How To Charge Your Battery Once Its Been Thawed
There might be a slim chance that your flooded or gel battery survived the freeze. Although this is unlikely, if you dont want to throw out the battery until youre sure it doesnt work, I will explain to you a safe way to check your batterys power.
Take the frozen battery and place it somewhere out of the cold garage or shed will do. You dont want to let a frozen battery thaw in your home, you could risk the acid leaking out of it.
Once the battery has thawed, you dont want to be near it when hooking it up to the charger. I suggest putting the battery outside and plugging it into the charger without the charger being plugged into the wall. Attach the charger to an extension cord, then plug the extension cord into an outlet away from the battery.
To check the battery, youll need a voltmeter. Attach the voltmeter to the battery when youve hooked up the charger and extension cord. If your battery is charging, the voltage will be accelerating.
If your battery does charge, make sure you check the voltage to make sure its not dropping so quickly. If the voltage does drop in a short amount of time, then your battery is damaged and done for.
How Do I Know If My Boat Battery Is Bad
There are three main ways to know if your boat battery is bad and needs replaced.
The first step that you should do is take a look at your boat battery. That seems obvious to some, but you are looking for a few things here.
Any obvious signs of damage to the terminal may indicate that you have a bad battery including cracks or bumps in the plastic.
If you see any kind of excessive leak or discoloring of the battery, these would also be signs of some kind of damage. If something looks really off, you may want to consider handling your battery with care as some of these signs may be a dangerous situation.
The next way to figure out if your boat battery is bad is by taking a voltage reading. Generally speaking, you will want a voltage reading of over 12 to ensure that your battery is actually operating correctly.
If you have a reading of 0, that would be a great indicator that you have a short circuit somewhere in the battery. If your battery seems to be fully charged but the voltage is still under 12, then you are probably dealing with a dead cell in your battery.
You can also do a load test for your battery, although this is a more complicated method that most users wont really benefit from.
Its important to take regular care of your battery just like any part of your boat, because you dont want to have any unexpected problems when you are getting your gear together.
We Are Looking To Make Sure That The Battery Voltage Does Not Drop To Less Than 10 Volts
9.5 volts is the lowest that most outboards will be able to start with. If it takes to long to turn over, they wont start with much less than that.
There are more expensive ways of checking a battery though. By using more advanced testers. Although not required, these devices display interesting additional info such as cranking amperage percentages.
This shows you the ability of the battery. How much life it has left and whether you need to charge, retest or replace the battery.
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Does A Boat Battery Charge While Running
This depends on what kind of boat battery you have.
Generally speaking, a boat battery does not work the same way as a cars battery would, with some exceptions.
Car batteries work as a starting battery, which may also be known as a cranking battery. Basically what that means is that car batteries are not used much once the engine is moving. Once your vehicle is traveling down the road, everything gets powered by the main engine.
Most boat batteries do not operate like that. Most boat batteries are known as dual purpose batteries because they still help to power some of the things on board as they are in operation.
However, these batteries also work as starting batteries which is why they are given the name dual-purpose, simply because they start the boats motor, but they also power different electronics after the motor is already running.
In that sense, your boat battery will actually continue to be used as you are running your boat. This is the opposite of what most people expect from their car battery.
The boat battery is really quite special because it is able to start your boats motor with a big boost of energy, but it also is able to deliver a consistent supply of energy to the boats electronics on board to keep those active as well.
Youll need to take proper care of your boats battery in between trips to make sure that you are getting the most out of your battery when you take your boat out on the water.
Average Rv Battery Lifespan
The first and foremost learning is, how long an average RV battery may last. There has been no fixed duration so far set for RV batteries to last. The total energy in the batteries stored technically varies for each individual from the same amount of voltage is being normally preserved. The total lifespan from an RV batterys purchase until it is dead becomes quite difficult to fixate when it is likely to be in operation.
