Thread: Battery life

It would really depend on the condition of the cranking batt, how old is it? Also to consider is how much power the radio has in watts (rms), how loud you listen to the radio, and fairly important, how efficient are the speakers you installed in the boat (cheapo's vs some decent ones). You could charge the batt good before you go and should be ok.

Probably be OK.....Try it and see.....take some jumper cables with you ( I keep some in my boat all the time) you can jump off of one of the trolling motor batterys if you have to.

Yes, you should be OK. With a full charge you won't have any problem if your battery is in good shape.

A little battery maintence 101.

From an old Diesel/Electric boat Submariner, If everyone would completely diacharge their batteries once a month and then hit it with a fast charge until it is three quarters charged and then trickle charge it to specific gravity of 12.86, it would last about three to five times longer.


What happends to most batteries, they always stay charged and the electralite stays built up on on the positive plates. After a while it eats on the plates and eventually they will short out, but if you discharge the battery the electralite moves to the neg. plates. This is what we did on the diesel/electric boats and they last a very lomg time.

The last battery I had in my car lasted 9 and a half years before I traded it.

Have a good evening.
Jim

Originally Posted by jyw1221

From an old Diesel/Electric boat Submariner, If everyone would completely diacharge their batteries once a month and then hit it with a fast charge until it is three quarters charged and then trickle charge it to specific gravity of 12.86, it would last about three to five times longer.

What happends to most batteries, they always stay charged and the electralite stays built up on on the positive plates. After a while it eats on the plates and eventually they will short out, but if you discharge the battery the electralite moves to the neg. plates. This is what we did on the diesel/electric boats and they last a very lomg time.

This is 100% incorrect and will ruin a battery very quickly

Not sure about the advice here. Bluethunder didn't specify if he was using a starter battery or a deep cell as his cranking battery. I'll assume it is a cranking battery not designed to be discharged and recharged so... my answer is yes, it will quickly discharge running the radio and will be ruined in short order by discharging/recharging it. Buy a deep cell/cranking marine battery and rock away the night.
I run motor, internal lights, external lights, aerator, sump pump, radio, fish-finder and cigar lighter all off one marine deep cell/starter battery with no problems. Course your motor needs to do the recharging when running also.

Originally Posted by CatFan

This is 100% incorrect and will ruin a battery very quickly

Well Sir, When were you Submarine Qualified?

All I know is it work for the Navy and it damn sure works for me, but go ahead and replace your batteries every two to three years. Mind will last a lot longer.

Thanks for the info. I ran it for about 7 hours today at a moderate level with no issues. I think this is going to work out well.