Batteries over winter

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Denek

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hi
What do you guys do with your batteries over winter when your boat is laid up? We have three batteries,two domestic and one for the engine and we intend to cover the boat over winter but I am concerned about the batteries discharging. Do you rig up some kind of trickle charger or do you bring them home to keep them charged up?
We have just purchased this boat ( completion this week) she does not currently have a solar panel but we do intend to fit one however with the all over cover this would not work anyway.
Any suggestions?
I will also need to winterise the diesel heater and engine too but I am hopeful there will be a manual for this.
Do you also empty your water tanks?
All help and advice greatfully recieved.
 
I leave the battery charger on. It maintains the batteries and does not try to charge them if not needed.
If I did not have shore power I would probably take the batteries home to maintain them fully charged.

I drain off the domestic water use a frost protection heater near the calorifier and also in the engine bay.
If no shore power you will need to be extra careful to get every drop of water out.

A boat in the water is better protected than a boat ashore.
 
MartynG said:
I leave the battery charger on. It maintains the batteries and does not try to charge them if not needed.
If I did not have shore power I would probably take the batteries home to maintain them fully charged.

I drain off the domestic water use a frost protection heater near the calorifier and also in the engine bay.
If no shore power you will need to be extra careful to get every drop of water out.

A boat in the water is better protected than a boat ashore.
Click to expand...
you may find this of interest
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?509374-Hot-Batteries&highlight=boiled+batteries
 
Rule 1 of battery care is that the long-term health of all lead-acid batteries is promoted if they are kept fully charged. As this thread already suggests, a small solar panel is increasingly the method of choice for doing this, especially if shore power isn't available.

If there is no ready means of charging, it's important to know the type of lead-acid battery you have. So-called "calcium" batteries, in which the lead plates have a small proportion of calcium (plus usually a few other trace elements), have very low self-discharge rates and, if isolated, can safely be left untended for six months or more. Almost all starter batteries, and probably most "leisure" batteries, are of this type.

The other main type of plate material is lead-antimony alloy (again with a few other bits and pieces). Although more robust in domestic use (deep-cycle/traction batteries are usually of this type), they self-discharge far more quickly than lead-calcium.. Three months untended is an oft-quoted maximum. (I'm well aware of the conundrum in this for seasonal liveaboards, since I am one :ambivalence:)

Self-discharge increases with temperature, so in a British winter all these figures can with confidence be extended somewhat.
 
we have 2 90amp bosch batteries which we leave on the boat hooked up to 5amp batterie charger we have done this on all batteries we have had and never had a problem starting the engine in the spring boat is left in the water all winter
 
The reason I asked this is because I am a fie weather motorcycle rider and I did not keep my battery charged and had to replace it after on winter and I would not wish for the same thing to happen on the boat.
Looks like the small solar panel is the way to go for me probably with a controller though.
I am sure there will be questions about other aspects of winterising but in the meantime thank you for this advice.
 
Denek said:
The reason I asked this is because I am a fie weather motorcycle rider and I did not keep my battery charged and had to replace it after on winter and I would not wish for the same thing to happen on the boat.
Looks like the small solar panel is the way to go for me probably with a controller though.
I am sure there will be questions about other aspects of winterising but in the meantime thank you for this advice.
Click to expand...

you do not need a controller with a small panel over the winter
I have one of these spare from swmbo`s previous car we had issues with
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AA-5060114614185-Solar-Powered-Battery-Charger/dp/B00AC1LLQY
 
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I leave my boat for at least six months of the year. Having tried all sorts of regimes I was advised by a marina specialist who I trust totally to disconnect them from everything, including themselves in a bank. I have found this to be totally successful. When I left the boat with all connected to a 40 W solar panel through a controller I was prevented from returning by health problems and didn't come back for 18 months. They were all boiled dry.
 
vyv_cox said:
I leave my boat for at least six months of the year. Having tried all sorts of regimes I was advised by a marina specialist who I trust totally to disconnect them from everything, including themselves in a bank. I have found this to be totally successful. When I left the boat with all connected to a 40 W solar panel through a controller I was prevented from returning by health problems and didn't come back for 18 months. They were all boiled dry.
Click to expand...

Those batteries were in where Aegean over a summer ???
 
A healthy lead-acid battery needs no care at all during the winter as long as there is no drain on it - so it's a good idea to disconnect the leads when you lay the boat up. It will be fine in the spring.
If you really wanted to you could give it a trickle charge half way through the winter but even that is probably quite unnecessary.
 
Dipper said:
I take mine home, fully charge them then refit them before launch time.
Click to expand...

That's best if you don't want to use the boat.
In fact I'd say take them home and connect them to a CTEK maintenance charger.

Afloat, with batteries which are a long way from new, I find a 10W solar panel is the business. I think it probably got us two extra seasons from our batteries.
It changed the game from slow cranking to instant starting, if we didn't start the engine for 3 weeks.

For a comparison, I have some motorbike batteries which are on the shelf at the moment.
One is a fairly cheap one for a small trailbike. That is on a float charger at 13.5V and takes virtually no current. It loses very little charge if disconnected for a week.
The other is a Yuasa. Chosen for its superior CCA compared to anything else that fits a Ducati. That is only a year old, has been looked after perfectly,, but will lose significant charge over a fortnight. On a float charger it is often drawing tens of milliamps.
 
I have two batteries totalling 190 Ah. A 30 W solar panel keeps them fully charged, and supplies all I need during the summer months. On laying up in October, I also cover the boat. The solar panel gets disconnected, and the batteries are switched off. In the spring (March), the batteries are usually at about 12.6 volts. The panel gets re-connected, covers taken off and within a couple of days, the batteries are fully charged again. No need to take them off and no need to trickle charge them.
 
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