What battery for my small, outboard powered boat?

[mrming]

My battery was accidentally left with a car stereo (off but drawing power) connected over the winter. My 30w solar panel is now struggling to bring it back past 50% charge so I think it may have had it.

We use it to run VHF, instruments and occasionally cabin / nav lights. We're outboard powered so it gets a puny 6A from the engine and the rest of the charging is handled by a 30W solar panel.

Can anyone recommend a good replacement battery? The spot where it lives fits a standard car battery size. I think I'n going to need to get a new one in a bit of a hurry as we're doing RTIR next weekend and I don't want to run out of power half way round.

 

[Tranona]

You don't need anything fancy so the largest AH capacity car battery that will fit the space.

 

[ProDave]

There's mo such thing as a "standard" size car battery.

In the same situation, I took my battery box out of the boat and took it to the local motorist shop and asked for the largest battery that would fit in it, irrespective of terminal type.

Don't write the battery off yet. Take it ashore and give it a couple of full charge, discharge cycles with a decent charger then a decent load to run it dowm. Measure the time it takes to discharge, knowing the load, and measure the capacity.

My boat battery never gets any charge during the season apart from the solar panel (no charging even from my OB) so I give it a couple of decent cycles at home over the winter.

 

[VicS]

My battery was accidentally left with a car stereo (off but drawing power) connected over the winter. My 30w solar panel is now struggling to bring it back past 50% charge so I think it may have had it.

We use it to run VHF, instruments and occasionally cabin / nav lights. We're outboard powered so it gets a puny 6A from the engine and the rest of the charging is handled by a 30W solar panel.

Can anyone recommend a good replacement battery? The spot where it lives fits a standard car battery size. I think I'n going to need to get a new one in a bit of a hurry as we're doing RTIR next weekend and I don't want to run out of power half way round.

Personally I have opted for a leisure battery.

Current one , bought last year is a " Dual purpose" Varta LFD60, 60 Ah but other sizes available,
Chosen based dimensions and price..... its about the size of a medium sized car battery

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Varta-Professional-Leisure-Batteries-S285-1.html

Excellent delivery service from Tayna. Ordered early one day, delivered about breakfast time the next

 

[mrming]

Okay great - thanks all!

 

[simonfraser]

i run an ultrasonic hull emitter, eberspacher heater, autohelm, weekend only, off a battery, 70Ah, using two vertically placed 15W solar panels. boat on the east coast too.

how much power do you need ??

 

[mrming]

i run an ultrasonic hull emitter, eberspacher heater, autohelm, weekend only, off a battery, 70Ah, using two vertically placed 15W solar panels. boat on the east coast too.

how much power do you need ??

It's not that I need a lot of power, just that my battery is knackered and I want to buy one that lasts as long as possible.

 

[fergie_mac66]

getanew battery solar powered boat

 

[simonfraser]

discharge past 50% is not a good idea
so, work out what you are likely to use over a weekend and do the maths.
buy one a bit bigger than you think you need, go for quality, plenty of websites which review.
bought mine at halfrauds years ago, wet one, still going .......

 

[chrisbitz]

I'll make it easy for you..

As long as it fits, just get a 105Ah one. A big one means you don't need to worry if you stay overnight somewhere, and want to charge your phone/laptop/32" surround sound TV.

http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/

Get an Alphaline Deep cycle Battery, 105AH, and get one that fits your dimensions and terminal types. I've been happy with their service on two occasions, if you call them, a human answers and they honour their warranty claims!