posted 01-28-2005 05:44 PM ET (US)            

Sears item #02871220000

It costs $29 bucks.

Buy two.

When you get home and put the boat in the garage, plug both into the wall outlet next to the boat and clip the clips to the positive and negative terminals.

You should never worry about the charge again (with a regular maintenance and replacement schedule).

posted 01-28-2005 07:22 PM ET (US)            

This charger will "float" the battery - i.e. not overcharge it and is a low amp charger...it works slowly and then maintains the battery's charge...so during the week, your batteries will be charging up, ready for whatever loads you throw at them when fishing on the weekends.

Your friend is right that the charging capacity of your motors should keep your batteries fully charged, but nav lights are a pretty big draw and unless you're running at speed, the charger won't keep up (a good battery though, can recover from this type of activity).

I'm reading a book called the 12-Volt Bible for Boats by Miner K. Brotherton, and Edwin R. Sherman.

posted 01-28-2005 09:20 PM ET (US)            

quote:

---

I don't have a meter on the console to tell me the condition of my batteries, so I never know if I'm fully charged.

---

posted 01-28-2005 10:07 PM ET (US)            

So get a smart charger. The Sears charger buckda reccommended
is really a Schumacher SE-1562A, but the Sears price is
really good. I keep the whaler on an earlier Schumacher, and
my occasionally driven Corvette (< 500 miles per year) on
another. The last Vette battery lasted about 14 years, and
what killed it was that I forgot to plug in the charger when
it sat for three months with an unrelated problem.

And I still carry jumper cables, a set in the truck, a set in
the Vette, and a set in the boat. They earn me a couple of
six-packs a year. The boat set gets used the most.

posted 01-29-2005 01:19 PM ET (US)            

--to remove parasitic currents which would consume some of the charging current, and,

--to protect connected devices from voltage transients which will occur during the charging process, particularly if any spark is generated during the connecting making or breaking, or;

--to protect connected devices from over voltage which may occur during the charging if the charger is not well regulated.

Batteries can be stored in a house.

Batteries can be charged in a house.

The process of charging can release hydrogen gas. If you want to collect the gas you should enclose the battery in an airtight environment. If you don't enclose the battery in an airtight container the hydrogen gas released will immediately drift off into the air and mix with the other colorless, odorless, tasteless, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, neon, and helium gases already present.

The manufacturer of the charger included instructions to locate the charger far away from the battery because he wanted to cover himself against any liability when you:

--hooked it up in reverse polarity and cause an minor exlposion;
--charged it in a closed environment and collected a lot of hydrogen gas, which you then ignited when you;
--generated a big spark by disconnecting the charging cable to the battery with the current still flowing.

As a general rule I have found that the less you understand about electricity, the more carefully you have to select the people whom you let advise you about electricity. To gain greater understanding about basic electricity and battery charging concepts I recommend getting a good book on the subject. Well written books are really wonderful sources of information when you need to start at an elementary level, and they can quickly teach you a great deal about a subject in a organized and well thought out manner.

There are entire websites whose sole purpose is to discuss batteries and how to care for them, and they also offer a great deal of insight into this area.

If are interested in the state of charge of your batteries, the absolute first thing you need to do is to be able to determine their state of charge. You mention that you have no way to do this at the moment, so before you go further into exploration of this topic I really, seriously, suggest you get some method of measuring the charge in your batteries.

Personally, I cannot perform any electrical work unless I have a decent FLUKE digital voltmeter at hand, but that may be overkill for you.

After many years of working with battery operated equipment of all kinds, I have developed a general approach to trouble-shooting of battery operated equipment which is based on this rule:

Hebert's Rule
When any battery-operated electrical devices no longer functions properly, check the battery first.

posted 01-30-2005 12:04 AM ET (US)            

A 12V battery will absorb some major transients.

posted 02-01-2005 01:08 AM ET (US)            

It has a diode and automatically maintains a full charge on the batteries.

It's not a trickle charge. Its a float charger.

There is a difference.

The best 6.00 bucks you will ever spend.

posted 02-01-2005 06:29 PM ET (US)            

Today with my own boat, I leave them in the console and connected.

