Is 12.4 Volts on a Deep Cycle Battery Acceptable?

[stopngo]

Thanks......Its a Kirkland Costco . Now the Green light comes on at 12.6 and goes to 12.25 in an hour. She's Toast.

 

[fhhuber]

Well... you may need a dumb charger to recover the battery back to a level where the smart charger works. Discharge below the range the smart charger expects and their logic says its a bad battery.

I'd start the car and jumper cable charge the deep cycle for about 5 minutes.

*******************

"Marine Deep Cycle" is a series of lies.
Its got thicker plates than a typical automotive "starter" battery so it can tolerate deeper discharge better... but its not a real deep cycle battery. Its in between a real deep cycle and a battery expecting the load of an automotive starter motor. Not really great for running a starter or for deep discharges.
The boat engines, (especially outboards) tending to be smaller displacement and easier to start than a car so you don't need the high CCA rating of a real starter battery.
The need to keep charge level up enough to start the boat engine tends to limit how deep the average boater discharges the battery.

By the time you get to the I/O and engines that need a real starter battery, you're probably running a separate starter battery vs trolling battery (if you have a trolling motor at all at that point) or maybe a bank of 'house" batteries which are true deep cycle to run a lot of 12V to 48V systems. (and hopefully have learned not to use the discount store grade "marine deep cycle" for anything bigger than a Jon boat)

 

[stopngo]

Thank you . I am learning a lot more than I ever thought I would. I never thought about smart chargers an dumb chargers
Now Im starting to get it...........This Dumb Battery owner needs to become a Smart Battery Owner. How am I doing so far?

Thanks Y'all...........It costs money to get smart I guess

 

[bruceb58]

If you are looking for a battery for your trolling motor, seriously look at buying a Trojan battery. It is a true deep discharge battery. It will cost you more upfront but it will have way more capacity than you have now.

Here is a 10AH Trojan in a size 27
http://www.thesolarbiz.com/Trojan-2...AH?gclid=CM2K3MHvttACFQwZgQodhBIPtQ#gsc.tab=0

You can get a 30 sized one that is 130AH but they are around $195

 

[stopngo]

Thanks Bruce..........and now some exiting news

FHHUBER............You da man........
"I'd start the car and jumper cable charge the deep cycle for about 5 minutes."

I did the equivalent of what you suggested. Now 8 hours after disconnect from charger the battery is holding at 12.65 V :joyous:


I have another charger ......which has 3 settings. 15 amp charge rate ....2 amp......and a 100 amp starter boost rate.. For 5 minutes I gave it the shake rattle and roll
by alternating between 15 and 100 amps momentarily and then put it back onto the Minn Kota 5 amp charger.

After 8 hours she sits fully charged at 12.65:lalala:

 

[bruceb58]

Maybe worth getting a higher current 3 stage charger.

I have a portable 3 stage charger that can do an equilizing charge. This is useful if the battery get any sulfation which occurs if the battery is left very long in a discharged state. Maybe that is what happened to yours? Ever have a time where it sat discharged for awhile?

 

[stopngo]

"Ever have a time where it sat discharged for awhile? "

Not knowingly. In the Summer that battery sits as the auxiliary in the Motorhome and I always have the MH plugged in so that the onboard transformer charger keeps everything charged. In the winter I keep it in a heated garage and check once a week and charge accordingly.

"3 stage charger that can do an equilizing charge" Is that what they call a Battery Tender?

 

[bruceb58]

"Ever have a time where it sat discharged for awhile? "

Not knowingly. In the Summer that battery sits as the auxiliary in the Motorhome and I always have the MH plugged in so that the onboard transformer charger keeps everything charged. In the winter I keep it in a heated garage and check once a week and charge accordingly.

"3 stage charger that can do an equilizing charge" Is that what they call a Battery Tender?

Nope...an equilizing charge does these high frequency pulses to try to break up the sulfation that ends up covering the plates. It's a separate charge mode you do to try to recover a battery that is going south.

 

[stopngo]

got it

 

[shaw520]

Ive brought batteries back from the grave with my ProMariner Plus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gclid=CL36-Y-LuNACFUtWDQodLtEMAw&gclsrc=aw.ds