battery in winter

No one mentioned bilge pumps. Not everyone lives in freezing climates even if they don't go boating in the winter. And some boat year 'round. Winter is our crabbing season.
 
quote:
Originally posted by WALSHIE

quote:
Originally posted by Split Decision

For the boaters that have their boat lifted out of the water for the winter months and stored on land that do not plan to put a charger on the batteries over the winter months (in our case 6 months under shrink wrap each year) than I would suggest the prudent thing to do is to disconnect your boat batteries negative battery cables to avoid any potential battery drain over your lay up period.

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Isn't that what the battery switch is for?
That's all I do, turn the battery switches off.

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Nope, it's not enough, to prevent a trickle drain.
The common scenario is cables/wires being run beside close enough together to create/complete an electrical circuit that has parasitic loss. I forget the actual term for this, but well documented.
 
Without each one of us measuring the rest is just conjecture....
Most folks do not have the ability or inclination to test either the Specific gravity or the voltage accurately enough to determine if they have reached a full charge or if they are coming close to the 20% discharge level (recommended battery council limit)likely to occur within 12-16 weeks.
I would suggest that if you are intent on leaving the batts for long periods to at least be able to test for these items accurately so you know if you have a 0.040 SG drop or not and can remedy the situation.
We can all agree that over enough time batts will need to be topped off with charger so without measuring something - say the voltage accurately - leaves you with just a guess for you own situation.
Observing that the batts did start at the beginning of the next season does not necessarily mean the they were not affected or will have a shorter service period.
I can state that in our case we get just about 12 weeks on 4D , 8D and group 27 batts after a full charge before we are near that 75-80% level when stored in various spots in NY (LI & Kingston)between Nov and April.

Hope this helps
 
quote:
Originally posted by Split Decision

Isn't that what the battery switch is for?
That's all I do, turn the battery switches off.

Click to expand...


On some boats that may be fine. My boat has co and smoke alarms, electronics memory, bilge pumps, etc that are hard wired..
 
For many years since '76 (3 boats)I brought batts home over the winter layup. More recently; the last 10 years I left both batts on board. Tried to get down once a month & hook up electricity for on board charger. Took a leisure lunch; came back to boat & removed power cord to boat.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Philyteach

quote:
Originally posted by Split Decision

Isn't that what the battery switch is for?
That's all I do, turn the battery switches off.

Click to expand...


On some boats that may be fine. My boat has co and smoke alarms, electronics memory, bilge pumps, etc that are hard wired..

Click to expand...


Philyteach - I agree with your comment, hence the reason why I recommended boaters disconnect their negative battery cables when their boat is wintering on land and they do not plan on charging their batteries during lay up. The quote in your post about just "turning the battery switches off" was not my posting.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Split Decision
[The quote in your post about just "turning the battery switches off" was not my posting.

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Oops, sorry for the misquote. Tried to clean up the quote of a quote in my post and messed it up.

Ken
 
quote:
Originally posted by WALSHIE

quote:
Originally posted by Split Decision

For the boaters that have their boat lifted out of the water for the winter months and stored on land that do not plan to put a charger on the batteries over the winter months (in our case 6 months under shrink wrap each year) than I would suggest the prudent thing to do is to disconnect your boat batteries negative battery cables to avoid any potential battery drain over your lay up period.

Click to expand...


Isn't that what the battery switch is for?
That's all I do, turn the battery switches off.

Click to expand...


Just found out by chance that turning off the switch isn't enough. Case in point. Winterized my boat 3 weeks ago, and decided to replace the zincs now instead of in the spring. They were badly eaten up. I left the batteries hooked up for the time being with the battery switch and all breakers 'off'. A week later I happened to notice white powder on the trim tab zincs. Pulled out the DVOM and sure enough, got a reading of 0.67 volts on the surface of both trim tabs. Disconnected one battery and it didn't change- disconnected the second and the voltage dropped to zero. Soooo, one more thing to troubleshoot in the spring. If I hadn't replaced the zincs when I did I'd never have known it was happening.

On topic, I charge the batteries, disconnect them and leave them in the boat. I don't touch them during the winter. I figure if it's dead come spring it was due for replacement. I'd rather find that out before I splash the boat.

My .02
 
For those of you who do not remove your batteries or charge them over the Winter and live in a cold climate...how low are they in the Spring when you do hook the charger to them? My portable charger tells me percentage of charge when a battery is hooked up and it works toward 100%. How low do you go/get?
 
CV...I am one of those living in a cold climate, leaving the batteries in the boat (all 9 of them), without any charge on them. I top charge in the fall, disconnect the negative terminals and in the spring, reconnect to find them still sitting around 13 volts. Less than 1 hour and they are fully charged. My oldest house batteries will be on their sixth year.
 
9 batteries...for the fleet ? Never had more than 3 batteries on board since 1986. Only had one per engine & one for genny when I had one. Last two boats had a genny & had the third battery for it. Also got 6 years + per battery. Used Delco Voyager Maintenance free batts. IMO; best marine battery made !
 
quote:
Originally posted by Carvervirgin

For those of you who do not remove your batteries or charge them over the Winter and live in a cold climate...how low are they in the Spring when you do hook the charger to them? My portable charger tells me percentage of charge when a battery is hooked up and it works toward 100%. How low do you go/get?

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As noted in posts above we winter on blocks and are shrink wrapped from mid October to early May and disconnect our negative battery cables before being shrink wrapped. Our batteries typically measure in the mid 12 volt range in the spring before being charged.
 
Thanks guys. This is my first year leaving them in the boat. It is the worst job of the winterization and I always feel like I am going to herniated a disc removing them. All 3 batteries are new this past season and I may or may not charge them over the Winter. I just wanted a baseline as to where they may be when I hook them up. I put them to bed fully charged.
 
My new boat has 50 amp cord. My old boat had two 30 amps and I bought a plug that I converted to a 110 so I could plug into charge batteries. I have been unable to find something for the 50 amp to do the same. I have a smart "Y" but you need juice to both so that's not working for me. I hate to have to bring my battery charger to the boat to do all batteries separately. Any suggestions?
 
I was just doing this over the weekend - I Use a 50 to 30 straight pigtail adapter connected to my old 30 to 15/110V adapter attached to an extension cord.

Hope this helps
 
That's exactly what I wanted to do. I went to West Marine yesterday and they do not have the 50 to 30 adapter. I found one on the internet "Charles". It's $200.00. A little pricey but what else is new. If it was for the home it would probably be no more than $50.00
 
Hank, if your batteries are fully charged when you put the boat away, and the cables are disconnected - so there is no drain - there is no need to charge them over the winter.
 
WhenI had my service done on the engines this year, (QSM-11's) the Cummins technician told me never to disconnect the batteries as it can have a negative effect on the computers. I had never heard of this before.
 
That sounds crazy, what happens when you need to replace your batteries?
 
Good question. That's what I asked. Evidently there is a timeframe where they retain power within the unit but obviously not through the entire winter.
 
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