battery question - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Chrisper4694 · #1 11-18-2014, 12:14 PM

so i have a battery it's about 2.5 years old. When i used it the other day it seemed to loose power twice as fast as it usually does (while using it to power my trolling motor). then when i put it on the charger expecting to see it say 55% or less it said it was at 75%...this was strange considering how slow the trolling motor was going.

Then i noticed my charger kept trying to tell me it was charging a GEL battery rather than a STANDARD and i'd manually change the setting and it would then tell me the battery was at 57% and start charging it and then it switched back over to GEL setting when it reached 100%...

I'm pretty confused, but i guess this is my excuse to go buy a third interstate battery and just use this old one as a backup emergency one.

As far as i can tell the trolling motor seems fine and the charger does the other battery normal so i'm not really sure what the problem is, hopefully someone here knows or can give a suggestion.

also, i checked the fluid levels in the chambers and they seem plenty full, but there was some residue floating in there so i'm wondering if that is normal

Capt. Debbie · #2 11-18-2014, 02:24 PM

Sulfating in the cells.

Your cells are not putting out the full 1.5-1.65vdc each cell. Sulfate gets to the bottom and begins to short out the cell and lose strength.

I've made it a practice usually 3 seasons of use and it's replace time.

A maintained battery will usually last into the 4th season but that's the crap shoot. As a rule 3 seasons and out for me. And it's what I have seen on the sea tow boats too with battery failures.

Gerry Zagorski · #3 11-18-2014, 03:14 PM

And, the deeper dishcharge and recharge cycles when using these batteries for a trolling motor takes its toll on them as well...

On most boats or cars the battery is hardly ever drained all the way down. It's used briefly for starting and the alternator charges them right back up so they tend to last a lot longer.

Chrisper4694 · #4 11-18-2014, 06:22 PM

Well I guess it's shot then? I still got about an hour full speed troll on it so I guess it can still be a backup to the back up haha

shrimpman steve · #5 11-18-2014, 09:45 PM

I have a diehard battery charger. It has a desulfication setting. Never used it but it's there. See if your charger has the same setting.

Chrisper4694 · #6 11-20-2014, 12:16 PM

i just have a simple no bells and whistles kind of charger, no setting like that.