TritonGlenn
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- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
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A lot of people have been asking questions about batteries. Not pretending to be the "know it all" about everything having to do with batteries, but due to tons of problems in the past, complete research, and eventually "ahhhhhhh", relief from battery problems, I wanted to share some of this with you.
1) Batteries are not "connect and forget" items. You have to do regular checks of your electrical system if you want to avoid problems. I recommend once a month.
2) You get what you pay for. I have used the following batteries, with the following results:
a) Interstate 27 group - hated them. Went bad constantly. Didn't hold a charge. Replaced every couple of months. Warranty -yes.... but batteries get heavy after a while.
b) Wal Mart Everstart 27 group - didn't really care for them either. Lasted a slight bit longer than my Interstates, but were prone to being replaced sooner than expected.
c) Douglas Marine 31 group - a good battery for the money. Very heavy. Lots of power to spare. Had problems with cases expanding. No leakage, just expanded cases which made me worry. Douglas claimed "over charging" with my Triple Pro Charger, but none of my prior two choices did this
d) Trojan SCS225 30 group - finally! Resolution to my problems. As strong, if not stronger, as Douglas Marine, but never have case expanding problems. Heavier than the two 27 group choices, but worth the extra weight. I'm not ever changing.
3) After cleaning your terminals completely (even on new batteries, clean the terminals with some steel wool), connect your cables with lock nuts or nuts with lock washers instead of the wing nuts. You get a much better connection, and don't have to worry about the wing nuts backing off. Then spray some corrosion preventive compound on the terminal. I got a can of the stuff from my battery place about 6 years ago. I still have the same can, as the stuff just doesn't wear off. I just barely re-apply after checking connections / changing batteries. I havn't had corrosion problems since using it. I don't recall the name right now, and I'm at work, so if you would like the name, let me know and I'll email again when I get home.
4) If you don't have gel cell or maintainance free batteries, you need to check that water level once a month! I don't really care for the gel cell batteries. I've never put them in my boat, but friends have, and they were not impressed of the quality v/s cost. There is a product on the market - I think it is called Quick-Fill or something like that. I put them on my boat batteries last year. WELL WORTH THE COST. Wow! Makes your batteries extremely easy to fill. You just connect the quick-connect to the filling tube, put the other end in a jug of distilled water, and squeeze the fill bulb until it stops letting water flow (bulb hardens up like your gas line squeeze bulb). Then just disconnect, and your done. It fills each cell independantly, and when the water reaches a certain level, it seals that cell and goes on to the next one.
5) The L.E.D.'s or graph on your charger is not a good representation of whether your battery is good or not. Your battery charger could have a "green led", and the battery could still have a dead cell. Invest in a little tool from an auto parts store. It checks the battery's specific gravity of each cell. You can instantly tell if a cell is bad when using that little $2 tool. No guess work there. Cells can go bad for a variety of reasons - the main cause is that you forgot to add water for a long time. Once the batteries plates are exposed to air without water (and I'm talking about after the batteries have had water in them and the reaction has taken place), that portion of the plate realistically "dies". So if 1/4 of a plate in a cell is exposed to air without water - you now have 3/4 of that cells power left, regardless of whether you fill that cell up again.
6) I consider Battery additives as b
1) Batteries are not "connect and forget" items. You have to do regular checks of your electrical system if you want to avoid problems. I recommend once a month.
2) You get what you pay for. I have used the following batteries, with the following results:
a) Interstate 27 group - hated them. Went bad constantly. Didn't hold a charge. Replaced every couple of months. Warranty -yes.... but batteries get heavy after a while.
b) Wal Mart Everstart 27 group - didn't really care for them either. Lasted a slight bit longer than my Interstates, but were prone to being replaced sooner than expected.
c) Douglas Marine 31 group - a good battery for the money. Very heavy. Lots of power to spare. Had problems with cases expanding. No leakage, just expanded cases which made me worry. Douglas claimed "over charging" with my Triple Pro Charger, but none of my prior two choices did this
d) Trojan SCS225 30 group - finally! Resolution to my problems. As strong, if not stronger, as Douglas Marine, but never have case expanding problems. Heavier than the two 27 group choices, but worth the extra weight. I'm not ever changing.
3) After cleaning your terminals completely (even on new batteries, clean the terminals with some steel wool), connect your cables with lock nuts or nuts with lock washers instead of the wing nuts. You get a much better connection, and don't have to worry about the wing nuts backing off. Then spray some corrosion preventive compound on the terminal. I got a can of the stuff from my battery place about 6 years ago. I still have the same can, as the stuff just doesn't wear off. I just barely re-apply after checking connections / changing batteries. I havn't had corrosion problems since using it. I don't recall the name right now, and I'm at work, so if you would like the name, let me know and I'll email again when I get home.
4) If you don't have gel cell or maintainance free batteries, you need to check that water level once a month! I don't really care for the gel cell batteries. I've never put them in my boat, but friends have, and they were not impressed of the quality v/s cost. There is a product on the market - I think it is called Quick-Fill or something like that. I put them on my boat batteries last year. WELL WORTH THE COST. Wow! Makes your batteries extremely easy to fill. You just connect the quick-connect to the filling tube, put the other end in a jug of distilled water, and squeeze the fill bulb until it stops letting water flow (bulb hardens up like your gas line squeeze bulb). Then just disconnect, and your done. It fills each cell independantly, and when the water reaches a certain level, it seals that cell and goes on to the next one.
5) The L.E.D.'s or graph on your charger is not a good representation of whether your battery is good or not. Your battery charger could have a "green led", and the battery could still have a dead cell. Invest in a little tool from an auto parts store. It checks the battery's specific gravity of each cell. You can instantly tell if a cell is bad when using that little $2 tool. No guess work there. Cells can go bad for a variety of reasons - the main cause is that you forgot to add water for a long time. Once the batteries plates are exposed to air without water (and I'm talking about after the batteries have had water in them and the reaction has taken place), that portion of the plate realistically "dies". So if 1/4 of a plate in a cell is exposed to air without water - you now have 3/4 of that cells power left, regardless of whether you fill that cell up again.
6) I consider Battery additives as b
