Any advice for batteries?

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montmarency123

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Any advice here would be much appreciated, I'm a newbie who inherited a lovely 1939 broom commander a month ago and am doing my best to keep her in good condition!

It may be simple for someone with boating experience, I'm not sure. The question is with regards to the battery system onboard. Recently the batteries began smelling foul, so I unplugged them from the charging unit and investigated. One of the cells had barely any liquid in it and the cell had turned brown and crumpled slightly. I've since topped it up with distilled water.

However is it safe to even use this battery temporarily? The smell was fairly strong. I only want to start it breifly to power the bilge pump, as a little water has collected in the boat.

Any advice is much appreciated.
 
Hi
It would surely be worth while investing in a new battery ? Especially with such a lovely (and flammable wooden) boat.
 
M123

lovely boat, can you put up a picture or two please ?


The battery sounds as if it has gone beyond recovery . Some chargers e.g. the excellent Ctek range have a reconditioning function which desulphates the plates and restores some life to the battery. Brown sludge is an indication that the battery is deceased, is no more...

Usually this is becasue the battery has been flat for months. What about any other batteries ?


For powering a bilge pump intermittently, leave a small car battery connected separately and recharge on a weekly/fortnightly basis depending on the V reading, until you have the charging system and battery banks sorted..
 
If your batteries are smelling, then they have gone beyond the point of recovery, and there is the danger of overheating, and consequential damage. As in #3, Batterymegastore is the place to go for replacements.
 
simonfraser said:
mobile power pack as used for starting a car is likley to have a socket you can use for the bilge pump too.
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I would have thought it no more expensive to do the job properly and just fit a battery which will have 10 times the capacity and work with the existing charging arrangements.

You want to ensure that even if you don't get to the boat for a few weeks bilge pumps and so on are all running properly.

Absolutely don't use the current battery. They do produce explosive hydrogen gas and they can explode. Good battery boxes vent off any gasses through a pipe so they don't build up in the engine room / battery compartment.


Henry :)
 
montmarency123 said:
Any advice here would be much appreciated, I'm a newbie who inherited a lovely 1939 broom commander a month ago and am doing my best to keep her in good condition!

It may be simple for someone with boating experience, I'm not sure. The question is with regards to the battery system onboard. Recently the batteries began smelling foul, so I unplugged them from the charging unit and investigated. One of the cells had barely any liquid in it and the cell had turned brown and crumpled slightly. I've since topped it up with distilled water.

However is it safe to even use this battery temporarily? The smell was fairly strong. I only want to start it breifly to power the bilge pump, as a little water has collected in the boat.

Any advice is much appreciated.
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As said new batteries required without doubt

Tayna Ltd also an excellent source of batteries .... https://www.tayna.co.uk/


Dont leave them on charge continuously unless connected to a modern multi stage automatic battery charger .
 
Hi guys,

Thanks so much for all the help. Great to get some info from experienced individuals such as yourselves. As requested here's a picture of her

photo3_1.jpg


I'll be selling her at some point as well. Opted to order the new battery from Tayna, thanks VicS :)
 
MartynG said:
New batteries required.
Take measurements and note the arrangement of the poles on the batteries . Try battery megastore or other retailers online .
http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/
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Battery Megastore ruined a whole long holiday weekend for me. Promised delivery Thursday, then said it was delayed and would be Friday, then the trucker said they hadn't got my batteries but would try on Saturday. I cancelled and got my money back on the Monday. I wouldn't touch them with a barge Pole!!!
 
Richard10002 said:
Battery Megastore ruined a whole long holiday weekend for me. Promised delivery Thursday, then said it was delayed and would be Friday, then the trucker said they hadn't got my batteries but would try on Saturday. I cancelled and got my money back on the Monday. I wouldn't touch them with a barge Pole!!!
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I ordered from BM and was promised delivery ages ago but they still haven't arrived. Delivery is now promised end of this week, but I paid 9th January - 7 weeks ago.
 
Battery Megastore delivered okay for me . But it was in June. I guess they are not so busy in the summer.
 
I've ordered from BM quite a few times and have always been impressed by their speed of delivery. They are my first choice for batteries. I guess I have always ordered what they have in stock.
 
jfm said:
I ordered from BM and was promised delivery ages ago but they still haven't arrived. Delivery is now promised end of this week, but I paid 9th January - 7 weeks ago.
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I ordered from them last year. I had an engineer booked to change batteries over on the day after they said they would deliver. As you can guess batteries did not arrive, I phoned them and had a rant, Their excuse was that the batteries were not in stock, I said that is rubbish as i specifically asked when ordering if they were in stock and was told yes,
I get the impression that they actually carry very little stock, I would use again as their prices are very good but would not hold breath on delivery time.
 
+1 for BM. Friend and I ordered 14 batteries between us to fully repower both our boats. Three different part numbers. Delivered on a pallet on the day quoted with a 10% bulk purchase discount.
 
rosssavage said:
+1 for BM. Friend and I ordered 14 batteries between us to fully repower both our boats. Three different part numbers. Delivered on a pallet on the day quoted with a 10% bulk purchase discount.
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I would imagine that many of their orders are delivered without a problem.

My problem was with the fact that they repeatedly blatantly lied to me about the batteries being in stock, on a truck, and when they should arrive - they cost me a weekend of being on the boat - which is worth a lot of money to me. I think some else experienced deceit.

A company who repeatedly lies to customers who it lets down, wont be getting any of my money, and I will be taking every opportunity to help others to avoid a similar experience.
 
Fair enough :)

I will order again as I had a good experience... the wonder of a capitalist economy is free choice, and I respect yours.

In the same way I'm happy to recommend them, but our delivery schedule wasn't time critical (although it was met).

Shame they ruined your weekend though....
 
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