Battery Question

[Wes Davis]

I have a battery in my boat that will take a charge but will not hold the charge for more than a couple days. I have heard that a battery like this can be reconditioned. Something about using the correct type of charger that will slow charge the battery and burn off the sulfites from the plates or something to that effect. Anyone know anything about this. I know I should just go buy a new battery but I am one of these tinkering type guys and will mess with it just because I can. Another question. I know that heat is the number one cause of premature battery failure. Sometimes my battery boxes fill with water from the rain. Not over the terminals or anything, just two thirds up the battery case. This got me thinking that this water bath could possibly help to cool my batteries down here in the Florida sun. Any possibility of this or is the water actually holding heat in?

 

[Kevin Palmer]

I would suggest this first.



Charge the battery, then disconnect it from ALL WIRES. If it keeps it's charge for longer than what has been normal, then I would suggest you may have a bad diode in the alternator and or external regulator depending on the style you have.



Are you familiar with diodes and what they do?



Also, there is a machine that will recondition MOST batterers that are not shorted out.

We own one at our shop. I would say that our of 100 batteries that we do this to, 60 of them come back to life.



We do 15 batteries at a time.

 

[Wes Davis]

Does anyone know if AutoZone can do this battery service. I have a Duralast battery but I am not the original purchaser. I have already inquired about the warranty and it does not transfer to the new owner. Yeah Coastie I have been concerned about some sort of battery drain in my system. I am charging right now with a regular charger. I will unhook the battery and let it set for a few days to see what happens.

 

[Robert Thomas]

I"m with Coastie replace it. It's not worth it in the long run being out on the water with a bad battery. Always remember you can't push a boat to get it started and you can't walk home.

 

[Wes Davis]

I do have a two battery system and I have a brand new Duralast with lifetime warranty as my backup so hopefully all is good. When I bought the boat I did not know that you shouldn't run the battery switch on 'Both' all the time and I may have shortened my battery's lifes. Now I know to run either '1' or '2' and only on 'both' for short periods occasionally just to keep the second battery charged. I have a full size manual battery charger mounted in the boat that I want to switch out with an automatic trickle type charger. I understand that an automatic trickle charger can double a batteries life expectancy.

 

[Johnny O]

Check the charging system first, but you'll probably just end up getting a new battery.

Water itself surrounding the batteries won't hurt them but yes, it will hold more heat in because it isn't circulating anywhere. Water holds heat longer than air does.

 

[Wes Davis]

I will drill a couple drain holes in the battery boxes.

 

[TomT]

I had one of those automatic trickle chargers for the battery in my RV. They really do help. One of the worst things for a battery is going long periods without use and letting them drain down.

 

[Wes Davis]

Yes I read on the net that storing even a slightly discharged battery will significantly reduce its life.

 

[Robert Thomas]

Running on both will not hurt the batteries. It will blow out the charging system on some outboards.

 

[Wes Davis]

The reason I was told running on both constantly will damage is that if one battery is aged or beginning to fail or what have you that it will pull power from the better battery. You now have two batteries that can't keep a full constant charge which leads to premature failure of both batteries. Believe me I thought batteries were simple plug and play but now that I am reading up on battery systems for my boat I am finding out they are much more than than that.

 

[Gavin Allan]

I wouldn't mess with a bad battery, especially as cheap as they are.



Get a good isolator system, a couple of new quality batteries and forget about it.



Put the lids back on the battery boxes or else find out why they are filling up with water. That ain't right.