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Trickle Charging

stephenkatsea

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Is it OK to constantly trickle charge boat and PWC batteries for long periods? Typical lead acid batteries. Or could you be looking at problems? Does it actually extend the life of the battery(s)?
 

Taboma

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At the recommendation of the battery shop, I've put all my battery tenders on cheap timers and limit them to a couple of hours a day.
This will accommodate any parasitic losses and avoid overcharging should the Tender fail to fully shutoff. In the past I've lost a couple of batteries on Tenders, I just figure it's cheap insurance.
 

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At the recommendation of the battery shop, I've put all my battery tenders on cheap timers and limit them to a couple of hours a day.
This will accommodate any parasitic losses and avoid overcharging should the Tender fail to fully shutoff. In the past I've lost a couple of batteries on Tenders, I just figure it's cheap insurance.

I did the same thing after the boat fire thread. Timing wise, I had to replace 2 Waverunner batteries this year...both of which were only 2 years old, and were always on a tender. I figured the timer couldn’t hurt.
 

SJP

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I have a bunch of things on trickle chargers but I am going to covert to automated plugs just in case.
 

DLC

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A 7 day programable timer is a great idea if you leave for long periods at a time
 
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Dana757

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I just ruined a 16V dry cell battery with a trickle charger. Showed 16V but went to zero on the load tester. They say that is from over charging. So I had to bump up to some super smart charger the battery mfg says can always stay connected. I bought this one so I can use it with the 12V gel cell battery in my Jeep too. Freakin 300 + battery charger.

https://www.amazon.com/XS-Power-100...W8A66J35ZHC&psc=1&refRID=F3GF8BN89W8A66J35ZHC
 

CoolCruzin

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I don’t like the idea to leave the charger on them then leave for 3 weeks
Just shit could go wrong
 

PlanB

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I have the boat, a truck, a Jeep, a SXS, three Harley's, a sports car and a piece of lawn equipment on tenders in two states as I type this. I have done this for years without issues, and get good life out of my batteries. Use quality tenders and quality batteries.
 

Singleton

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I usually plug everything in the night I arrive in Havasu or the day before we leave for the desert, so everything it fully ready when needed.

Don’t feel safe leaving things on the charger plugged in while I am away for days/weeks/months
 

Bobby V

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I have the boat, a truck, a Jeep, a SXS, three Harley's, a sports car and a piece of lawn equipment on tenders in two states as I type this. I have done this for years without issues, and get good life out of my batteries. Use quality tenders and quality batteries.
I have 7 batteries on Deltran tenders in Havasu. Haven't been there in 4 weeks. No worries. But I do like the timer idea.
 

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I have some small equipment that once a month I'll throw a tender on for a couple days till the green light is on. Just do 1 battery at a time.
 

LargeOrangeFont

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I just replaced my boat batteries last weekend. They have always been on a tender and lasted 4.5 years.

Vatozone Duralast Marine batteries, $87 each.
 

Terminal Velocity

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I just ruined a 16V dry cell battery with a trickle charger. Showed 16V but went to zero on the load tester. They say that is from over charging. So I had to bump up to some super smart charger the battery mfg says can always stay connected. I bought this one so I can use it with the 12V gel cell battery in my Jeep too. Freakin 300 + battery charger.

https://www.amazon.com/XS-Power-100...W8A66J35ZHC&psc=1&refRID=F3GF8BN89W8A66J35ZHC
That’s a good charger, but don’t shit yourself. A 16v battery will go shit overnight (although you might be running a mag) . When It “goes” it won’t have the amps (or whatever it is) to fire an electronic ignition. It’ll still spin the starter faster than a 12v at full charge, but no joy on the water. I’ve had it happen twice to me. Typically a 16v is good for about 3 years. My first two were turbostart, the one in the boat now is the XS. my next 16v will be the Rock Battery. Lot of friends use them in their drag cars.
 

Dana757

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That’s a good charger, but don’t shit yourself. A 16v battery will go shit overnight (although you might be running a mag) . When It “goes” it won’t have the amps (or whatever it is) to fire an electronic ignition. It’ll still spin the starter faster than a 12v at full charge, but no joy on the water. I’ve had it happen twice to me. Typically a 16v is good for about 3 years. My first two were turbostart, the one in the boat now is the XS. my next 16v will be the Rock Battery. Lot of friends use them in their drag cars.

Yes, I run a mag, XS battery that was in the boat when I bought it 4 years ago. Was fine the weekend before. It wouldn't turn the engine over but showed a full charge, aka no joy. I did leave it on the charger a little longer than normal. I considered that it just went bad but if the wrong type of charger killed it I didn't want to kill the next one.
 

bocco

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Yes, I run a mag, XS battery that was in the boat when I bought it 4 years ago. Was fine the weekend before. It wouldn't turn the engine over but showed a full charge, aka no joy. I did leave it on the charger a little longer than normal. I considered that it just went bad but if the wrong type of charger killed it I didn't want to kill the next one.

Is that a 16V cranking battery? I've never head of that? Is that to spin high compressionn?
 

77charger

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I may put a charger on my boat about once a month over night.Most times i just plug in the battery maintainers from harbor freight left over the winter and batts are strong charged my staring battery is 6 years old.

On my stand up ski i rode weekly i will put a low amp charger on it night before just to top it off since charging system aint that great.
 

Mike K

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I’ve got 5 batteries on CTEK tenders for years in my Havi garage with no issues “ but” I kinda like this idea of putting them on
timers.
 

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I’ve got 5 batteries on CTEK tenders for years in my Havi garage with no issues “ but” I kinda like this idea of putting them on
timers.

i stopped using my CTEK when I went to the timer. Each time the power went off, you had to push the mode button again to choose the type of battery you were charging. I figured that probably wasn’t a good thing.
 

RitcheyRch

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I stopped using a Ctek charger when we had a power surge at my house and it overcharged an Optima Bluetop. I now use an Optima charger and have it run through an power surge protector.

i stopped using my CTEK when I went to the timer. Each time the power went off, you had to push the mode button again to choose the type of battery you were charging. I figured that probably wasn’t a good thing.
 

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I stopped using a Ctek charger when we had a power surge at my house and it overcharged an Optima Bluetop. I now use an Optima charger and have it run through an power surge protector.

That is probably why i bought 2 Waverunner batteries this year.
 

CJ_Donahue

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I run two of the $20 Harbor Freight trickle chargers for 3 hours a day on a timer and the timer is plugged into a surge protector. The total set up was around $50 and I have had great success with batteries lasting up to 6 years.
 

RitcheyRch

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The charger got extremely hot and Ctek believes that when the power came back on that the power spiked and immediately overcharged the battery.

That is probably why i bought 2 Waverunner batteries this year.
 

mbrown2

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Since we just lost a boat due to a suspect battery tender or installation of one I really thought about how do this for the new boat.......Here is what we are going with for the replacement boat...wanted something not mounted in the boat or have to carry in/out. Wanted something low voltage to charge both batteries at once....but easy to plug in/out. This will be plugged into a 7 day timer where it will charge 2-3hrs
Battery Charger.jpg
a day ….and a surge protector between the wall outlet/timer and the unit itself. Charger/Plug in leads/25' extensions to plug into the leads.
 

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PlanB

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^^^ I use that same tender on our Duramax truck with the two batteries. It's been working good for a few years now.
 

throttle

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All the years, I have never had a charger, never felt I have needed one. I always felt that running the boat a lot kept things operational. The toon has one and I don’t even know what to do with it. I know better than to plug it in and leave.


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