Cooking Batteries

[perryche]

There's a boat in my Marina who's owners are largely absent. They have owned this boat for 2 years. They leave it plugged in with the battery charger on all the time. Last year they replaced all 6 golf cart batteries because they were dry. Now less than a year later it looks like they are going to have to do it again. The charger is a Xantrex Freedom Marine 20. I have gone through the manual and everything looks properly set up. I thought the Xantrex was smart enough to prevent this from happening. Perhaps the simple solution is to simply leave the charger turned off.

Any opinions?

Perry

[camaraderie]

Leave the charger off if you aren't gonna check the water levels once a month. Charge the batteries once every couple of months fully and check the water.
You don't say if it is a 3 stage charger which is the ONLY type that should be used but even these will eventually evaporate and uncover the plates destroying the batteries.
Wet Batteries will self discharge so DO need to be charged every now and then. For EXTENDED non-use with no charging required...AGM type batteries are about 10x better despite the added cost. This may be what your dockmates should choose next!

[chucklesR]

They would be better off by far to go with AGM's and a solar panel with controllers, all they need is a trickle to get them topped off, AGM's do not self discharge as badly as wet cell's.

[perryche]

Thank you for the great information! It is as I suspected. Since the batteries need to be replace anyway I'm going to recomend AGM's

[hellosailor]

Perry-
If they JUST change to AGMs, and don't change the charging, they'll be throwing good money after bad. AGMs are just as easily damaged by overcharging, and you can't "fix" them by just topping up the water. Proper charing protocols and matched voltage for the AGMs are necessary in order to get the performance from them.
The good news is that AGMs don't self-discharge as fast as wet cells, they can be left without a charger for a month or two at a clip and take nearly no damage from that. Even six months at a time, if you believe the makers.

[carebear186]

Spam!!! This is not why I signed up to this group. Take your marketing somewhere else!!!!!!!!!

[astraeus]

Originally Posted by carebear186

Spam!!! This is not why I signed up to this group. Take your marketing somewhere else!!!!!!!!!

Did I miss something

I thought it was an honest post, with thoughtfull replies.

[AjariBonten]

Originally Posted by carebear186

Spam!!! This is not why I signed up to this group. Take your marketing somewhere else!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, WTF?

After 2 posts you come across like that?

See Ya

[camaraderie]

UMMM...I deleted a spam post guys. You can't see it any longer. This is why I ask you to hit the report post button rather than replying to spam. The spambot can't hear you anyway.

[AjariBonten]

My Bad,

Now it makes some more sense.