my trolling motor battery is not hold charge, it's less then 2 yrs old.
been adding distilled water now and then . so how much dist. water
can you add from time to time before it goes bad ? had it on the
on board charger all last night the cranking battery is blinking a
good charge but the t/batt. is not keeping up. new one come spring i guess.
You can add all the water you need too. Just don't run it till the plates are exposed. If I've run my trolling motor hard I check the batteries after a tournament, top them off and then charge. Otherwise I check them bi-monthly. Always before putting the boat up for winter.
I got nothin
The acid does not evaporate, just the water, so you can keep adding water as needed till the battery plates are gone/dead. It could be that your charger is not working correctly.
Rajun Cajun
Johnson 1995 #J130TLEOP
S# GO3872031
Not sure what you mean "is not hold charge"? The battery should reasonably 'hold' its voltage and not discharge until later it is put back in use. Undersized trolling motor batteries, if their charge is not being monitored during the day's use can become over-discharged on a windy day and their lives be quickly shortened.
Needing to frequently add water to a typical (non-commercial) flooded lead acid battery can indicate a couple things:
either the battery is near its end of life having lost much of its lead plate area often with the lead having over-discharge sulfate damage causing it to have reduced capacity,
-or-
in some cases a charger/motor alternator is applying a higher than appropriate voltage too long without floating the battery and shutting off.
The fix is buy appropriate capacity batteries, monitor them to avoid any over-discharges and promptly use a good temp-comp'ed multi-stage charger that maintains them at their full charge.
Last edited by Lou r Pitcher; 11-30-2017 at 09:06 AM.
hi lou....i didn't put much water in just a bit but like i said it was losing volt some how. so i put back in the boat with the o/b charger, had it on all night and it went up to 12.88...i unplugged it for a 1 hour and it held at 12.88. but the charging light is still blinking (yellow) and the motor battery is good at 13. i just plugged it back in and gonna see if the light go to the blinking charge (green ).
12.88 V if the peak voltage during the charging is still well below the float voltage....appears as if the battery is still accepting charging.
it's plugged in now , we'll see what it says in the morning.
One note. Charge FIRST, then add water. As you charge, the quantity of H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) INCREASES as the lead sulfate dissolves and recombines with the water. This molecule is larger and the fluid level will climb. If you fill while discharged, you can cause an overflow as charging progresses and end up with battery acid outside the battery. This obviously has multiple effects, from causing corrosion around the battery, to corrosion in the bilge, and the H2SO4 in the battery becomes diluted as you lose acid and then replace it with water. The water you normally add simply replaces water that is lost as the water molecules are split into O2 and H2 due to the electrolysis that goes on inside the cell.
So simple idea is to charge, then top off and don't over-fill.
2008 Bass Cat Pantera Classic
2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
Blinking lights, odd lights, and the beat goes on. My battery charger had one green light, and one red light yesterday when I was about to take the boat fishing. I unplugged the charger and plugged it back in. Both lights went red, then changed to green. Sometimes they just don't tell the true story. A voltmeter does. 12.88 is good to me. Especially if it works.
Glad to see you're still fishing in Ct.
you should top them off AFTER they are fully chargedOriginally Posted by Jim Dunn
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