What kind of trickle charger do you use to charge a marine boat battery during the winter?

Question

What kind of trickle charger do you use to charge a marine boat battery during the winter?

Answer 1

Use a device like a Battery Tender. It will maintain a charge with out over charging. If the marine parts store doesn't have one for sale, check at a motorcycle shop. They cost around $35.

Answer 2

The charger depends on the battery composition

AGM, GEL, NICAD, or Flooded Lead Acid Battery. Each has a slightly different charging requirement. Check your manufacturers guidelines and apply voltage/amperage accordingly or buy a charger with a brain inside it and select the right mode.

You need to decide what you want the charger to do. Either it is designed to charge fast or charge over a long period of time. For your power bill's sake, you should have 2 different models for each application.

We recommend a high frequency 3 stage charger for most applications. This means that the system goes through 3 stages, bulk charge, top off, and maintains your batteries no matter the battery composition. The industry calls this a bulk, float, absorption charge or 3 stage charger.

The battery tender works well, but we really like the Xantrex and C-Tek models.

Now back to the time discussion.

If you have a lot of time (winter storage), you can have a small charger work longer, and be more efficient on the power consumption and cost. The little C-Tek .8 amp charger is available online for roughly $50 delivered. I have used it to tender hundreds of amp hours of batteries before, yes it takes time (weeks) to charge. If you want something bigger a Xantrex 40 amp charger is roughly $470 delivered. This charger will charge things up quickly, but you have to pay more. (Links are below).

If your battery is under load while charging, you need a 2 stage charger. We like the xantrex multiple stage, multiple battery bank charger for this application up to about 10 amps non inductive. For high amp loads a charger with a transformer is required. The sustained amperage is not suitable for high frequency chargers.

Please buy a good battery charger, overcharging is the #1 cause of battery failure. So this is a discussion where you get what you pay for. With a single stage charger (the 2 amp suggestion or the solar panels) you can literally "Cook" your batteries over time. I wouldn't risk the battery investment on a mindless charging rig.

Answer 3

I just set it on 2 amps.

Answer 4

get a small solar panel that trickles out about 5 amps max.

you dont say if its for a main engine starter battery or a leisure battery for electrics?

either way, even winter sun will be enough to keep the battery charged overwinter and they have a reverse anti-drain block on them so you dont lose power.

try any major chandler like Naute-Equipe, or Mailspeed, they all advertise in the yacht mags.

they aren,t cheap but they are effective if it isn,t feasible to keep on taking the battery out every winter

Answer 5

every 30 days. charge it with 2 amp. get a charger with auto off. that the best way

Answer 6

Solar works great...

Answer 7

First take off the neg cable. Then charge with a small charger...10 amp will do nicely. It will cut back as battery reaches full charge.  Dont make any sparks around a charging battery. It can explode and the acid is very bad for your eyes...Like you may never go boating again!!Not with out a white cane..!!The gas thats given off is hydrogen. Very combustable. Like...BOOM!!!!