Fish-Hawk.Net

Well I just got in from my first real day out with the new boat not counting the day we tested it. We fished Buckham's Bay mostly and caught a couple pike and lost a walleye.

After the long day, the trolling motor battery was telling me to recharge. So when I got home, I stuck it on the charger.

My question is, "If I leave it on the charger too long will it fry the battery?" If so how do I know when so stop charging, because as soon as I plugged in the charger the battery thinks it's full, but I know it isn't. Also, is it ok to run the trolling motor if the battery has only been recharged half way, or will this affect the life of the battery?
The battery is a 12V deep cycle.

Your charger should know at what rate to charge the battery. As the battery nears full charge, the amps of charge should decrease until the battery is fully charged. As to using your battery on half charge, this will seriously shorten the life of your battery, as it will develop a memory, and only recharge to the point at which you used it last. I recharge after each usage, rather than wait until the batteries are fully discharged.

Ed toobinator Puddephatt

As ED said. The charger will decrease the amps as it charges. Most charges now a days will shutoff when the battery is fully charge. Check to see if you charger does.

I have a CT special and I charge on the 12 amp setting. The charger shuts off once the battery has been charged.

As a FYI, I used the 2 amp charge in the beginning but the battery never seem to get fully charged and therefore the charger never shut off.

Also, I find the deep cycle battery takes a long time to top up. What I mean is the first 3/4 of the charging time, the amps rapidly decrease but as the battery is reaching full charge, the process slows and it can take a while to reach full capacity. A cranking battery on the other hand don't have this.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Mike