Boat batteries over the long cold storage times:

[REW]

Boat batteries in the winter storage times.

Please do not take storage batteries out of the boat and store them in either your home or garage.

Huge potential for starting a fire or having some other issue with the batteries that may cause substantial damage.

Rather - just charge the batteries, and if a wet cell, top off the fluid after charging and then charge another 4 hours to insure that any extra water added gets circulated in the battery.

Then, just disconnect all of the wires from one terminal of each battery - or just do what ever is needed to be 100% positive that you are not getting any discharge current coming out of the battery during storage. Even in far below zero temperatures, the batteries will be fine and will not require any charging as long as the battery is in good shape in the fall when storage starts.

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A true story of a neighbor who had decided to take the starting battery out of his small fishing boat.
He had the battery charged and had left it in his home laundry room, which had the only bare concrete floor in the house.
He did not have the battery in a box, but rather just sitting on a piece of wood.

During that winter, the neighbor's obtained a small puppy. Both the he and she of the neighbor's worked during the day. To avoid accidents, they had a chain attached to the collar on the puppy and it was tied to a location in the laundry room, so that any accidents could be easily cleaned up from the bare concrete floor.

One day, when both folks were at work, the puppy was exploring in the laundry room, jumping here and there. One if his jumps caused the chain to drop on top of one of the battery terminals. A 2nd jump caused the chain to continue and drop across the 2nd battery terminal.

The fire inspector figured that when the chain shorted out the battery, the chain got red hot between the terminal, causing a high rate of discharge - which caused the batteries to release hydrogen gas. As the chain continued to get hotter and hotter, the white hot chain finally caused the free hydrogen to explode, leading to the rest of the battery exploding.

By the time that the fire men answered the home fire call - called in from a neighbor and before the fire men had the home fire under control -- about 2/3rd of the home and garage had been burned to the ground.

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Sure, you can say that you can put a battery in a covered box, which is good. But, if you do any charging of the battery over the course of long storage, any overcharging could cause the batteries to release gas, and place the room in a potential explosive situation.

The same is true of storing the battery on the floor of the garage.

If you happen to have some out gassing of the battery in a garage, and happen to have some poor insulation on a spark plug wire - the hydrogen that might be floating around could be ignited by an unwanted spark from a bad spark plug wire when the vehicle is started resulting in destruction of the vehicle, folks and garage and home if the garage is attached to the home.

Good luck

[Bobby Winds]

Long term boat battery storage is best achieved by just keeping your on-board charger plugged in during the winter. It don's get no easier or better then this.......and it extends battery life by a lot. I wouldn't be without one.

"The innovative chargers extend battery life and maximize reserve performance using digitally selectable four-stage performance charge profiles with a built-in Storage Recondition Mode that operates automatically every 30 days during short- and long-term storage".

http://www.promariner.com/en/news/prosportgeneration3

[DW]

The electrical draw of onboard boat battery chargers when connected to charged batteries probably varies a lot by manufacturer. When I attach a Kilometer to my onboard charger for extended periods after fully charged I am disappointed by the high power consumption. Rather than unnecessarily draw electrical 24/7, I keep my charger unplugged most of the time and plug it back in overnight at least monthly.

[Baseline]

Recommended battery storage by Interstate Battery

http://blogbattery.com/2012/10/how-t...for-the-winter

[tv4fish]

Agree Baseline - Best to go by manufacturer's recommendation - they SHOULD know. I would never leave my onboard charger plugged in for the entire Winter.

I am disappointed by the high power consumption.

That is only one reason.

[doubleheader]

Originally Posted by Bobby Winds

Long term boat battery storage is best achieved by just keeping your on-board charger plugged in during the winter. It don's get no easier or better then this.......and it extends battery life by a lot. I wouldn't be without one.

"The innovative chargers extend battery life and maximize reserve performance using digitally selectable four-stage performance charge profiles with a built-in Storage Recondition Mode that operates automatically every 30 days during short- and long-term storage".

http://www.promariner.com/en/news/prosportgeneration3

Bobby I know you are a proponent of this but it's really not necessary and can have hazardous results. A good friend of mine lived by that code until his tender malfunctioned and burned up his boat, garage and contents. He was lucky the house was separated from the garage.

[GBS]

For those of us that are lazy AND live in cold climates, however:

See here:
http://www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/WP_...orage_0512.pdf

While the recommended is a cool place and topping them off once in a while, if your battery is stored at 42 F, at the end of 19 weeks it will still have 80% of it's capacity. Extrapolating, 38 weeks at 42 F before it self-discharges to 60%, where it really must be charged again. Or far,far longer if even somewhat colder, like 32 and below.
Note from the other chart that freezing is of no concern, unless you live in a REALLY cold climate.

Of course, being under a cover and in the sun can drive up temps if you store your boat outside. But for most Minnesotans, disconnecting the batteries, putting your boat away late in the year, in a shaded spot, and getting it out early, is about as much battery maintenance as you have to worry about....

If the space is heated, or you live in the South (like Iowa or Illinois)...then you might want to start thinking about maintenance charges, etc.

[cyber16]

manufacturer's recommendation - they SHOULD know

lol, ecept Interstate manufacturers nothing

Their recommendations are combo mixture of info from those that actually make them batteries.
So if you purchase a C&D made model or a Johnson products or a enersys model.
You may be better going to them for the info of maintenance & storage. Although they will vary little, sometimes a higher or lower float is called for

[Bobby Winds]

Originally Posted by doubleheader

Bobby I know you are a proponent of this but it's really not necessary and can have hazardous results. A good friend of mine lived by that code until his tender malfunctioned and burned up his boat, garage and contents. He was lucky the house was separated from the garage.

Thanks for the heads up on that, I think I remember you mentioning that once before or someone did.

Bottom line, I have had great success doing this and never a problem. I have had batteries (starter battery) last 9 years and only changed it out because it was 9 years old and I spend a lot of time in open waters of Lake Erie and Ontario. I just changed out my TM batteries at 7 years old.

I really don't see a jump in my electric bills other then when the A/C is running for months on end. The unit is OK by Underwriters Lab but you are right, anything can malfunction. My wife works with a women that I call "the nutcase" because of how scared she lives. She unplugs everything except her fridge when she goes ANYWHERE including to work. She will not even get a EZPASS because she afraid the government will track her on the NYS Thruway. I can't live like that....

But again, good advice for those who don't want to keep it plugged in.

[Suzuki]

I cant charge them once per month when stored offsite so I must take the batteries out and store at home or I risk them freezing and deteriorating over the winter.