Timer for Battery Charger

[MH Hawker]

marine battery is one of things that plain sucks, you can expect to replace them several times over the years if you get 3 years you did good most are warranted for 12 months so any thing past that is good, most fail due to under charging because of low charging rates, the plates crud up, its very common on a slip kept boats with out power to hook a charger to


what i do is this, in fact i just pulled my boat out a few days ago, i have a disconnect switch that is turned off, i look at the cell water level to make sure the plates are covered then hook up the charger and let sit over night, they look at the water lever and top off as needed and i am done, in the spring around march i charge it again, if it dosnt pass a voltage and load test test i replace it, i use one of the HF load testers and drag it out to the slip for the year, its my thought that a battery is a a item that gets consumed just like gas and oil, its part of the price you pay to boat, in fact due to being on a HP restricted its been a struggle with battery's due to a very low charging system on my 10 hp motor, 4 amps so mine never get a hard charge that is needed to clean the plates and i get short life, if i am lucky i get a season out of one, i have tried most ever brand out there and none are worth a damm, i am hoping for one last attempt to find one i can get 2 seasons, the old ACDelco VOYAGER BATTERY used to be the tuffest there was

the one i had failed the week before i needed to pull for the year i found one at the local chev dealer and so far its fine but i will know more next year, what i have found is all but the delco is warranted for 12 mouths the delco is 18

[Drago]

I have used one of these chargers for years to avoid battery sulfation.
http://www.batteryminders.com/

You'll find lots of good info there.

[zoom650]

FWIW, I've got a two-bank charger coming for Xmas. Got it off Amazon Prime for $97.

https://no.co/genm2

I have dual AGM batteries and got tired of switching my charger from battery to battery every few days. I've got timers laying around the house, so I may incorporate one of them too. I might have liked the 4-bank with extension cables but I'm not sure I could get everything close enough together to reach.

The wallyworld charger I currently use pulls duty for mower, UTV and boat.

[NonHyphenAmerican]

I use an old fashioned dial timer that was originally designed for window ac units.


[img]http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/produc ... d_1000.jpg[/img]


If there's a power outage, it's just not the same time you think it is. It still will run the charger for however long you want it to run.

So far, it's worked for me.

[kimbercarry]

I used a timer for years but now use "Battery Tenders" or "Battery Minders" for the past several years. I have them on tractors, z-turns,2 jump starters, boat starter and trolling motor batteries, and I made battery back-ups for 3 security cameras using the battery tender jr's for power. I replaced the boat starting and trolling batteries this past summer after 8 years, the starting battery still would start but the trolling battery bit the dust. Lost one of the waterproof 800 ma battery tenders used on the boat this past year, it was made in 2009. I have been warned by another fellow at the dock that they would fry my batteries but so far not.