Did I fry these batteries? If so, what should I buy?

[svo4turbo]

Hello All-

I have 2 batteries that are linked together in my boat. One up front, and one in the back. Before an outing last year, I put a "Manual" charger on a 6 amp charge and intended to leave it on there for a couple hours. Well, I ended up falling asleep and left it all night! I woke up in the morning and went to check on this. The batteries were literally boiling and stuff was coming out the top. They still held a charge but never seemed to take as much as they did before. Then, I didn't remove them over the winter and just pulled the boat out of storage yesterday. Hit the tilt/trim button and nothing. Completely dead. Have these been abused to the point of no return? If so, what are recommendations for purchase and upkeep. I just bought this boat last year, and am new to boating. What other recommended annual maintenance should I do to a boat?

Thanks

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Did I fry these batteries? If so, what should I buy?

Buy a smart 3 stage charger and you can leave it plugged in 24 hours a day.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Did I fry these batteries? If so, what should I buy?

take them to the auto parts store. they will charge and load test for free. don't really understand why you have one in front, and one in back connected together. you need 2 of these, and disconnect the batteries for each other. you can leave them on 24/7 365. the battery is ready when you are.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42292

 

[svo4turbo]

Re: Did I fry these batteries? If so, what should I buy?

I should have been more specific. I have two trollers that are hooked together (one in front and one in rear), and then a separate starter battery. The boat has gauges for each of the two troller batteries to check their amperage, and there is a special plug that I put in the front of the boat, where I can hook one charger to charge both batteries at the same time.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Did I fry these batteries? If so, what should I buy?

cool stil have the load tested. an use the float chargers to extend their life, just disconnect one of the connecting cables when using float. the bigger charge is good to charge back to full charge before storing, should be charge when you come in from use. don't store a low battery. then use the floats to maintain the batteries.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Did I fry these batteries? If so, what should I buy?

I am going to assume that the charger that you hook up is the 6 amp one tht boiled your batteries right?

I would buy a 3 bank smart charger. Most of these chargers have non-common grounds so you can hook them to a set of batteries that are in series(24V set up) without having to disconnect them.