battery and ceetol

[Guest]

battery and ceetol

My boat(18ft) has an 8hp outboard with charging coil and rectifier.It is wired with nav lights, internal flourescent lights, vhf radio and car radio.All I need to do is
connect the battery terminals to a battery and replace the fuses.Is there a cheaper alternative than marine batteries?How should a battery be mounted on a boat?
Finally, what will clean a brush after ceetol, even acetone leaves it sticky?Thanks again in advance

 

[ccscott49]

Re: battery and ceetol

Doesnt have to be a marine battery, but you need to calculate how big a battery you will need for all your goodies and whether the lighting coil will be man enough to charge it. I would reccomend a sealed gel battery, which you can mount almost anywhere, fibreglass battery boxes are available and are just the job, bolted screwed down etc. The middle of the boat, low down, but out of any bilge water! Don't forget to put a master switch in circuit, so you can isolate it. There are lots of books to tell yopu all this stuff. The 12volt bible being one of them. What is ceetol?

 

[tyger]

Re: battery and ceetol

I owned an Etap 23 for five years with a similar set up to yours. The original battery, installed by the builder, lasted for about two years. As far as I can recall this battery was just an ordinary automotive battery. I replaced it with a car battery which lasted a year and then had to be replaced. So three batteries in five years. Fitting a deep cycle battery would have been cheaper in the long run.

A good compromise for you might be a dual purpose battery which is more substantial than a car battery but not as expensive as a deep cycle battery.

To the best of my knowledge there is nothing special about "marine batteries" they are just dual purpose or deep cycle batteries with a fancy lable. Try to find a knowlegable supplier of batteries to industry or commerce. Perhaps an agricultural equipment supplier even?.

If you have room, and can tolerate the weight, one option would be to buy two 6volt golf cart batteries and connect these in series to give 12 volts.

If you fit a conventional lead acid battery the more care you take of it the longer it will last. Try not to discharge it too deeply and do not leave it in a discharged state. Make sure that you check the electrolyte level frequently since the domestic discharge / charge cycle will cause far more gassing than you encounter on a car.

Whatever type of battery you fit make sure that it fastened down securely (would it stay in place if the boat inverted?). If you use a conventional lead acid battery then it should be enclosed in a battery box to contain any electrolyte spills (there was a thread below on how to make a battery box). Make sure that the box is well ventilated to avoid any build up of explosive gasses.

One option would be to fit a gel cell or AGM battery. These have several advantages: they are sealed and so do not need to be topped up and do not need a battery box since acid spills are not a problem. In general gassing is not a problem either - unless you overcharge the battery (see below). Most gel cell and AGM batteries can be left in a dicharged state without harm.

The disadvantages of gel and AGM bateries are: they are more expensive and heavier than the equivalent conventional lead acid battery and they can be destroyed by overcharging leading to gassing and electrolyte loss.

If you decide to fit a gel or AGM battery you must check that the charging circuit is correctly regulated. With an outboard this could be a problem. If you are not sure then stick to conventional bateries.

There was a thread on Ceetol elsewhere. The answer seems to be use cheap brushes and throw them away at the end of the day.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Guest]

Re: battery and ceetol

I agree with the Gel type batteries etc, however they are more expensive.
I would recommend that you buy a battery box, they are not expensive, come with straps.
If your battery is not for starting the engine, i.e. its manual start like ours, you can get suitable batteries for running lights/instruments/radios from Caravan shops, these are of the deep draw down type £50-£60.

On our Hurley, we have the same situation, we have connected the power supply from the outboard into the battery, then every thing is fed from the battery. The battery is connected to both +ve and -ve busbars.
The main feeder cables from battery to the busbars are 17Amp rated.
I have installed a 15 Amp mains fuse on the +ve feed, located at the battery, before the isolation switch. The 15Amp fuse protects the cabling from overload. The +ve and -ve feeds/returns are connected into a switchpanel, which also has fuses rated for the equipment/circuits running from them.

Generally the circuit never sees anything light 15Amps. If we use the boat a lot i.e. staying on it etc. The battery still requires a charge from the mains after about a week/10 days, so we carry a battery charger in these situations.

