Marine vs Automotive Batteries

[Salty Nutz]

I'm wondering what are your guys throughs on using a Automotive battery instead of a marine. I have a 2019 AR195 that is stock and I have no plans on changing that. I have anyway been a fan of odyssey batteries and been looking at the 1750 auto battery, but they do have a 1500 marine battery . Of course the 1750 is more powerful than the 1500.

 

[FLBulldogger]

Generally speaking I have always understood that a car battery is more of a "starter" battery and that a marine battery is designed to act as a starter battery and then provide power for the boat afterwards. I believe that the marine batteries are built stronger than car batteries. However I don't think that the marine battery has as much of a battery life compared to the car battery.

 

[Salty Nutz]

Ever since I got my boat I always felt the battery wasn't big enough. The stock battery is rated for 500cca. But the odyssey marine 1500 has 1500cca for the first 5 sec then drops back to 850cca after that. On paper the odyssey battery is far superior than the stock battery

 

[FLBulldogger]

Sounds like the odyssey is more robust for starting, you can always go to a 2 battery system for your peace of mind and enjoying tunes while on the water!

 

[Meetball]

I maybe way off on this but I would be looking at deep cycle vs starting battery when it comes to marine. Normally marine batteries you will find will be labeled as starting or deep cycle. Our boats dont take much to start so cca are kind of pointless in our world. Now if it were a big v8 then sure. You will find a marine deep cycle or rv deep cycle better suited for our boating experience. I run a current setup of 4 marine deep cycle batteries for my application but I also run a crap ton of stereo for long periods at the sandbar.

 

[Jim Crane]

Automotive batteries or Starter batteries are designed to give a lot of cranking amps, but do not have a ton of storage charge. So don't leave your lights on without the car on or the battery will go dead fast.

Marine or deep cycle batteries have less starting amps, but will last longer. So they might not give you enough of a charge to start a car when it is below freezing but you can leave the bilge pump on for a long period of time.

But you can destroy a Starter battery if you let it run down more than 50%. It might never give you that top 50% again. But a deep cycle is designed to run down to a low charge and you can charge it back up again to full without much worry but it is still harder on it than if you never let it run down. This is why you have to replace your boat battery more often than the car battery. Your car battery is always typically fully charged. Batteries like that.

 

[Cambo]

For the deep cycle marine battries you will want some type of high amp charger . If the boat was driven like a car and had an alternator the automotive battery would last a long time like they do in cars, these boats have stators its not as robust of a charging system and the long time in between charges allows the battery do get low and thats when the damage occurs.

 

[Salty Nutz]

Thanks for the replies guys. What are your thoughts on the stock battery? Is there a battery that someone prefers then the stock?

 

[Maxdog21]

I found this searching the forum when I had the same question and I don't think you can beat it.

Duracell AGM Deep Cycle Marine and RV Battery - Group Size 31 - Sam's Club

 

[jEt_jAk]

I have the Odyssey marine battery. Expensive but it is awesome

 

[Meetball]

I found this searching the forum when I had the same question and I don't think you can beat it.

Duracell AGM Deep Cycle Marine and RV Battery - Group Size 31 - Sam's Club

I am running 4 of these for the stereo

 

[Jgorm]

I have 2 standard car batteries. I think group 24. I keep them on a battery tender. You can start these engines on a tiny jetski battery. My waverunner had the same engine and a little 6"battery. I prefer sealed batteries, but lots of times i buy wet because it's hard to justify the price of sealed or agm. Agm will take more abuse from running them down and not keeping them in a charger, but I'm pretty serious about having all my toys hooked to battery tenders or equivalent. I top off the water once per year. I have 18 12v batteries i maintain between all my vehicles and toys. I learned long ago that not keeping them on a charger will destroy then quickly, and proper maintenance will get you 6-8+ years on any type of battery. Never suck a battery totally dead! They probably lose 20% capacity each time, but deep cycle and agm might only lose 5-10%. It's worth spending double on agm if you plan on abusing your batteries.
I run Walmart and Costco batteries in most vehicles, but i have trojan deep cycle for my coach batteries in the rv, and an optima in the mustang (but mostly because it has an optima mount and I'm too lazy to change it back)

 

[Julian]

Thanks for the replies guys. What are your thoughts on the stock battery? Is there a battery that someone prefers then the stock?

There is no such thing as a "stock" battery, each dealer installs their own battery of choice.

My starter battery is a Deka, 1000 MCA, 800 CCA. My house battery is a deep cycle.

 

[Salty Nutz]

My dealer installed a marine Hi-Tech 500 cca battery.