Anyone have an explaination for the wooden board thing?

posted 02-02-2005 12:13 AM ET (US)            

A trickle charger puts out a constant amount of charge,although small, irregardless of the condition of the battery.

A float charger will shut off when the battery is full and as the battery discharges it will kick back on.

A float charger is easier on the battery.

I use it on my batteries.

They regularly sell for about 15.00 but harbor freight has them for sale for 6.50 quite often.

I also use them on small rechargeable dry batteries that are used with rotary duck wings which I make and sell.

posted 02-02-2005 02:00 AM ET (US)            

Please wait while loading...

You can type in Float charger in google and get lots of info on the difference between an float and a trickle charger.

Here is just one example:

Battery Chargers
What is a SmartCharger ?

Battery life and capacity are critical, and costly parameters that should be maximised by battery chargers, especially in 'cyclic' use applications.
To maximise life and capacity, the charger must be very sophisticated. That's where the Innovative SmartCharger fits in.

Typical constant voltage chargers do not return the battery to a fully charged state in a reasonable length of time, and, over wide temperature ranges a battery's charge voltage must be adjusted to suit. For example, a charger that has a fixed output voltage will not fully charge the battery at 0°C, whereas at 50°C the battery may be drastically overcharged.

The control IC implemented in the SmartCharger range is purpose designed for sealed lead-acid batteries and incorporates temperature compensation, 'bulk' charging (to attain 100% charge) and 'float' to maintain charged state. In addition, it is endowed with natural protection from reverse polarity connection and detects unserviceable batteries.

posted 02-02-2005 09:56 AM ET (US)            

See:

http://batterytender.com/faqs.php/?osCsid=91b34e95c9dd829177b8015790dae426#19

An excerpt:

"The simple definition of float / maintenance charging is that voltage is continuously applied to the battery terminals."

This sounds exactly like trickle charging.

posted 02-02-2005 11:48 AM ET (US)            

/www.familydefense.com

I wouldn't use the float charger for bringing a run down battery back up to a full charge.

The float charger is used for maintaining a battery at full charge without
the risk of overcharging.

seems to me that there is a difference between a float and a trickle charger.

My brother is a electronics geek and into batteries for his model remote control planes and boats.

He recommended the float charger to me and I have maintained my batteries in this manner. Works for me. The batteries don't overheat and they are
always fully charged.

Does your trickle charger shut itself off?

ebay sells them too.. but the cheapest is from harbor freight on sale and picked up at the store...6.50

posted 02-09-2005 09:09 AM ET (US)            

As far as I can tell, a "trickle charger" just means a charger that has a low current charger--a "trickle"--and thus is effectively the same as a "float charger".

My point is just that I do not think that your definition of a float charger as being distinct from a trickle charger is particularly held universally, nor is it something that you could expect everyone to acknowledge.

Many batteries are maintained by connection to float chargers or trickle chargers that provide low charging current until the battery terminal voltage reaches the charger's output voltage. Since most batteries are considered to be fully charged at about 12.8 volts, a float charger will typically have its output voltage set to be just above that.

If you connect a battery to a poorly designed float charger that has its output voltage set far above the battery's full-charge terminal voltage, you can over charge the battery and probably eventually bubble out too much electrolyte. My feeling is that anything you get at WALMART for $7 is probably not designed by a nuclear physicist, if you know what I mean.

Actually, I don't do any of this stuff to my boat batteries. I install them in the spring with a full-charge, and I go boating all season. In the fall I remove them, give them a full-charge, and let them sit in the utility room, on the concrete floor, all winter. Maybe in January or February I will hook the charger to them for a day and set the current to 2-amperes (or less), and float the batteries back to full charge. That is it.

If your boat usage pattern requires that you re-charge the batteries when the boat is not in use, it seems like a simple matter. Either use a portable charger and charge them in place, or buy a marine battery charger and install it on the boat in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

posted 02-22-2005 04:41 PM ET (US)            

http://promariner.com/productFeature.php?ProductNum=51020

Seems like this is much easier than opening the battery box, disconnecting your electrical cables, attaching alligator clips.... Am I missing something here? No one has mentioned this option.