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Old 05-30-2009
donradclife donradclife is offline
Don Radcliffe
 
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Batteries can get very hot when they are charging at too high a current, which can happen if one cell is shorted. In any case, the high temperatures are damaging to the battery.

I spent some time looking for gel batteries in the Med--They were either not available or too expensive in Marmaris, Athens, Rome, and Mallorca. I finally found some duty free at a reasonable cost (only 30% higher than in the US) in Gibraltar.

I would say that the next step is to separate the batteries and do individual charging and 20 hour load tests on each one (as a standalone 12v). If you have 4 good batteries left, you might combine them and buy two new gels, but if you have 3 or fewer good batteries left, you are probably best off buying 6 new matching batteries of whatever good deep cycle brand you can get locally.
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