Some thing new this year

[MH Hawker]

In my years in the past to winterize the battery its been charge, look at the water levels and disconnect and leave in the boat and a full charge in the spring. I added a 15 watt solar panel and a regulator over the summer due to a lot of rain I wasn't able to use the boat much and it has a 4 amp charging system and no shore power and of course its slip kept. The panel worked fine it kept it topped up fine.

Now the question, should I just leave it on the solar panel and regulator or turn that off till the spring. Right now I am thinking on turning the solar panel off, I have it set up on a switch. That way I don't have to worrie over water levels.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Some thing new this year

I would go with an electrical battery maintainer that turns on and off automatically. They use the same electricity as a nightlight so they are cheap to use and turn off automatically.

That solar panel is probably great for when you are using the boat but unless it has the technology to turn off - I would disconnect it and go with a maintainer/charger.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Some thing new this year

It dose, that's part of what the regulator dose, when its fully charged it drops off till the battery drops below a set point. But while its just sitting here not a lot of point. The boat wont be here all that long may be 3 months. I keep it on a slip from March till November.

EDIT: I read a bit deeper about the Schumarker Ship n Shore charger that I bought around 4 years ago. It has a manual and automatic setting. On the automatic settings when it hits full charge it goes into a maintain mode. In the past that's how I have kept it. Hooked up and in the maintain mode.

I am thinking it should be good ether way.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Some thing new this year

If the panel and regulator float above 14 volts (Typical) it will boil off the water.
If the voltage is regulated at near 13.5 volts (Rare) you can leave it running for years without worrying about it drying out.

The smart maintainers charge it up to about 14.3 volts and then shuts down until the battery fades to near 13.2 volts. Then the cycle repeats. It typically produces 1 second of charging every 2 minutes.