Halfords is a good source of supply for cable and connectors/fuses, cheaper than the mariners.

Rough guide to work out battery size:

work out current rating of all equipment, if not marked on item

watts = volts x amps, then work out what would be the most items you would have on at any one time, total up the amps, then if you divide the amphour rating of the battery by this it gives you an idea of how long the fully charged battery would last.
Don't forget however that when the engine is running is will be charging the battery/ feeding equipment and that you genrally do not have evrything on at once.

 

[Trevor_swfyc]

Re: battery and ceetol

Agree if you want a budget battery try a caravan bits and bobs supplier several years ago I purchased a 75 amp/hr battery from Camping and General think it cost about £35 then, great value for money and still works fine.
Battery must be secure find some way of strapping it down, also fit a main fuse as near to the battery as possible and also have each draw fused with a lower rated fuse.
Just been out to the garage date on battery 12/8/95 its a Crompton Carlton Marine & Leisure Heavy Duty Type 678. The secret to long life is keep the battery charged this battery was charge monthly during winter storage at home.
Same question not come across CEETOL is it some sort of varnish or wood preservative?.
Back to the battery, when fitting or removing a battery from a boat take great care not to contact + and - across any metal rail/wire. A friend did this and burnt his hand when the wire got red hot the battery ended up on the river bed. I think he fell out of the tender which helped cool his hand down.
Take care!
Trevor

 

[Guest]

Re: battery and ceetol

You can probably expect about one ampere'/1000rev charging current from the outboard charging circuit. ie. outboard running at 5000 rpm will generate around 5 amps maximum.
Hope this helps with your current rating assessment.
Most important is to put a suitable fuse in the line between o/board and battery together with a switch. The simple rectifier systems employed on outboards have been known to go into fault.
As far as Ceetol goes, from previous threads, the perceived wisdom seemed to be to visit B & Q and buy a big bunch of cheap brushes and a bin.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: battery and ceetol

What the f..... is ceetol? Please!

 

[Guest]

Re: battery and ceetol

Wow , thanks for all the advice.
I will probably use the battery for vhf and radio only
Sikkens Ceetol seems to be a superior varnish/oil coating for wood,
not as nice looking as yacht varnish but more robust.Not for the purists.
Ah what about the days of buying a good brush, cleaning it care fully,
drilling a hole in the handle , suspending it on a wire in a jar, wrapping
the bristles in tissue to keek off the dust, handing it down from
father to son,the family owned hardware store, football in the the park,
coats fo goalposts, ah yes Ron....
Thanks again

 

[ccscott49]

Re: battery and ceetol

Thanks for that, I think I'll stick to varnish and coelans.

 

[Guest]

Re: battery and ceetol

Batteries, aaaahhhhh, batteries....such a subject!! One could almost start an armed conflict over this subject!

Personally, I think that if you are just starting a small outboard....you can just about use any battery you want. It doesn't have to be all that big. Couple hundred cranking amps should do it. If you are expecting to power house lights and other goodies, then you should use a "deep cycle" battery not a starting battery. Just make sure it is not wimpy.

Aaaaahhh, Sikkens Cetol......great stuff!! The purists like varnish....but then I think most of them have a masochistic streak
a mile wide......also I think that varnish is all a part of a big "scam" to see how many people will redundantly put themselves through a major fire drill every time it looks "dull".

According to the Cetol can we have here.....acetone is it. But then again, I don't use it....my wife does. I hate teak..its my enemy. My wife won't let me rip it off the boat and replace it with King Starboard or Corian.....so she does the teak...I do everything else.
But then, when she does it, I buy here a couple of hands-full of sponge foam brushes and she does the teak with Cetol. It turns out looking very nice and here in Florida the Cetol stands up to the sun much better than varnish. My advice.....use cheap throwaway brushes...like the sponge/foam ones and don't worry about cleaning them...unless you enjoy "masochistic ventures".

 

[Guest]

Re: battery and ceetol

I agree with regard to the output from the Ob, our 6hp Johnson gives 4.5 amps max.