should i leave my battery in the boat, or bring it into the heat?

[bowman316]

I have 2 batteries is my sailboat. which is in dry dock. I live in MD, where it gets down in the 10's at night. and i was wondering if the low temps would hurt the batterys. should i put the batterys in my basement, or just keep them in the boat? they will be protected form the elements. just not the cold.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: should i leave my battery in the boat, or bring it into the heat?

Low temps will not hurt your battery. You should however keep them charged while in storage. Leaving a battery in storage without a trickle charge is a sure fire way to reduce it's life expectancy.

If you can't keep a trickle charger on the battery then you should fuly charge the battery once per month. All this is probably easier to do if the batteries are in your garage so that is one reason to remove them.

 

[Boatist]

Re: should i leave my battery in the boat, or bring it into the heat?

I also agree the cold will not hurt them as long as they are charged.
Your car battery does ok right.
I would never use a trickle charger.
Most trickle charger have no voltage regulation an will over charge a battery.
Now if he means Float charger, Battery maintainer, 3 Stage charger, Smart charger or Automatic charger then I agree.

All lead acid batteries self discharge even with no load on them.
The warmer the weather the faster they discharge so in summer they need charged about 1 time per month.
In cold weather battery discharge much slower so charging every other month is fine.
If battery has something that drains battery even when everything is off then it will still need charged to maintain a full charge.

One other thing to think about is if the boat is in the water then it should have a battery to pump out rain water or any water leaking in.