Battery maint question

tomandwendy · Sep 19, 2013

Hi,

Just bought a prosport on board charger for my two batteries and had a question about storage. Currently I have to store the boat at a storage place that has no power feed. How should I keep the batteries maintained during storage of about 1 to 2 weeks before I get it out of storage to use? Should I remove the batteries and keep on the prosport during storage? Or is that big of a gap okay? These are brand new batteries and would like to get as much life out of them as possible.

jhebert · Sep 19, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Assuming there is no parasitic load on the battery, it is perfectly workable to have the battery remain unattended for a few weeks. The self-discharge rate of a typical battery is quite low, and in a period of several weeks not very much charge will be lost.

The tedium of constantly removing the batteries from the boat and reinstalling them will not be repaid with any special benefit. You'd probably do more harm to the boat and batteries by constantly removing and installing them than any good you might do by floating them on a charger.

When you get the boat from your storage location, charge the batteries with your ProSport on-board charger for a few hours, and any charge lost while in storage will be replaced.

MH Hawker · Sep 19, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Fully charge them before storage, and un hook the positive lead then store, then charge in the spring and your fine. Been doing mine like that for 20 plus years.

FLHANDSTER · Sep 20, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

MH Hawker said:
Fully charge them before storage, and un hook the positive lead then store, then charge in the spring and your fine. Been doing mine like that for 20 plus years.

And, they've lasted 20 years!?! That is awesome!!!

lol

glenn property of pam · Sep 20, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

before you unhook anything from the battery please take pictures, make notes, mark leads, etc. Winter is a long time to remember that the positive terminal had 2 connections or that the positive is on the right hand side and both leads are black wire.

UncleWillie · Sep 20, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

glenn property of pam said:
before you unhook anything from the battery please take pictures, make notes, mark leads, etc. Winter is a long time to remember that the positive terminal had 2 connections or that the positive is on the right hand side and both leads are black wire.

You can avoid any confusion by not having any Black Cables on the battery. (Black = 120vAC Hot.)
Wrap the last 3 inches of the POS Cables with RED electrical tape.
And the NEG Cables with YELLOW Tape.
There will no longer be any question as to what cable goes where!

MH Hawker · Sep 20, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

FLHANDSTER said:
And, they've lasted 20 years!?! That is awesome!!! lol

Actually one lasted 11 years ( delco voyager ) and the present one is going on 3, most have lasted 4 to 5 years, not bad for 2 year battery's

glenn property of pam · Sep 20, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

UncleWillie said:
You can avoid any confusion by not having any Black Cables on the battery. (Black = 120vAC Hot.)
Wrap the last 3 inches of the POS Cables with RED electrical tape.
And the NEG Cables with YELLOW Tape.
There will no longer be any question as to what cable goes where!

View attachment 212573

I like your picture but im sure that next year someone will be able to forget that there's 3 yellow and 2 red so when one yellow slips down the side out of sight the questions will start about something not working. Im sure you remember Unclewillie (as you helped fix a lot of them) that at least 20 people hooked up the battery backwards (tape will fix that), 30 more forgot a lead (photo will fix that)and another 50 didn't clean there connections before re-attaching causing problems (well we can not fix everything).

p.s never make a note about wiring that will not make any sense in 6 months. Ive just spent the last 4 hours re-landing wires where I didn't understand my own notes until I looked at the photo's I took before I started and realized that they had re-named the equipment.

UncleWillie · Sep 20, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Over the Winter, I can be just as forgetful as the next guy.
My solution is to paint the top of the POS battery post RED; The very thought of hooking it up backward gives me cold sweats.
When the cables come off, a Zip-Tie goes through the lugs to keep them together and keep the count correct.

Come spring, the big problem becomes remembering where I put the battery!

FLHANDSTER · Sep 22, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Thinking about a pair of jumpers to connect the batteries together and then hook up the good ole 12V charger.

UncleWillie · Sep 22, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Back to the original question...

The "Do Nothing" option should be chosen.

Sitting for two weeks is like parking your car and going on a short vacation.

Unless there is something abnormal about the batteries or the boat,
the batteries can be expected to still be over 95% charged and will operate just fine.

ajgraz · Sep 22, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Will the boat be stored indoors or outdoors? Will the boat be stored there over winter, and if so does it snow where you live?
Maybe a solar trickle charger could work for you depending on the conditions?

Though I do agree that a few weeks' storage is nothing if there are no unsolved parasitic drains on the battery.

tomandwendy · Oct 6, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

Well next time I write a post......be sure it sends alerts......thanks for the replies! Just decided to check on the thread cause I thought it was unusual I haven't seen any posts on my question.

To answer the questions, the boat will be stored outside unfortunately, as far as snow, hopefully I do not see any here in Tampa, FL!

Thanks for all the tips, much appreciated and I was hoping that pulling those batteries in and out every week was not the best answer!

dingbat · Oct 6, 2013

Re: Battery maint question

UncleWillie said:
You can avoid any confusion by not having any Black Cables on the battery. (Black = 120vAC Hot.)
Wrap the last 3 inches of the POS Cables with RED electrical tape.
And the NEG Cables with YELLOW Tape.
There will no longer be any question as to what cable goes where!

Winter is a long time to remember that the positive terminal had 2 connections or that the positive is on the right hand side and both leads are black wire.

Hey Willie..... green can ahead....do I stay on the right or left of it? I don't know Glen...where's the yellow tape?

I hope they take the keys from me long before I can't remember which colors goes where. :lol:

Battery maint question

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