Deep cycle flooded battery was really low on water

[FreddyTT]

Hi there,

My Trojan deep cycle battery that I bought at the beginning of the summer was a little over 16oz low on water over the 6 cells. I buy flooded batteries for my house battery because Im so hard on them. My stereo sucks a lot of juice, maybe as much or more than the alternator puts out on my old boat and I camp, so I run the stereo for hours while on the beach, or anchored. I am fully aware I am really hard on the house battery and dont expect a long battery life out of my house battery. I live in a condo, so Its not practical to increase the battery bank size because I use a small Honda generator to charge the batteries at storage during the season. Sometimes I pull the cranker and the house battery and bring them home too before a big trip.

My question is this...I had the deep cycle on the charger for 20 hours and it didnt charge. The starter battery did. I checked the water and it was really low on the deep cycle. I added water and threw the charger back on to see if it will take a charge. Do you think it will? I didn't think the battery would be so depleted of water after just 3 months, but I am learning I will have to check my house battery now every time I charge it to be sure it has water in it moving forward. Has anyone else had a flooded battery low on water, filled it up and it held a charge? Id like to get another summer out of it if I can LOL.

 

[Bondo]

Has anyone else had a flooded battery low on water, filled it up and it held a charge?

Ayuh,..... I have,.... Loss of water is usually from chargin' it with too much power,...

Lower the charge amps, 'n extend the charge time,....

 

[gm280]

Well Cell batteries (flooded battery) are obviously not sealed. So when you "cook" the water out by charging too high or long, you are doing it a great disservice. . There is really no telling if it will come back now. All you can do is try. Also when you do carry it around, make certain it does tip over at any time. The fact that it isn't sealed mean the acid will leak out as well. Remember battery maintenance is more then simple using and charging. JMHO

 

[hemi rt]

Try filling it and charging it for 24 hours on a very low charge. It may come back but you have shortened the life of the battery and have lost some of the reserve.

 

[bruceb58]

I suggest calling Trojan and get their recommendation.

If you aren't using a modern three stage charger, you should buy one.

 

[Scott Danforth]

vented batteries that get cooked from too high a charge rate rarely ever come back. many times there is internal damage as the lead has warped or melted somewhere in a cell.

I agree with Bondo and Bruce. drop your charging current and extend your charging times.

Most likely the issue is comming from using the boat's alternator to charge the battery. your on the water, listening to your stereo until the battery is completely dead, then you fire up the motor..... at that point the alternator sees an extremely low battery voltage and gives it all its got which is way more than the battery can handle as a charge rate

if you upgraged to a higher output alternator, you just fried the battery that much faster because you did not install battery maintenance equipment (multi stage charger with active battery maintenance)

if you had the correct charger, the house batteries get charged by the charger at a controlled rate for the battery type your using (make sure you set it correctly).

going forward, get a second battery for your house bank, get a proper charger that controls the charge rate

consider yourself lucky, many times the battery bursts into flames as they boil off the electrolyte from being overcharged