charging deep cycle battery

[cwilt]

can anybody tell me if its better to charge a deep cycle (used only for trolling motor)using a trickle charge or a high amp charge?

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

A modern smart charger is best, something that does'nt boil the living daylights out of a battery but still gives it that initial high dose of juice. Trickle chargers are useless IMO.<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Boatist]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

I would not use less than a 10 amp charger. Any charger you use should be a good automatic or a smart charger. With a group 27 battery if you fish most of the day go home and charge all night even with a 10 amp charger battery will not be fully charged by morning. If the charger put out 10 amps all the time then it would be recharged, but it will normaly charge at 10 amps only for a short time then start to taper down to 5 or 6 amps. My current personal charger is 35 amps and it will charge at about 20 for a short time then start to drop down. It will fully charge over night and be shut down to a maintainer voltage by morning. Still most of the time I use one of my old 10 amps automatics because I do not have a trolling motor so rarely discharge either of my batteries very far.<br />Do not use a trickel charger to recharge a trolling motor battery. When batteries are discharged it does damage to the battery and the longer it is discharged the more damage is done. Also a trickle charger most of the time does not have any battery regulation so if left on it will over charge. <br />Some modern low amp charger call a battery maintainer are fine to leave on for a long time as they will shutdown and not over charge the batery. Still they take way too long to charge the battery.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

For flooded cell batteries, about 20% of the battery bank’s amp/hr rating is a good place to be with your charger. See Boatist’s comments on wimpy chargers. Ditto Aldo’s thoughts on trickle chargers and smart chargers.

 

[cwilt]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

thanks<br /><br />i've been charging the bat with a 2 amp charger for a couple of years now. it does'nt have the punch it used to, even after charging overnight and then some.<br />the bat is probably ruined by now. my brother let me borrow his charger a couple of weeks ago and it was one of those automatic smart chargers but i only charged the bat for 6 hours. it wasn't any better. with the right charger are those "optima" batteries any better....i've been looking for a reason to buy one<br /> thanks for the help!!!!

 

[Boatist]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

Optima batteries. I have not herd anyone who has used them that came back and said they were good. Most if not all have said buy something elese.<br /><br />I have a group 24 starting battery and a Group 27 deep cycle on my boat since 1980 and I have not had any battery that did not last at least 6 years.<br />I do not deep discharge my batteries. Also I have rigged my boat with a plug up front and can charge from my truck going down the road or with my home charger. My normal operation is both batteries are charged thru a battery isolator from 45 amp engine alternator, so bulk charging is normaly done on the water headed back to the dock. Still when night fishing or retriving after dark or even in the day time lots of gear is left on until we get up to a tie down area. When I get home I get the battery charger and hook it up to the front power plug where it charges both batteries thru a battery isolator. Then we unload the boat, clean the fish and put the cover on. By this time the automatic battery charger has completed the battery charge and tapered down to zero. If I had a trolling motor then it would likely take longer.<br /><br />The main thing is when it so easy to hook up the charger I do it often summer and winter, and charge at least one time a month year round.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

Ditto Boatist’s comments. Lots of stuff out there is better (and less expensive) than either an Optima or Orbital battery. Both are spiral wound designs. In the grand scheme of batteries, the spiral wound critters come off more as a gimmick. They are particular about their charging voltages, too.

 

[cwilt]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

boatist,<br /><br />sory it took so long to get back <br />define a group battery. i only define batteries<br />as (regular or starting) or deep cycle. i never heard them clasifyied by group??? also i have thought about using the auto's chargeing system to charge the boats batteries, what size wire do you run? 10 guage should be sufficent, have lots around the home<br /><br /><br />chris

 

[Boatist]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

Group is really the size of the battery. Today there are hundreds of sizes. I refered to a Group 24 (74) this is a size that most cars with V8 engines used for starting. 74 is the same size battery with side post. Group 27 is about half bigger and a good size for deep cycles trolling batteries. Group 31 is bigger still. Anyway it is just the size. Group 24 and 27 probably the most common. If you went to K-mart or Wallmart and found battery boxes the 24 would fit the smaller box and the 27 would fit the bigger box.<br /><br /> http://www.westmarine.com/ecatalog/index2.html

 

[Iceking]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

Can a 24v battery set-up in series be charged with one charger? I have a Vector Smart Charger and was wondering if I were to hook up the + chargerclip to one positive post on one battery and the - clip to the negative on the second battery with a jumper between the other positive/negative posts, will the charger charge both without damage?

 

[Boatist]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

IceKing<br />No you can not charge two 12 volt batteries connected in series witha 12 volt charger.<br />Think about it the two batteries put out 24 volts and the charger put out about 14 volts. That would discharge the batteries down to 7 volts if the charger did not have output diodes.<br /><br />You can charge each battery seperate by attaching to each battery battery posts of one battery. Then move it to the other battery.<br /><br />You can also buy 24 volt chargers that can charge both batteries at same time. Also some on board two bank chargers charger that can charge both at one time.

 

[SliderM72]

Re: charging deep cycle battery

I recently installed a ProMariner onboard charger that is connected to my starting and deep cycle battery. The great thing is after a day of fishing all I have to do is plug it in and I'm done. I've been very happy with it, cost about $100 at Boaters World.<br />My dad swears by Trojan Marine batteries... I'm planning on buying 2 myself soon. Good luck