Care and feeding of your Batteries!
Victor Leake
 

First thing one needs to do in order to take care of their batteries is to buy a Hydrometer.

This simple tool is the ONLY way to tell if your batteries are fully charged.

It measures the specific gravity of the water in a battery. The higher the reading the higher the charge. With deep cycle batteries such as the ones in most bass boats, you should keep the meter in the boat so you can check the charge often or after every couple of charges.

If after charging, the meter doesn't read at the top of the scale the battery is not fully charged and you will not get the full use of the battery, and the batteries life will be cut short.

Check the water in the batteries often, the normal charge-discharge cycle will consume water. Distilled water is not really needed as long as the water you use is not heavily contaminated, tap water will work just fine. To work properly the plates must be covered in water and covered by about an inch. The water in the battery must be replaced as it is used or the life of the battery will be shortened.

There is no need to fully discharge the batteries before charging, doesn't matter if you use 40 or 90 percent of the batteries charge. It is the lack of charge that can damage the batteries life, the longer it is at full charge, the longer it will last.

The biggest problem with today's batteries come from the on board chargers that only only put out 10 amps. A deep cycle battery needs at least 15 amps. to get a full charge. Unless the batteries water bubbles while charging the charging is too slow and the battery will not take a full charge. Most deep
cycle batteries will work best with a 20 Amp. charger but a 15 Amp will work, anything less just will not give you adequate service.

If you fully charge the batteries after each use they will last about three times longer than a battery that is less than full charge. There is no need for a trickle charge, a fully charged battery will hold it's charge and a trickle charge will not fully charge a battery.

Clean the battery terminals often. A dirty or corroded terminal will drain part of the batteries power. It can keep the charger from putting all the charge to the battery.

Properly cared for batteries will allow you to fish longer and you will have trouble free service from them for years. Nothing is worse than to be catching fish and then lose power to the trolling motor, costing you time and money.

Fish often, catch all you want; Keep just what you need, and release the rest for the future.