I have a two year old Interstate brand marine starting battery. It has not
been holding a charge suffiecient to start the engine. The battery is only
used to start the engine and is not used to power any accesories when the
engine is not running. It is stored out of the boat in my basement for the
winter and is then connected to a Guest brand trickle charger. I have
charged the battery out of the boat using an external battery charger in
an attempt to determine whether or not there is some sort of unknown drain
on the battery when it is not in use,, but the battery will not take a
charge strong enough to start th engine. The battery boasts a two year pro
rated warranty and as luck would have it, two years ended last month!

My question for the group is what is the average life expectency of a marine
battery? Should it be longer than two years? Anyone have a preference on a
good brand of replacement battery?

Thanks

Mark

It depends on the care and the use of the battery, the only one i would
recomend is a North State Marine Battery, also know as a Deka. Many
companies sell the battery under their names (North State), but its a Deka.
Very nice battery and hard to beat, the 24M5 is good for carbed low draw
motors where as the 24M7 or 27M6 are the better choice for high number of
onboard electronics or fuel injected motors. Hope this helps.

--
Bruce
99 White WJ 4x4 Select Trac
89 YJ
03 Liberty Ltd L.O.S.T #000256
90 XJ6 Sovereign

"MC" wrote in message
...
I have a two year old Interstate brand marine starting battery. It has not
been holding a charge suffiecient to start the engine. The battery is only
used to start the engine and is not used to power any accesories when the
engine is not running. It is stored out of the boat in my basement for the
winter and is then connected to a Guest brand trickle charger. I have
charged the battery out of the boat using an external battery charger in
an attempt to determine whether or not there is some sort of unknown drain
on the battery when it is not in use,, but the battery will not take a
charge strong enough to start th engine. The battery boasts a two year pro
rated warranty and as luck would have it, two years ended last month!

My question for the group is what is the average life expectency of a
marine
battery? Should it be longer than two years? Anyone have a preference on a
good brand of replacement battery?

Thanks

Mark

"MC" wrote in message
...
I have a two year old Interstate brand marine starting battery. It has not
been holding a charge suffiecient to start the engine. The battery is only
used to start the engine and is not used to power any accesories when the
engine is not running. It is stored out of the boat in my basement for the
winter and is then connected to a Guest brand trickle charger. I have
charged the battery out of the boat using an external battery charger in
an attempt to determine whether or not there is some sort of unknown drain
on the battery when it is not in use,, but the battery will not take a
charge strong enough to start th engine. The battery boasts a two year pro
rated warranty and as luck would have it, two years ended last month!

My question for the group is what is the average life expectency of a
marine
battery? Should it be longer than two years? Anyone have a preference on a
good brand of replacement battery?


If kept fully charged, yes, a starter battery can give you 8 years, or,
more correctly, a few thousand starting cycles. Let it discharge, and stay
discharged for a week or more and it will slowly lose capacity through
'sulphation', a hardening of the chemicals on the plates.

Check the Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) rating of your battery and make sure it
meets the engine manufacturer's requirement. you don't mention your engine
type, but a 4 cylinder 2 litre diesel would typically need about 600CCA.
Engine handbook should give the figure.

If you're using a 'marine' battery for starting, there is a possibility it's
been designed for deep cycle use. Deep cycle batteries won't tolerate high
amp draw down, and they'll soon die if used as starter batteries, but this
should show as a low CCA figure.

Most battery brands are pretty reliable if you've got the right battery for
the job, and if you keep it well charged (and topped up with de-ionised
water) all its life.
--
Jim B, Yacht RAPAZ,
Summers in the Med, winters in UK
jim[dot]baerselman[at]ntlworld[dot]com

I use only "gel" type marine starting batteries and typically get 4-6 years
of hard offshore/rough water use. Problem with Interstate, Exide, etc... is
loosening of plates in the housing, then loosing one cell. This rarely
happens with gel batteries due to there construction. Check with volt meter,
if battery is below 11 or 11.5 volts, you can pretty much be sure that one
cell is damaged.

"MC" wrote in message
...
I have a two year old Interstate brand marine starting battery. It has not
been holding a charge suffiecient to start the engine. The battery is only
used to start the engine and is not used to power any accesories when the
engine is not running. It is stored out of the boat in my basement for the
winter and is then connected to a Guest brand trickle charger. I have
charged the battery out of the boat using an external battery charger in
an attempt to determine whether or not there is some sort of unknown drain
on the battery when it is not in use,, but the battery will not take a
charge strong enough to start th engine. The battery boasts a two year pro
rated warranty and as luck would have it, two years ended last month!

My question for the group is what is the average life expectency of a
marine
battery? Should it be longer than two years? Anyone have a preference on a
good brand of replacement battery?

Thanks

Mark

MC wrote:

I have a two year old Interstate brand marine starting battery.

Snip

It is stored out of the boat in my basement for the
winter and is then connected to a Guest brand trickle charger.

This says it all...:-)

You cannot simply leave a lead acid battery sitting in your basement
uncharged over winter and then expect it to take a full charge using a
trickle charger. You might get away with it for the first year but after
a second year of similar treatment it will be kaput due to sulphation of
the plates. When storing a battery over a lengthy period you need to
have it permanently connected to a maintenance charger which
automatically looks after it so that it is ready to go when you need it.
I recommend chargers from Dual Pro http://www.dualpro.com/
They are rugged, waterproof and use proven technology.

Ross Herbert

I have a two year old Interstate brand marine starting battery.

Snip

It is stored out of the boat in my basement for the
winter and is then connected to a Guest brand trickle charger.

This says it all...:-)

Dude, I've put it on a block of wood and not on a cement floor and have
gotten 6 years out of these batteries