Thumbs up to our charging systems

[Evil Sports]

First time in 3 years I forgot to turn off the battery main, put the boat in the water turn the key and not even a click. Im like No problem, I have trolling motor batteries. One of the people with me has jumper cables so we try them off the other battery, barely turns the motor.
Theres a guy on the ramp with his truck that offers me a jump, Boom starts. Now Im worried what happens when I shut her down so I go for a 30 minute ride at good Rs, come back to the dock and say what the heck I gotta see whats going to happen, restarts like nothing. I didnt take any chances, removed that battery and shore charged it over night. It was a pleasant surprise to see how well the charging system on our boats works.

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Good to hear!

 

[jcyamaharider]

Now the question is why did the battery drain? What is pulling voltage? I never shut my batteries off.

 

[Julian]

Depends if he left anything turned on too....

 

[Gym]

Yup, the battery switch ONLY makes voltage available to anything that is turned on. Nothing on, no drain.

 

[Matt Phillips]

For me, the hidden drain is ALWAYS the lightning the closet/head. Seems people just can't remember to turn it off when cleaning out that area after an evening cruise...

 

[Ronnie]

Can it be that the battery is just going bad? My batteries from Walmart only have a three year pro-rated warranty so if I don't keep them on a charger maintainer I only expect to get three years out of them.

 

[Gym]

Can it be that the battery is just going bad? My batteries from Walmart only have a three year pro-rated warranty so if I don't keep them on a charger maintainer I only expect to get three years out of them.

Do they sell marine batteries at Walmart? I can get marine rated batteries at Auto Zone here but not at Walmart.

 

[Ronnie]

@ Gym, Walmart's batteries are not marked marine or non-marine / standard (?). They sell various sizes of deep cranking and Standard batteries with several terminal configurations/types. They also sell AGM (absorbent glass mat) batteries but only the small ones for motorcycles, pwcs, riding lawn mowers, etc. what I like about Walmart's batteries is the price, usually under $100. I can get optima gel cell batteries at a near by auto store but not for less than closer to $200 each.

Once upon a time I thought I would be replacing my batteries every two years no matter what so price was the controlling factor over what I bought. this is my fifth season on my current batteries which are on a charger / maintainer if I'm not in the water and so far I've had no issues with them but if / when I do the first step I will take is to have them tested and replaced if necessary, probably with something from the auto store since they have the ability to test batteries whereas Walmart may not.

 

[Volffas]

For me, the hidden drain is ALWAYS the lightning the closet/head. Seems people just can't remember to turn it off when cleaning out that area after an evening cruise...

This was our problem the time we had a dead battery. The kicker was, we were 2 hours from home and a 1/2 hour away from the nearest autozone. Due to bad weather the weeks before, we hadn't been in our boat for almost 3 weeks and the battery was completely shot. Now I just unhook the battery every time we are done.

 

[Gym]

I have bought batteries at Walmart for my cars and even bought one for a tractor. Car batteries are built for high discharge to start the engine after which they just sit there and get recharged by the alternator. Marine batteries have a combined job of high discharge for engine starting and later slow discharge for running radios, lighting and bilge pumps. For this reason the lead plates in a Marine battery are made with thicker lead plates which partially reflect their higher price.

I am in my 10th year on my origional battery. I only have a single battery on the boat so it functions as my start and house battery. I only put it on a charger 2 to 3 times a season so no special treatment. This spring I brought it to Auto Zone for load testing. The guy testing it said, it's fully charged, good voltage but the test shows the battery is no good. I asked how that could be. If I had a bad cell that would show up as low voltage or inability to accept a full charge. He couldn't answer my question so I will continue with my origional marine battery. I also carry a jump box just in case.

 

[swatski]

Do they sell marine batteries at Walmart? I can get marine rated batteries at Auto Zone here but not at Walmart.

Sam's club

 

[Gym]

No brag here but I just finished my 6th season in my 2006 SX230 with its origional, factory installed, battery. That's 11 years for this battery which is the only battery on my boat. I was also not able to charge my battery this season as I've been on a lift. Don't have a clue why it's lasted so long as I don't baby it.

As I mentioned in my previous post above Auto Zone tested my battery this spring and declared it no good. Not believing them I ran it all season with no issues. Not to tempt fate I've always carried a jump box but never had to use it for my boat.

 

[Evil Sports]

Now the question is why did the battery drain? What is pulling voltage? I never shut my batteries off.

The"Kids" forgot to turn off the radio, they unplugged the aux cord from their phone and to them the music stopped so thats the end of it all

 

[kindtampa]

@Evil Sports Glad everything worked out in the end.

Sam's club

Sam's club has excellent deals on batteries. I'm not a member though.
Group 31 AGM $179

Home Depot has really good deals on Exide Nautilus batteries. $79 for a group 27, and $99 for a group 31. I'm eye balling the group 27 for my second battery install I'm planing.

 

[subysti]

Exide naut batteries are good. Love mine. Exide is one of the 3 battery manufacturers. Exide, Johnson and Delphi make pretty much all the batteries with a few smaller brands.

 

[ncnmra]

I decided to go from starting batteries to deep cycle with the theory that our engines are very small

It was a pleasant surprise to see how well the charging system on our boats works.

I've read up a lot about this. Our boats do not have an alternator, but rather a "stator". From what I have read, they don't have the "juice" to really recharge a battery, it is more meant to keep a battery charged. However, the service manual states that the "Generator output" is 12V/21A, which is plenty. Also, I don't know if that it total, or per engine? Does each engine have a stator, or only one, and if so, which one, and how the charging works is a mystery to me.

I would caution two things about your observation: 1) your engine was warm, you could have probably started it by hand (not that I would recommend it), and 2) the battery likely had a surface charge only. I would guess that if you let it sit for a few hours, you may not have been so fortunate.

I used to carry around a big heavy booster with me after my very first outing and having two dead batteries (long story). I ended up buying one of these LiPo boosters which work amazing. I started a COLD 3.2L 6-cylinder with ZERO issues with this puppy. Truly amazing, and super small and light. Would fit in the boat glove compartment:

https://www.amazon.ca/Multi-function-Emergency-Flashlight-Smartphone-BTCS001/dp/B00I02SVOC

There are plenty of versions of these things, and they work great. Much more handy than the massive booster pack, and excellent piece of mind with the 'complicated' electrical systems on our boat (lights, stereos amps, etc).