Leave them plugged in.
With up coming back surery 4 or 5 months down what is the best way to take care of my batteries. I have 3 batteres 2 on a minn kota 212 pc and 1 on a battery tender plus 12v 1.5 a leave them plugged up or rotate on and off.
thanks Gene
Leave them plugged in.
Fair Winds and Following Seas
Bill H. PTC USN Ret
Chesapeake, Va
My last set of deep cycles were 2011 stickers I replaced them last summer. They stayed pluhhed in. The charger took care of them as needed. The new set is plugged in as well.
The love for fishing is one of the best gifts you can pass along
Leave plugged up
I have spent most my life fishing........the rest I wasted.
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PICO Lures Field Rep
After years of trying it every whichaway, for multiple lead acid batteries, I prefer to leave the trickle charger on a battery for between a couple of days to maybe a week or so, then take it off and do the same with another battery, and continue the rotation. In my opinion it gives the battery a chance to "Rest" between charges, and better desulfates the plates. I installed small digital readouts on top of my battery maintainers tapped into the leads that tells me a story: Unplugged from the 110 volts it tells me the current volts of the battery when just connected to the battery, usually between 12.3 and 12.7 volts. Plug in the charger to the 110 volts and connect to battery, small red light comes on, and it goes up to around 13.3 to 14 volts charging the battery, this is the desulfating cycle. After a period of time, the charger voltage reduces down to around 12.7 to 13 volts, small green light comes on, this is the maintenance or "Float" cycle.
Todays battery maintainers are actually "Smart Chargers", and actually do a pretty good job. This cycle starts over every time you unplug, then again plug in the charger. Just leaving it on continuously, it stays in the float mode, and does not do as good a job in regard to desulfating the plates. Another way some folks work around this is to connect the maintainer to a timer that cycles it off once a day or so for a little while, then powers it up again (Like a basic lamp timer). I know people that do this when they are going to be away from home for weeks, maybe months.
When I swap my maintainer around, the batteries tell me a story: Is the initial voltage beginning to show lower than usual? Is it reaching full charge faster or slower than usual? If you pay attention, they will often show you a sign that something is changing in due time, often related to a cell going bad. In this instance, the total battery voltage may charge up, but when put under a load, it might let you down.
This way gives you a little "Heads up" that there may be a problem developing, and you need to keep an eye on it. A decent battery load tester can be purchased at Harbor Freight for around $25, or buy an electrolyte hygrometer to find the bad cell.
Too off the water an leave the plugged in.
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