New Charger Installation and battery musings

[Texas Transplant]

Well, on Sunday I brought the boat back to the house; made space in the driveway and started the process of dealing with the batteries and the charger.



Decided that I would start with removing the charger wires from the cranking battery and hooking up my portable charger to it. Bad news - only 3-4 volts, and never got above 6 volts. Dead. Gone. Kaput. Went to WalMart and bought a Marine EverStart - $79.00 (the 18 month bigger version). It will be put in tonight.



Then disconnected the two Trojan Deep Cycles for the trolling motor and removed them. Both had okay voltage and 'some' charge left. No decision or judgement on whether or not they 'make the grade' or not.



Removed the old BPS Charger (4 screws) and took it out. Quick and fairly painless. The new one (same make and model - same 4 screw holes) will go in tonight.



I will put a charge on the new Everstart to make certain it is at (or near) capacity, and re-install it in the boat tonight.



Also tonight, I'll likely put the two trolling batteries through another round of charging with the portable before putting back in the boat.



Wednesday, the two trolling batteries will likely go back in the boat, and the new charger will get it's first workout.



More to come.



Tex

 

[Mini]

no more warranty on the batteries at WalMart....look closer...it will not say 18 months if it does its OLD stock

 

[Texas Transplant]

Mini - well mine says 18 months on it, so I gather that must be one of the 'Older' stock items. Good point to consider.



Tex

 

[T AMBURGEY]

The Walmart I manage continues to warranties batteries if you have your reciept. We allow 3 items brought back in a year. We also pro rate them if you had them a little longer.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Well, I have good news this morning on the battery front. The new WalMart Marine Cranking battery that I bought came home with a 95% Charge - so I gave it 10 minutes on the charger and it's at 100% now.



I continued work on Trolling Battery #2 tonight. It was down to 50% (after reaching 70% on Monday), but still holding decent battery. I put it through about 4 or 5 'charging cycles' on Tuesday, and one final one this morning after I got up. The final one finally pushed it on to the full 100% Charge and 13.5 volts on the meter.



Note: I have a fairly nice Sears Charger that has settings for Standard, Deep Cycle an Gel; multiple voltages and doe the same type of 'sensing' that some of our 'inboard chargers' do. For the battery that I just finished working on, I could never really get it above the 70-72% charge level until I did the multiple cycle charging. Each cycle (as the battery improved) took about 20-40 minutes to complete - and then the charger would 'cut off'.



Going to work on Trolling Battery #1 starting tonight to see if I can get he same results. Looks promising.



Tex

 

[Mini]

EverSTART Marine MAXX batteries in group 27 and 29 sizes do not have warranties in the local walmarts here.

 

[T AMBURGEY]

Mini

I hate to here that a bad battery cant be taken back were you guys are. But we do take them back here.I will dig around and find out what coporate policy is. I do know that we take them back . But I also understand that a customer is really the person who pays me and a happy customer will keep shoping and I will keep geting paid

Tex Im glad is working out for you nothing more frustrating than stuff that dont work. Im not very handy working on things and all the advice I get on here really makes it alot easier.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Struggling with the other trolling motor battery. It's not looking like the charge is going to take. May be making another trip to my local WalMart for an addtional deep cycle battery this weekend.



Got the 'charger' re-installed (mounted) last night, so I'm just about ready to actually put the batteries back in the boat and try it out.



Tex

 

[Texas Transplant]

Well, looks like it's two more batteries for me tomorrow at WalMart. The one that I thought I had revived, basically falls back to a 50% charge after the fact (not immediately - but not long either). The other one falls back below 10% Charge no matter what - and pretty quickly. Can't depend on either, so off they go.



I'd love to put some really good batteries back in it (Optima's or Trojan's again), but just can't justify the $$$ this time around. Especially since I'm about to get the boat re-carpeted and likely have new seats put in.



On the other hand, sure sounds like I'm going to keep it!



Tex

 

[Texas Transplant]

The starting battery and one new Trolling battery (Walmart) back in place. Worked on the 2nd trolling battery over the weekend and had it keeping in the 80% range of charge, and 12.4 v resting. Not quite there yet, but doing much better.



I hooked up the new charger and put it to work. This morning, was still charging (certainly because of the one older battery), so I won't find out till tonight what the real status is. Once charged, it should change to a 'maintenance' mode and a Green light.



I did run the trolling Motor (Minn Kota 24 V Maxxum) and it ran fine for about 10 minutes (air test - not water).



More on it as the 'fix up' proceeds.



Tex

 

[Texas Transplant]

Well, I got home yesterday evening (Monday) and immediately checked out the 'battery charge' information on the new charger. To my great delight, I had a blue light (charger on) and a Green Light meaning that all three batteries were up to snuff; and the charger was now in Maintenance mode. I unplugged the charger after dinner, and will leave it sit for 24 hours.



Tonight I'll check the voltage and charge on each battery, and then do another cycle on the new charger and try to gauge how long it takes. After that, I should be either ready to pronounce the 1 old Trojan Deep Cycle either ready to go fishing with, or whether another trip to WalMart is in order.



Right now, things are looking up.



Tex