Battery maintenance reminder

[zmk1962]

Hey Raiders 

A reminder.

Since many of us are in lockdown it may be a good time to do some basic battery maintenance: check/top up fluid, remove connections, clean the connections and battery posts with something like steel wool and refit. Smother everything with grease - I prefer Vaseline as it’s cleaner to handle. 
 

 

On my last trip I noticed a bit of voltage drop. Just finished maintenance on my 3 batteries and now can see a 0.4V improvement at the helm voltage meter. 

cheers Zoran 

[Smobaby]

Cheap insurance and keep them charged great report Zoran

[Pickles]

Thanks - Good reminder Zoran - I’ve had my batteries (4 on my boat) on charge several times “trickling” over, interestingly, even though they haven’t been used for several months now, there hasn’t been much current drop.

[Itchin'faFishin']

I've been putting my batteries on a low amperage charger and connected to a simple power plug timer (pin type) I charge them for 30 minutes every 24 hours. 30 minutes is the shortest time I can set. Battery voltage when not charging seems to be maintained at 12.4V. Any views on this approach?

[zmk1962]

Pretty much what I do. 12.4V is healthy. Just check battery fluid levels occasionally, if you are losing a lot, then maybe knock the timer back or charge every 2nd day. 

Cheers Zoran

[kingie chaser]

3 hours ago, Itchin'faFishin' said:

I've been putting my batteries on a low amperage charger and connected to a simple power plug timer (pin type) I charge them for 30 minutes every 24 hours. 30 minutes is the shortest time I can set. Battery voltage when not charging seems to be maintained at 12.4V. Any views on this approach?

What type of battery is it?(deep cycle AGM, lead acid, Gel??) & what are you charging it with??

 

Im no 12V guru but I thought it was always ideal to keep a battery at near fully charged which is close to 13V.

 

At 12.4V you are only keeping the battery charged at 75% which imo could reduce its life?

 

If your using a decent smart charger it will just keep & maintain the battery at the optimum float level & in a non sulphating state.

 

[Itchin'faFishin']

Sorry, my mistake. The holding battery charge is 12.7V, not 12.4. The 12.7V is the holding voltage about 3 hours after the daily top-up charge has been completed.

One battery is a lead acid deep cycle (for the auxiliary items and lighting) Century 12V 102Ah Deep Cycle Flooded Battery(N70T)and the other is a SuperCharge SeaMaster Gold Marine MF(MFM70) lead acid cranking battery used for nothing other than motor cranking. The deep cycle is charged from the cranking battery through a Voltage Sensitive relay. I plug on a Repco 12V 4.3 A battery charger, which has a full charge cut-out, to the cranking battery.