Battery Maintainers and/or Desulphaters

theNailer

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
43
We just purchased 3 new Deep Cycle 12v batteries for our boat, mid summer.

We'll be bringing them into the house, in the basement, and putting a single maintainer on the three batteries connected in parallel. The intent is to connect the positive to #1 while the negative will connect to #3. That will maintain all three, through the winter, correct?

Anyone use any of those Pulse Tech units, to desulphate the plates, OR to prevent sulphation bulding up on the plates to begin with?

Or have ya'll any other ideas/suggestions to throw out there? Thank you.
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
15,415
First, don?t bring them inside. The warmer the temperature the higher the discharge rate.

Unless you live in the great white, you might be better off storing them outdoors.

My batteries get fully charged and stay on the boat to over winter. Might throw a charger on them once or twice during winter if I remember. Usually just charge up and go in the spring.

Proven technic. Both batteries will be 8 years old in the spring
 
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82rude

Rear Admiral
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
4,082
My blue top spent 99 months in the boat .Never came out ,was never put on a charger ever.Sat unused from oct till may .Temps in winter can reach minus 30 plus sometimes.I just make sure theres no drain on the battery such as elect indicator lights.Best bet is to just disconnect the cables.I was very lucky with that battery but like all batteries she finally died.
 

MH Hawker

Vice Admiral
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
5,516
i think a lot depends on your climate, i am in a moderate temp zone, a full charge and wait on spring works fine here
 

thunder550

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
83
I take mine out of the boat and keep them on a battery tender when they won't be used for a long time. If there was power available at my storage place I'd leave them in the boat, but unfortunately there's not. The batteries are identical, so I put each one on the tender individually until it switches from Charge to Storage mode, then hook them up together using a Y adapter for long term storage.
IMG_20171007_062755.jpg
IMG_20171007_062815.jpg
 

roscoe

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
21,657
We just purchased 3 new Deep Cycle 12v batteries for our boat, mid summer.

We'll be bringing them into the house, in the basement, and putting a single maintainer on the three batteries connected in parallel. The intent is to connect the positive to #1 while the negative will connect to #3. That will maintain all three, through the winter, correct?

Anyone use any of those Pulse Tech units, to desulphate the plates, OR to prevent sulphation bulding up on the plates to begin with?

Or have ya'll any other ideas/suggestions to throw out there? Thank you.

It really depends a lot, on the type of battery.

Wet acid, GEL, AGM, or Lithium batteries?


Some tenders are not compatible with all types of batteries.
Charge rates and voltage requirements vary.
Use the wrong type, and battery life will be shortened.
 
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theNailer

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
43
Thanks for the replies, guys!

A) yes, I do live in the Great White North. Winterpeg Manisnowba, to be exact. -30 to -45, easy.
B) These are wet-cells.
C) I'm planning on simply using a maintainer, on each one. Then I was thinking about hooking them up parallel, with the maintainer positive on #1+ and the maintainer negative on #3-.

That should work, right?
 

thunder550

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
83
If you're going in parallel you have all of the positive posts connected together and all of the negative posts connected together. At that point it doesn't make any difference which battery you connect either of the charging leads to so long as you match polarity.
 

Old Ironmaker

Captain
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,050
Bring them inside and do not lay them directly on concrete. I use a piece of plywood below them. I don't leave them on the battery minder all winter. I charge them to full and let them sit, then charge them fully in April. I may be wrong but never had a problem. going on 7 years on all 3 batteries.
 

thunder550

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
83
Bring them inside and do not lay them directly on concrete. I use a piece of plywood below them. I don't leave them on the battery minder all winter. I charge them to full and let them sit, then charge them fully in April. I may be wrong but never had a problem. going on 7 years on all 3 batteries.

Batteries with plastic cases are just fine on concrete. There may have been some merit to the concrete thing when battery cases were made out of rubber or some other porous material but it doesn't matter with plastic shells.
 

roscoe

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
21,657
My boats are stored in a building with no power, so I bring the batteries into the garage for the winter.
I throw them on the charger every 4 or 6 weeks and top them off.
I don't leave the charger on all the time as there is no need to keep the battery at 100%, and no need to have electric equipment running all the time.
 

oldjeep

Admiral
Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
6,455
I leave my batteries in the boat with my 2 channel ProMariner Sport charger plugged in - boat is in the garage so it doesn't get as cold as it gets outside here in MN, I'm not really a fan of the idea of putting all the batteries in parallel on a tender unless it is a pretty dumb one that isn't trying to detect the battery state. better to spend a few extra bucks for a 3 channel charger/maintainer.
 
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