Battery check

[CO Editorial]

How often do you check the water level in your wet call batteries?Do you check each time you visit your boat, occasionally, or seldom? Is your prudence limited by access to the power source, or are your batteries easy to reach?Contribute your opinions here, then go to the home page and vote in this month's Quick Quiz, currently in progress.

 

[Dave O]

Dry Cells :-(

I check my batteries about every 2 months now . I found out the hard way that the water in the Deep Cycle batteries seems to evaporate faster than a regular car battery. I used to have my charger on all the time and thought that since it goes down to half an amp when the battery is charged, that it would not boil the battery. I was wrong. I got to the harbor and found a sulfer smell so bad, I didn't know what it was . It turned out that it was my boat. I was scared to look but luckily found no damage other than the stench that took several weeks to air out. Now I use the same regular charger but plug it into a timer that is used for turning on the lights in your house when you are away from home. I set it to turn on for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. I have done this for 2 years now and the batteries seem to like it. I just top the water off when needed which is every other time I check them, about every 4 months. My boat is a Catalina 27 with an outboard that does charge, but not like an inboard. So I like to keep them up as much as possible.Dave

 

[Bob Camarena]

Better Results with New Charger

I check mine every couple of months. I installed a new West Marine multi-stage charger last season and find that I have much less water loss with the new charger than I had with the old one. The old style charger seemed to boil the water away. My conclusion is that money spent on a good charger will more than pay for itself in extended battery life.

 

[CO Editorial]

Final results

Final results for the Quick Quiz ending 3/6/00:How often do you check the water level in your wet cell batteries?  51% Monthly or less 36% Seldom  9% Weekly or more  6% Every boat visit