6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

I'm getting ready to go on a week long fishing trip at the end of the month. I bought a new Jetcraft this year and installed a ton of electronics but I figured I'd run the battery that the dealer installed into the ground before I upgraded. Well it didn't take long. 6 Months and 40 hours of boating and the "Maintenance Free" battery sulfated. This battery is completely sealed although i may cut the seal on it just to see how bad it really is. It was a group 24 750 CCA with a RCA of only 60 so I wasn't suprised when it failed while float charging this weekend. I keep my batteries on a float charger with the negative terminal disconnected whenever they're not in use.

I replaced it with two Optima blue tops. 1 Light gray (start/deep) and one dark gray (deep) and while I was at it I replaced both my truck batteries with Optima Yellow's. I'll to go down to West Marine today and get a Perko switch and isolator kit today and wire it in so I have a proper setup.

So my point is directed to the new boaters here, us old farts already know this. When you start adding on all those fishfinders, stereo, GPS, Charplotters, NMEA 2000 stuff, etc.. Don't expect that stock battery to hold up very long, in fact, anticipate an early death and be ready for it or upgrade and just use that old battery as one of your trade-in cores. The second point is about Maintenance Free batteries in boats. Sure you don't have to worry about spillage but if they're sealed like mine is/was then bringing it back from a sulfated state is next to impossible. With a normal battery you can usually shake them real good then add distilled water and charge them back up. They'll last a little while longer and sometimes get you through a vacation until you can replace it.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

Update - Just for fun, I removed the sight glass that shows green if it's charged from the battery. I topped it off with distilled water and then put it on my charger and ran it through the Equalizing process. The battery came up to 13.5 volts after about 6 hours and then the charger shut down and threw a F03 code (sulphated open cell). So yep, it's toast. I used a couple of other old deeps I had laying around for cores and kept this one just to see if it could be brought back to life. I'll be dropping it off at Interstates junik bin on the way to work this morning... All's well that ends well.

Just keep in mind, size does matter when you're buying batteries.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

I run grp 27 deep cells on a boat that has a lot more electronics on it than most. I use sealed deep cycle batteries (AC Delco and Interstate)and get 5-6 years out of them before I replace them. I run them with an ACR and do nothing special otherwise

You may find it interesting that both brands specifically state not to use a float charger on the battery.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

Good choice. I really like the Optima's and I'm running a D27M and a D31M now with the Blue Sea switch setup. My biggest drain is my Lowrance 4000 high sample rate GPS. As little as it is, it sucks power big time. The VHF is always on as well as the Lowrance HDS-8 with all the trimmings (sans radar). The motor at idle probably only puts out about 5 amps so unless I made a long run every couple of hours, that 24 was down well over 60% by the end of the day. The motor starts with just a touch of the key so I never noticed a slow cranking condition but it probably was.

Problems solved now, when I end the day I just kick the battery off and it's a done deal. I ran everything yesterday and checked it again this morning and it held at 13v but they're probably not fully topped off like they were when I started.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

sschefer said:

My biggest drain is my Lowrance 4000 high sample rate GPS. As little as it is, it sucks power big time.

Click to expand...

Not by any stretch of the imagination


Lowrance 4000 = 20 - 40mA.
8" HDS = 0.9a w/back light 0.4a w/o.
NMEA 2000 = 50 ma.
Radar = ~1A

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

There is no such thing as a maintenance free lead acid battery. They still have caps and are just lower maintenance batteries. If a starter type battery has been totally discharged even twice, it is doomed an early death. Discharging it to 60% is very bad for it as well. Even a deep disharge battery that gets discharged 60% every time is going to have a lower life. That is why I don't use starter type batteries on my boat. Deep discharge batteries have no problem starting my 7.4L engine.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

You obviously do not have one or you'd have mentioned the one thing different about it that doesn't happen with the rest of the items in your list. Now go back to lowrance, do a little more research and see if you can figure it out.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

I thought his specs were accurate. Which one did you disagree with?

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

Sschefer ..your comments on batteries are the biggest load of out of date rubbish and folk law I have seen in many a year ....top it up and shake it about !!! yes get all the sediment jambed into the plates yes great idea ....fill it up through the built in hydrometer hole !!! Total rubbish.
Most mainenence free can be opended up by prising the tops off under the label or drilling 6 holes in the top after you have read the mould marks . These batteries contain a fixed amount of electrolyte over the plates and when the eye shows clear or once out of warrantee topping them up with distilled water will give extra years.
Float charging OK but to what voltage ...brought up to 14.4v and then drops back to 13.8v is ok with a 3 stage charger but they will gas over 14.4v as no battery even jelly is sealed . If it was you would be talking hand granade ...

We must all watch that we dont spread old wifes tales and techno crap via the internet or future generations will never get the story right .

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

sschefer said:

You obviously do not have one or you'd have mentioned the one thing different about it that doesn't happen with the rest of the items in your list. Now go back to lowrance, do a little more research and see if you can figure it out.

Click to expand...

Here is the specfication right out of the manual.

POWER
Power Supply: 12 V via network cable vDC vDC
Power Consumption: 20 - 40mA at 12V
NMEA 2000 Load Equivalency Number: 1 network load (50mA)

I can only assume that you think that it uses 20-40mA every time it updates at 5 Hz which is not the way it works. 20-40mA total consumption......

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

dingbat said:

Here is the specfication right out of the manual.

POWER
Power Supply: 12 V via network cable vDC vDC
Power Consumption: 20 - 40mA at 12V
NMEA 2000 Load Equivalency Number: 1 network load (50mA)

I can only assume that you think that it uses 20-40mA every time it updates at 5 Hz which is not the way it works. 20-40mA total consumption......

Click to expand...

You missed the part about it being always on. However, I must tell you that it was a combination of that and a faulty SonicHub that would not go into sleep mode when the Head Unit was shut down. I just replaced the SonicHub and put a power switch on the NMEA 2000 12vdc so I can shut it down completely.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual

fucawi said:

Sschefer ..your comments on batteries are the biggest load of out of date rubbish and folk law I have seen in many a year ....top it up and shake it about !!! yes get all the sediment jambed into the plates yes great idea ....fill it up through the built in hydrometer hole !!! Total rubbish.
Most mainenence free can be opended up by prising the tops off under the label or drilling 6 holes in the top after you have read the mould marks . These batteries contain a fixed amount of electrolyte over the plates and when the eye shows clear or once out of warrantee topping them up with distilled water will give extra years.
Float charging OK but to what voltage ...brought up to 14.4v and then drops back to 13.8v is ok with a 3 stage charger but they will gas over 14.4v as no battery even jelly is sealed . If it was you would be talking hand granade ...

We must all watch that we dont spread old wifes tales and techno crap via the internet or future generations will never get the story right .

Click to expand...

You are right we should not spread old wive's tales. So why don't you put this one to rest... For decades we've been told to never set a battery on concrete or it will go bad very quickly.. I know for a fact that it has nothing to do with the concrete. Can you enlighten us with your vast knowledge as to what causes it. I'll tell you if your right or wrong after i see your answer.

Re: 6 Month old battery dies a sudden death.... Not unusual



BTW, the bit about not storing a battery on concrete hasn't been true for over half a century.