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New Battery TIme

pwskicat

Regular Contributor
The deep-cycle battery that starts my '95 Mercruiser 5.7L (GM) TBI EFI crapped out yesterday. I've always bought deep-cycle, but then I read the diff between those and a starting battery. My ski boat that is constantly being stopped and started as we cut the engine to pick up a skier and restart to pull the next. Run time is less than 10 minutes per skier. We don’t hang out on the ski boat or run the stereo for hours (there’s a pontoon boat for that). I Ski season runs from June through mid-September, running the boat in fresh water for early morning skiing 2 or 3 times a week. I probably only put 10 hours a year on it, if that. The boat gets winterized, shrinkwrapped and stored outside over our cold Michigan winters. The battery goes in the garage where the temp never reaches freezing, I put it on a maintenance charger until the next season.


And I’ve just encountered the debate between maintenance-free and conventional or "low-maintenance." Old-school dudes (I'm 61) say there's no-place on boats for maintenance-free. They want to poke a hydrometer in there and top-off the cells. I've been using maintenance-free in my land vehicles for years with no problems. Is there something different for MY marine application that warrants using conventional? Deep-cycle or Starting? Or does it matter? Many thanks for your help, PW
 
As you have probably learned by now, there are opinions about marine batteries all over the place. I run a 25 ft C Hawk for fishing. Run 250 to 300 hours per year. I use two Interstate maintenance-free auto cranking batteries hooked to an Off-1 -2 - 3 selector switch. When I turn on the batteries, I always turn to the 2 position, so that both batteries are being charged by the engine alternator. I don't stop the engine very often while fishing. But when I do, I've never had a problem re-starting, even in the middle of the Gulf Stream. I run a pretty significant electrical load - besides the engine itself, i'm running a big GPS/Map display, digital fish finder, Sirius XM weather system, two VHF radios, lights, windshield wipers, chargers for cell phone and other stuff, electric trim tabs, and I'm constantly fooling the the engine trim. I change the batteries every five years, regardless of their performance.
 
based on your description, you have to accumulate more than 10 hours a year...that said, it is still 'low' annual usage.

All the different battery technology just enables more options to get to something 'optimal' which differs for everybody. I'd suggest, given the use environment and the low hours, just go to WallyWorld and get a group 24 or 27 cheapo starting battery and keep the cables clean and the engine in tune and you won't see too many problems...

I'd stop using the maintenance charger continuously (in the winter) unless it is one of the newer 'smart chargers'.....
 
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