Batteries over the winter

[Bob B.]

Just wondering if it's ok to keep your batteries in the boat over winter, with freezing temps, as long as their hooked up to the onboard charger all winter long? Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks
Bobby B.

[WayneH]

A fully charged battery should not freeze in your boat. It does assume that the charger will keep working all winter and they will not discharge. Is the charger designed to work in 0 degree weather? That would be my concern.

[Denied]

Bob, we make sure the batteries are fully charged then disconnect ALL leads from them, remove them from the boat and store on a piece of wood in the garage and forget about them until spring. A good battery will hold charge all winter, if one goes down we replace it in the spring. If one leaks it won't hurt the boat.
dean

Fishing Lake Erie aboard "DENIED"

(I don't represent any manufacturer or supplier "I pay my own way")

[d2bucktail]

A local Battery store owner, Richard Moeller - Remy Batteries - spoke at our (Milwuakee) Muskies Inc mtg back in May 2001. An article was written and I'm attempting to find it to share with you. I learned lots from this talk - one of the points relates directly to this thread. Richard explained that at room temperature ALL lead-acid batteries (expensive ones and cheap ones) discharge at a rate of 1% per day under no load. That means that a fully charged battery will be 90% discharged in 3 months at room temp if it is not charged. The discharge rate is less at lower temps. His recommendation was to fully charge your batteries prior to storing them for the winter and, if you don't have the luxury of having a trickle charger on them, keeping them as cold as possible. I've been storing mine in the boat after fully charging them and disconnecting them. The boat is stored in an unheated barn. The batteries are partially discharged in the spring, but they seem to take a charge and I've not seen a problem. If you bring them inside for the winter, plan on hitting them with a charger about once a month to insure they don't fully discharge. Richard also explained that today's batteries can be placed directly on a concrete floor - no need to put them on a board. Hope this helps.

D2Bucktail

[MuskieKid]

I've been researching this a bit and this is what I've learned:

Yes, you can keep them in the boat and the cold weather won't hurt them as long as the water does not freeze (not sure what happens if it does freeze). Note: most likely they will not freeze.

If you have an onboard charger you can leave them connected at all times. Most of them will cut off (not a trickle charge, but cut off) until your battery is about 90% discharged. At that point, the charger will start charging them again, and so on. Check your water on occasion to make sure it's not too low.

Portable chargers (you know - the kind that charge at (example) 10/2 amps that most people use?): these will charge them constantly at the greater amount (10 amps) and then hold a trickle charge (2 amps) on your batteries after they are fully charged. You have to check the water more often because these type of chargers will cause your battery water to evaporate much faster than an onboard charger.

Maintenance Free batteries? If your battery has caps that can be taken off and you can see the water - THEY ARE NOT MAINTAINANCE FREE (although salesmen will tell you that it's not necessary)! The only batteries that do not require the addition of DISTILLED WATER are those without caps that can be removed. Yes (we all know that regular water has mineral deposits in it that harm the battery plates) - you only add DISTILLED WATER when necessary.

Keeping your batteries on wood to keep them from discharging? From what I've found out - (it was true in the past) this is no longer necessary today with today's batteries.

Cold weather is much easier on your batteries than hot weather (discharge faster). Keeping them fully charged all of the time will make them last longer. Charge them immediately after each use and when they become low (not in use) during the off-season. I plan on keeping mine hooked up all winter.




Remember...fish don't live in ugly places!