If you have a powerful and high-quality battery, good treatment and controlled power usage in contrast to the power demands will result in years up to six or even more. Nonetheless, in case the battery is not the sector best, not paying attention to usage and power needs will provide about 2 or 3 years. Most of how long the motorhome battery put up is the result of how well you handle it. But before that, you require to learn of the amp-hour rating of your battery. The lifetime expectancy of the RV battery is likely to depend solely on you and among others, the storage, usage, maintenance, charging, and discharging puts equal range on the year count.
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Can You Recharge A Dead Marine Battery
Generally speaking, you may be able to use a battery saver to try to recharge a dead marine battery.
There are a few situations where this will not work. If your battery has a short circuit or an open cell, you are not going to be able to do anything other than repairing that situation to fix your battery. These are unique cases, and require a completely different solution.
However, for marine batteries that are simply dead, you may have a few recovery options.
In this case, we will assume that you are referring to a dead battery as one that wont seem to hold a charge.
Obviously, you can re-charge a battery that has good battery life and has simply died with the normal charger that the manufacturer recommends that you use.
If you are referring to a boat battery that has completely died, you may want to consider a battery saver product.
There are a few of these on the marketplace, and they work by plugging in your battery for some different amounts of time. Some of them may even take days to work depending on the poor condition of your battery.
You may also have problems because you are using a smart charger which may not recognize the true condition of your battery.
Based on price, you may also consider buying a new boat battery if possible to get one of the best-functioning batteries that will give you a good sense of reliability.
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How Long Will A Marine Battery Last
There are a few things that would determine this answer, and there is no exact answer.
Your boat battery will probably last between 2-6 years. It all depends on how you maintain the battery and how much power youre using on your boat.
Theres always the question: how long should my boat battery last? Again, it all depends on how much you use your boat. I wouldnt go changing a perfectly fine battery just because youve had it for over 5 years.
If your battery is over 5 years old and still running fine, theres no need to replace. Once you start seeing signs of failure, then is the time to get you a new battery.
Why Does My Boat Battery Get Hot
I didnt even think this could be a problem but apparently, it is. Ive never had this happen to me, but after doing some research on the topic, I found the following information.
The reason the boat battery could be getting hot is that the battery itself could be drying out inside and causing things to overheat. Ive heard of people popping the top cover off the battery and adding some water to the inside to top it up again, and this solved their problem. Ive never had to do this, and I think if I did I would call a mechanic or someone more experienced then myself to take a closer look at this.
If your battery is getting hot, it is recommended that you stop using it and disconnect the electronics to the battery. A faulty battery could cause problems with electronics and become a very pricey problem down the road.
Another recommendation I have heard is that if your battery is getting hot, you should discount it and remove it from the boat and let it cool down for an hour or two. The reason you should remove it from the boat is that batteries could blow up and thats not something you want to have happened on your boat.
- TIP: If you have two batteries connected to one and other in parallel and one of those batteries is bad, then this could kill the second battery. Disconnect the two batteries from themselves right away.
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Can I Leave A Trickle Charger On All Winter
Some trickle chargers can be left on a battery indefinitely. These would be used on a vehicle that is not used all the time or is stored away for the winter or the summer. A trickle charger built specifically for this is left on in the event that the vehicle is needed in an emergency or other unexpected situation.
The Kind Of Battery Do You Need
The kind of battery youll want on board depends on what you need the battery to do . Sounds practical enough, but think about more than just starting your boat.
If you have a simple motor and no electrical gadgets to speak of, then a cranking battery will do the trick. However, if you have any electrical equipment like a GPS, depth finder or even a radio, youll want to check out a deep-cycle battery.
Cranking Battery its main purpose is just to start the engine by providing a quick burst of energy. This means while they arent reliable to keep your radio going all day, they are more than up to the task of getting your boat going for that early morning fishing trip.
Deep-Cycle a deep cycle battery offers a lower and more steady rate of energy than the cranking battery. This means that you can run all of your electrical equipment without the risk of having to charge your battery on the water.
Deep cycle batteries are also great if you need to power a depth finder, live well, bilge pump, GPS, fish locator etc.
