Winter storage/Battery

[oldiesrocker2001]

I keep my boat on the trailer buttoned up with a tarp in the winter months and I've always removed my wet cell battery when storing for the winter. I check the cell fluid levels(not so easy to do if it's still in storage under the starboard cockpit seat) and top off the charge before storing in the unheated storage section of what used to be my garage. I'm getting lazy now and am wondering if I'm giving my battery any advantage for longevity by doing this or simply making more work for my self - it's not easy at all removing and replacing the battery and it's plastic enclosure in this little V21. What say the rest of you out there - keep taking it out and store in the same ambient temp as the boat or just leave it in and replace when it won't hold a charge any more?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Better yet, charge it COMPLETELY, and then leave it on the boat. Wet cells will store well over the entire winter if they're fully charged.

 

[Ross]

Make life easier on yourself if you must remove the battery. Use your boom, halyard and a sling and lift the battery out with the boat's lines and spars. But I am with stu, make sure the battery is charged, has no load on it and leave it on the boat.

 

[Chris Connor]

Hello OldiesRocker,

I have fully charged and left my battery through the winter in Nova Scotia. However, like Ross said, "make sure the battery is charged, has no load on it....."

For the last three years I have stowed my batteries onboard through the Canadian winter. I discovered last year that the previous owner had wired speakers for the stereo directly to the batteries. I had a small continuous drain (I saw the wiring but thought it was for the bilge pump). I kept charging the batteries through the winter so there was no damage. I disconnect everything now.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Brian Schwerdt]

I know the application (and the battery) is slightly different, but I have a convertible which I store through the winter. I disconnect all loads directly from the battery, top off the charge, and it is always ready and raring to go in the springtime. Now, I have just upgraded from the world of small boats (previous boats being a Sunfish and a Hobie 16, I just purchased an O'Day 22 this fall), but I am planning on doing the same thing with the O'Day. I store the car in my unheated garage, and the battery does just fine through the Syracuse, NY winter.

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

Thanks for the input on storage, guys. I tend to go "overboard"(no pun intended) when it comes to my little boat and only this year it dawned on me that the deep cycle battery wasn't THAT much different from an auto batt and should withstand the winter with a full charge as well as a standard automotive one.
If only it was as simple to aid in removal as Ross suggested -using halyards and spars, but it comes out via the cabin and I have my arm fully extended at the start and end of lift while lying down in the cabin to even get it close enough to the hatch.... No more extra pain from that old rotater-cuff injury - Yippee! :dance:

 

[sailingdog]

I would recommend topping the battery off at least once every month or so...

 

[Warren Milberg]

All I would add here is that all batteries lose some amount of their charge over time. This is natural. If your boat is on a trailer and near an electric power source, I would recommend connecting the battery to a small trickle charger, like "Battery Pal," or connect up a small solar battery maintenance panel.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Battery Charging and Storage

In discussions with a good friend who is a battery guru, he wrote me:

Leaving lead acid batteries on float charge 24/7 will reduce the useful life of the batteries by as much as 35 to 40% compared to cycle charging, which by definition is to charge them only when the need recharging, then leave them alone. The continuous float charge results in accelerated positive grid corrosion, which has the effect of turning the positive plates in the battery into mush: a soft, expanded material that produces increased internal resistance and decreased deep cycle capacity. I only use cycle charging on my boats now, but I will leave them overnight or maybe for a day or 2 with the charger on just to make sure that they get fully recharged.

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

Re: Battery Charging and Storage

That's good advice, Stu. I was tempted to configure my boat's solar panel(small wattage output) to keep the riding mower's battery up to snuff in the shed,but was hesitant to keep the cycle charger connected to the boat battery where I couldn't get at it while the tarp was up. Experience has shown me that if for some reason the charger is plugged in but fails to make a good connection to the battery (could happen just sitting there for a few months) the charger's diodes would fry in a few seconds and I would never know about it. I may instead look into an extra solar panel with a long enough run to make it out of the cabin and around the tarp to get what sunlight is possible here in the frozen north(OK, Jersey ain't that bad, but I really hate winter).

 

[NYSail]

Re: Battery Charging and Storage

I have left my batteries on board for the past few years and plug in my charger maybe once a month to make sure they are topped off when I am doing work under the cover....However I was thinking about getting a small solar charger. My question is this: I have four batteries; 2 are house (bank #2), 1 is dedicated starter (bank#1) (these three are located aft) and the last 1 is isolated from the rest, and used solely for my bow thruster and windless (located in the bow). How would I attach a charger so that all batteries would get a trickle? Or is this explained in the instructions of the charger?

