BYYB Forums

we're well into an early winter here, and i'm wondering about the proper way to store my deep cycle marine battery over winter. my garage is well insulated but not heated. is it ok to just sit over the winter, or should it be in the basement, charged every now and then, etc?

A warmer place is better than a cold place, however a fully charged battery will not freeze. I leave mine out all winter, 30 below here in Canada, and I have no problem, but the battery must be fully charged. You could also hook up a solar trickle charger and that would ensure not having any problems.

I use solar trickle chargers on boats not in use. They keep the battery topped up, so no issues, though it doesn't freeze here. If not willing to hook up one of these little units, then just bring the battery up to charge every month with a conventional charger. Keeping a battery up to charge will prolong it's life.

Here is the word directly from my Interstate Battery rep. Make sure you are using a battery tender rather than a trickle charger. A tender monitors battery voltage and only charges when the battery needs it. A trickle charger can still over charge a battery. Also, deep cycle batteries need a quick rate of charge as opposed to starting batteries where a slow charge is better. You want 6 amps or better for a deep cycle. They also often times see tenders mounted in boats where there is inadequate ventillation, so keep that in mind.

The chargers I use technically are tenders, but I use the term trickle charger for anything small. It's true that a trickle charger isn't the way to go, but most of the small solar powered units are tenders, with simple circuitry to monitor and tend the battery's charge rate.

The ones I use are 5 watt solar units with a little controller and terminal clips.



They're about $50 - %60 at full retail, but you can find them on sale for $40 and less.

Greetings all,

In case you can't tell from Paul's photo, the battery maintainer he uses is a Delran 5-Watt Solar Tender® Charger With Built-in Controller

I leave the 120v plug-in version of the Delran battery maintainer plugged in continuously on the 12 volt lead acid gel cell batteries that power my R/C aeroplane starting motors and self starting lawn mowers and as a result the batteries have lasted as long as eight years.



Do yourself a favor and buy an extra ring wiring harness for each of your batteries ...



... as it makes life so much easier when it is time to plug in the charger.

To make things stupidly simple, I installed a cigarette lighter socket on the airplane caddy and use the cigarette lighter adapter to plug in the charger.



The cigarette socket would have the added benefit of providing an easy method of charging cell phones and other portable devices while you are out on the water.

Cheers,
Tom