Because these types of marine batteries are used for different purposes, they arent interchangeable. Make sure you stick with the battery type your boat was designed for. Attempting to use a battery that is not designed for your specific type of boat can lead to battery failure, or worse. If you want to learn more about different batteries in general, check out some basic battery knowledge.
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How Do I Keep My Battery From Freezing
To help prevent your batteries from freezing, you should keep them topped up with a full charge. A fully charged battery can withstand much colder weather then a partially discharged battery.
In addition to keeping the battery charged, you could hook up what is called a trickle charger to the battery. Trickle chargers use electricity to help replenish the battery at the same rate as the battery takes to self-discharge.
If you do use a trickle charger, I recommend using one that has an automated self shut-off feature, or float mode. Otherwise, you will need to manually keep an eye on the battery and unplug the trickle charger when the battery reaches a full charge. Overcharging a battery could ruin it.
Electronics On The Boat Wont Work
Some of the easy ways to tell your battery on the boat is not working or not is with the help of the electronics onboard . All the electronics connected to the power source, such as depth finder, chart plotter, bilge pump, GPS, fishfinder, etc., will not work with a dead battery.
Since all the electronics on the boat are connected to the battery or working with the help of a marine battery, if any of them are not powering up at all, it clearly tells you that it has something to do with the power source unless if the device is damaged.
However, if you dont have any electronics on the boat , there are many other easy ways to check the battery condition, which we will discuss now.
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What Are The Differences Between A Starting And Deep Cycle Battery
Generally speaking, there are two different types of lead acid batteries, Starting and Deep Cycle. If a starting battery is routinely deep cycled , it will generally fail after 30-150 cycles. The same starting battery will last for thousands of cycles if it is just used normally .
- Starting batteries are generally designed to start some form of an internal combustion engine . In a starting battery, you will find more lead plates, thinner and often made of a lead “sponge” similar looking to a foam sponge. This sort of arrangement means that the plates have much more surface area in the solution than a Deep Cycle battery and allow them to draw larger currents much quicker than a Deep Cycle battery.
- Deep cycle battery, on the other hand, have much thicker plates and, they are solid, not sponge. These thicker plates have less surface area and thus less of the instant power that a starting battery needs. They are designed to be discharged down to 20% of their maximum charge repetitively. The thicker lead plates allow for this as they are much sturdier than their sponge counterparts.
- Cold Cranking Amps is an indicator of the amount of current a battery can deliver for 30 seconds at zero degrees Fahrenheit without dropping below a specified cutoff voltage . The cranking amps a battery can produce changes with temperature. The warmer it is the more Cranking Amps a battery will produce.
What Is A Flooded Lead Acid Battery
Flooded lead acid batteries are one of the most common types of battery for deep cycle applications. The major difference between the wet type of battery and the sealed kind is that the end user is able to replace water lost through gassing via the vent caps in the top of the battery. The flooded battery has been around for a very long time but remains popular because it has a good balance between price and performance. A gel or AGM cell battery is generally somewhere around twice the price per amp hour that you would find in a flooded battery. Flooded batteries do require a lot more maintenance than their sealed lead acid counterparts because the batteries are not recombinant the water is lost through the top of the vent caps while charging. Replacing this lost water can sometimes be an onerous task, but it is a necessary one to get the most out of your battery.
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The Boat Wont Start With A Bad Battery
Now we are talking about a starter battery, not a deep cycle battery that is primarily used to power the electronics on the boat. As we all know, boats use a different battery for starting the motor alone. If that battery fails, it wont start the engine.
The starter battery is connected to the solenoid, which is connected to the starter, and that is connected to the ignition switch. The moment you turn on the key switch, the battery needs to send power to the starter motor, which is connected to the starter ring gear.
That starter ring gear is attached to an internal combustion engine that is part of the assembly that transfers the torque from the starter motor to the engines crankshaft to start the engine. So, if the battery is not working, it wont send the power to the starter motor, the engine wont start.
However, there could be many other reasons why your boat engine wont start, such as bad starter motor, solenoid, bad connections, problems with the boat engine, etc. So just dont automatically replace a boat battery if the boat engine is not starting check other symptoms that wont start the boat as well.
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