Battery Charging

[ezrollin]

I let my grandson use my deep cycle batteries for his trolling motor the other night,they have been sitting while I finish my project.I got the back the next day,discharged of course but no problem I'll just put them on the charger.Problem my charger didn't work,so off to Walmart to get a new charger. They had the Schumacher brand which is well know so I got the the 2,4,6 amp XC6 model.I have always been under the impression charging a battery at the lowest amperage is better for the battey [won't over heat it] but the instructions said not to use the maintenance setting to on a fully discharged deep cycle or large auto battery or "you will lose some of the battery's capacity". They have a chart that says to charge bigger batteries auto and marine at the 6 amp rate.Can anyone explain as it goes against anything I had ever read about charging batteries.

[HandymanHerb]

I was working on my Aunt's golf cart, the charger wouldn't work, I had the charger checked and it was good, then I took a regular charger and put a little charge in two of the batteries, then the 36 volt charger started working.

[Bamaman]

I have a tendency to follow directions when it comes to battery chargers.

The other night, I left my lawnmower battery on a 10 amp charge, and forgot about it. It stayed on all night on a $49 Harbor Freight charger.

I was on the bass fisherman website the other day, and a gentlemen said his trolling motor battery on a charger caught fire and burned his house down.

That got me thinking about using a low line, junk battery charger (like mine.) In the future, all battery charging will be done outside. And I'm going to buy a high quality battery charger that automatic shut off. And I'm going to try to keep a Battery Tender on my boat to make the battery last longer.

My new pontoon boat has a marine deep cycle battery. Since I'm not using trolling motors or a power booster on my sound system, I'll be switching to an auto battery when this one dies. Car batteries just last so much longer and they're also less expensive.

[redbeard]

Here's what I use guys been doing a good job for 2 years.
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-X ... /10224686/

[HandymanHerb]

I have a three bank charger for the deep draws, controls and charges each battery separately, I used one of my batteries to run every thing on the toon and left the starting battery for starting only, so when I got home and plugged in the charger, only the one battery that was used gets charged.

[bobalong]

I charge my batteries every time after I use them. My battery charger has the auto shut off, and the on board chargers I use have them as well.

[BoatCop]

This is the charger I use. Both for my own pontoon and the boats at work. (the ones without onboard chargers)

It provides a "fast" charge for depleted batteries and trickle or float charge for maintaining a charged battery.

On the work boats I have one for each boat battery and one for the drop-winch (it's a double decker trailer). Haven't had a battery failure yet.

Runs $60-$70, depending on where you get it.

[The_Hellbilly]

I thought more amps=quicker charge, lower amps=more fully charged

[HandymanHerb]

Depends on what battery type you are charging, deep draws like it slow

[ezrollin]

Just stating that Schumacher,a leader charger manufacturer says not to charge larger auto or deep cycle batteries on anything less than 6 amps on their 2-4-6 amp charger.

[crspang]

http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles ... asics.html

This article is informative.