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Floating Mind Floating Mind is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 8
Default Battery Killer - That's Me

Ping - Larry The Cable Guy, or should I say Larry The Charger Guy.

Larry, In past posts you've mentioned that most batteries don't die of
old age, that they're usually mistreated in one way or another and
killed prematurely.
I've listened to that advice, have been careful with my batteries, and
they've treated me pretty good. Well, last weekend when I got to the
boat I noticed I forgot to open the main battery disconnect when I left
the previous weekend, and the battery that supplies the stereo system
was DEAD! I wasn't surprised, but I knew what it probably meant, and
sure enough it won't take a charge now. I haven't tried an old
fashioned charger yet, but I did try my Schumacher 12 Amp Ship to Shore
Supreme Fully Automatic.
http://www.batterychargers.com/detai...%2DPE&catid=21

It's not the end of the world, it's only 1 deep cycle battery, but it
was only 14 months old, so in that respect it kinda hurts.

Anything I can do to get _some_ life back into it?

Question #2) Not relating to previous question, this is just a general
charging question for decent batteries. You've also mentioned in past
posts that it's better to charge a battery slowly. What I usually do is
leave one battery on the charger at the dock when I leave for the
weekend. The Schumacher Fully Automatic allows me to do this and not
worry about it even if I don't come back for two weeks. But even if I
do come back the following weekend it's still been on the charger for 4
or 5 days minimum. I don't use my batteries in banks, I use them singly
in different areas of the boat, so is there a smaller(amperage) charger
that is fully automatic that would work better for me in that
application? Being that the battery will always have at least 4 days to
charge I'm thinking it might be better to use one that is less than 12
amp capable. What do you think?