Thanks all

 

[walt]

Stu, this was interesting.. "Leaving lead acid batteries on float charge 24/7 will reduce the useful life of the batteries by as much as 35 to 40% compared to cycle charging, "

I have a bank of batteries on a solar charge system which used to get used a lot but now doesnt and it seemed to me that what was said above was happening.

But I wonder about a few things in cold temps. One is that In very cold temps (like leaving the boat outside with the batteries in place), the freezing temperature of a charged battery is lower than a discharged battery. I dont know how cold you need to go to freeze but in my area, Ive heard of discharged batteries freezing and cracking but Ive kept fully charged (from solar and a temp compensated regulator) outside in the boat close to a lake which gets three foot of ice on it during the winter and havent had any problems doing this for five years now.

With flooded cell batteries, you have to be concerned about self discharge and its significant enough to worry about over the winter - however, self discharge is temperature dependent and goes down with temp. So it may be that flooded batteries left in a cold place during the winter have less self discharge making this less of an issue. But.. I remember hearing somewhere in the past about not leaving batteries on a concrete floor and you would think that this would actually keep the battery temp lower which would be better as long as the battery didnt freeze.

Also, if you have a cheap float mode charger which does not have temperature compensation, it may also not really keep batteries at float when its cold (contributing to the "wear" problem Stu pointed out) - but also may not fully keep them charged during the winter possibly making them slightly more suseptable to freezing. Battery voltages are temperature sensitive - including all the charging voltages. The typical float voltage of 13.4 is at room temp. This number goes up for colder temps. So if the battery temp is much colder than room and the charger is cheap (ie, no temp compensation), 13.4 volts may be significnantly under the actual float voltage of the battery. Note that expensive charge controllers will actually have a sensor which can be bolted to the battery terminal so the charge controller knows exactly what the battery temp is.

 

[wjssr]

Oldiesrocker2001: The advice of keeping the battery at furr charge is correct, but no one seems to have told you the penalty for not doing so. A battery, fully discharged (and I assume nearly so) can, according to the experts, freeze solid! Bummer!

 

[Stu Jackson]

Trickle charge downside

We used to have a small 11 watt solar panel. Two things happened in a serendipitous way: we installed the Link 2000 and I received the quote I posted above about the downside of float charging.

I learned from the Link that we weren't really getting much worthwhile input from the solar panel, and that it was hurting the batteries.

So, we charge up the batteries and leave the boat unplugged - but this is not meant to start that discussion again...

It appears to me that the appropriate way to employ solar panel(s) is to provide a large enough array that would require a controller and perform charging properly.

 

[Alan]

What about a gel cell battery

If you replace that lead acid monster with a gel cell battery you can leave it onboard in any state of charge. You don't have to worry about freezing it and it can be recharged at any point in the future after sitting totally discharged for a long time.
Sounds like moving your battery is a nightmare to you. Go gel cell and forget about it.

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

I've actually considered that, Alan. While I only have a daysailor which needs minimal amps most of the time I've been using a slightly larger than needed deep cycle batt only because it's rare that I have AC power during the season to effect a full charge and rely on my solar panel to replenish charge as best it can between uses. The Gel would be a more effective solution, though this automotive size battery and carry case just barely fits in there now and, in fact, I have to tilt it (very carefully indeed)nearly 35* when installing or removing. I'll obviously need to compare sizes when the current battery dies and see if a Gel would fit in there...

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

[FONT=&quot]Be careful if you replace wet cell batteries with gels:
Gels require different charging needs and can be damaged or even become dangerous if charged over 14.2V. Thus unregulated chargers or chargers capable of being set for Gels should not be used.
Also, they can require a special charger to bring them up out of a very deep discharge.

[/FONT]

 

[Ross]

I can put this dicussion to rest. I use AGM batteries. I care for them this way: I install them I run the engine for a few hours, I shut the engine down when the boat is docked. In the fall I take one last run with the engine and change the oil and winterize the engine. In the spring We launch the boat and I start the engine and go for a boat ride. I monitor the battery voltage and for 5 years the batteries have held a charge all winter. When they no longer hold a charge I will dig them out of the lazerette and install some new ones.

 

[Warren Milberg]

My 2 cents: I like Group 24 wet cell batteries for a variety of reasons, the chief ones being they are cheap and light, making them easier to deal with and eventually replace. I realize the "lightness" means less mass in the lead plates, but I typically get 5-7 years out of a set of Group 24s. I am really happy with that and think it results from never letting them get deeply discharged (like below 50%) and using a 5 watt solar panel to maintain them between use of the boat/engine. I hardly ever use the engine long enough to really keep the batteries up to full charge so the solar panel seems to help. I cannot imagine it doing any harm as it has a blocking diode to prevent the batteries from reversing current flow. I take them home over the winter and run a trickle/float charger on them whenever their normal rate of discharge shows 12.5 vdc or less.... Works for me.