blowers, lights, radio, GPS, Depth Finder and tilt and trim motors.
So you fish in the morning then stop at the beach for lunch and swimming and some tunes then take a 10 minute ride back to the launch and put it on the trailer.
When you get home your hot and tired so do not do anything to the batteries.
On Friday or a couple of week later you decide to go again so you charge the batteries the day before.
Leaving batteries discharged like this will shorten their life a lot.
When a battery is discharge the damage starts to happen and the longer it discharged the more damage is done.
A discharged battery will have a different chemical ballance than a fully charge battery.
I have always fully charged my batteries with a good automatic charger as soon as I get home. I have not had a battery that did not last at least 6 years and my deep cycle may be over 12 years old. I got it back when Price Club sold Delco deep cycle battery. This was long before they changed the name to Cosco.
Another thing is a starting battery should not be discharged more than 20 percent and a deep cycle should not be discharged more than 50 percent.
So in my opinion is the best way to make your batteries last a long time is to make them easy to fully charge and do it right after every trip.
On my boat I installed a pulg at the bow of the boat that I can hook a battery charger to. When I get home we back the boat into back yard and I go inside and bring out the charger and plug it in. We then unload the boat and clean the fish.
At this point we cover the boat and I check the charger to see if the batteries are fully charged. Most of the time mine are fully charged long before we get done with the other chores.
My boat batteries are charged by my I/O with a 65 amp alternator thru a battery isolator. I can also charge while going down the road from my trucks 100 amp alternator by pluging the boat into the trucks 8 guage 12 volt line to the trailer.
I Only do this when we bait fish till about midnight then make the short run back to the ramp for a 1 hour trip home.
There are some thing you can put in batteries but in my opinion all they really do is make money for the seller. You can empty out all the acid from the battery and refill with the new battery acid. While this works fine if you care for your batteries it should not be needed.
One other thing that I do is I dont charge the batteries when the batteries are very hot.
My boat sit out in the hot sun with a dark blue Sunbrella cover and reaches 140
degrees inside allmost every day in summer.
I do not charge batteries when over 80 degrees inside.
I believe the key is to get a good automatic or smart charger that will fully charge without over charging.
This could be a onboard charger, or a portable charger.
Make it very easy to hook up and charge so you do not have to uncover the boat
and clime inside and hook up batteries to the charger.
When it simple and easy or automatic you will charge more often and increase the life of your batteries.
