Battery Question????

[SpeckWick]

I bought a new deepcycle cattery at BPS last week for my new trolling motor. When I got it home, it was not even half charged. Having heard of this sort of thing before, I charged it overnight and through the following day. It seemed to take the charge fine. A couple days later, it had lost some charge, according to my trolling motor battery meter, so I charged it again. Two days with the boat outside in the cold, and today when I got on the water it was down to half charge. Today was the first time I actually used it. Should I be concerned or return the battery? It has been in the teens and twentys at night this week. I am heading to Weiss next week and would hate to have a trip ruined by a defective battery.
Also, I have an onboard charger in the back of the boat for my cranking battery, and use a portable one for the trolling motor battery and accessory battery up front. The portable has a 6 amp and 2 amp charge rate. I have always charged on 6 amp. Is this right, or should I be doing 2 amp?

[tarheel]

It sounds like your battery could have a bad cell or two. That is of course assuming that your trolling motor lights are correct. Do you have some other way to test the charge of the battery? Alot of battery chargers now (like you get from Lowes) will tell you how dead the battery is before you start charging by the initial amp draw to charge. My dead batteries begin by drawing 30 amps, but a full one will draw less than 1 amp......

[FisherMike]

I would take it back for sure. I'd be willing to bet there is at least one bad cell.

So many places take bad batteries back and then put them back on the shelf. I've seen that over and over. I'm not saying BPS does but Wally World does for sure as well as Big K.

[slowpole]

I definitely would not feel comfortable taking chances on a dead battery on the water and would go ahead and exchange the battery while I can.

[broharrell]

I would take the battery back with the quickness! Also you need to get a 10 amp charger. A 6 amp doesn't get the deep cycle charged. When the battery is run down it should be charged on a 10 amp charger for 10 hrs. I learned this from Jimmy Houston's show.

[SpeckWick]

Unfortunately, my charger doesn't tell initial amp draw. it is an older one that has the needle guage that shows 0-100% plus charge and how long till full charge. When I hooked it up yesterday evening, it pretty much showed the smae thing as the trolling motor battery guage said, 50% charge. This morning it is up to 100% according to my charger, but I am going tomorrow to exchange it. I won't be able to sleep at night from worrying about it if I don't. I think I need a new charger too. Ever notice how buying one thing turns into 5 or 10 things in this hobby?

[fiddlefarter]

Take it back...Peace of mind. and it's no big deal to BPS. I'm sure sometimes they get a bad one

[gabowman]

I'd take it back. You bought and paid for a new battery and that is what you should have gotten....not one that wont hold a charge. A dead battery on the lake is no fun!

[slowpole]

I just bought the 2 port on-board charger from bps and love it! All have to do is plug that bad boy in don't have to worry about over/under charging. Man I love this thing. The 2 port is $90.

[FishnLine]

Take it back! It may save your fishing trip one day. One day soon.