Battery maintenance?

[Anonymous]

I’m (still) working on wiring up a 1959 electric start Evinrude Fastwin (no generator/alternator).

What do folks here use for charging/maintenance? Do you leave the batter hooked to a "minder" in the off season?

Thanks in advance!
Phil

[jw-in-dixie]

Harbor Frt sells a float charger that I use. Works well.
For a stronger charge I just use a 6 Amp charger, then the float charger to maintain.

JW in Dixie

[frankr]

We all got along for years without a float charger/maintainer, which is a fairly modern convenience. But they appear to be a worthwhile invention, making the battery last longer.

[bh]

RE; "..a modern convenience" ? Frank; -at the risk of showing my age, I recall , in the ’50s, when acid cell batterys were all 6v ,
and re-buildable, usually at the local rad shop; -in my northern climes, one would put the car ‘up on blocks’ for the winter,
and take the battery out and down to the local service station to be kept on charge for the winter.
If left to discharge and sit, it would sulfate out and require re-building.
At the gas station, a rack of maybe 20 batterys would be in a row, on a heavy wood bench,
never on the concrete ! (an urban myth I believe] and all be connected in parallel to what appeared to be
a home built charger, [Heathkit, Allied ?] consisting of a transformer and two big vacuum tubes,
[‘valves’, the Brits call them] that glowed red and rectified the AC current to DC . We now use diodes.
Small sharp pointed spikes would be stuck into the battery posts and connected with bare copper wire .
I am not sure if this device actually ‘floated’ or not, but did keep the battery up over the winter.
All to say, ‘what goes around, comes around’, only now it comes from ‘off-shore’ 😥

[Mumbles]

The batteries around here get charged every two months or so to keep them topped up. My work horse charger is the Can Tire automatic one which is 6 or 12 volt and does deep cycle batteries to. The 15 amp Power Runner gets used lots to and will also flash codes if the battery is shorted internally or sulphated but it has no deep cycle choice. The more expensive CTEK is probably my favorite. It’s compact and can be left on indefinitely as it will go into maintenance mode. Besides charging and desulphating all kinds of batteries including the new sealed gel type, it can be used as a power supply. Although it is Swedish designed, the small print on it says, you guessed it, ‘Made In China’.

[chris-p]

On my older motors I keep at the dock all summer, I keep a solar panel on the boat to trickle them. Keeps the battery charged all summer, no need to put the charger on it.

[Author]

Posts