I need a battery and charger - but which ones?

[Sachbvn]

My dad and I just bought our first boat. It is a Polaris 14' welded john - circa 1975. It came with a 9.5 Evinrude Sportwin motor and Minn Kota 35 lb thrust trolling motor.

The trolling motor has some age, but it does work well. We need a marine batter and a charger. We are not looking for an on-board charging system - we are looking for some type of charger that we can plug in at home and use in the garage after our fishing trip.

We do have boat lights that we will probably not use, but they are there and do work. We will be getting a beginner to mid-range fish/depth finder.


What style or "model" of marine battery do we need to be able to run these things and what type of "stand alone" charger will work? Where would be the best place (price wise) to go for these things?

This is literally our first go-around with boat ownership.


Thanks!
Zac

 

[CodyPomeroy]

I would get something that is automatic and goes into a maintenance mode once it is charged. I am not sure, and I have a variation of opinions regarding this, but I think I ruined my first battery by leaving it on a 2amp charge all the time with my original manual charger. I was asking someone at the local boat store about this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-XC10-10-6-2-Amp-Battery-Charger/15140195 and he said it sounded like a good charger.

I have only had it a few weeks, but I am happy with it so far.

 

[Tim Murphy]

Dear Sachbvn,

I've had good luck with Schumacher chargers in the past so the one mentioned by Cody in the previous post is probably worth checking out.

As far as batteries go I have had my best luck with Interstate Wet-Cell Deep Cycle batteries. For a trolling motor of the size you will be using on a 14 foot boat you can get by with a Group 24 battery. If you want to go a little larger you can move up to a Group 27. You'll be looking at spending $ 100.00 to $ 110.00 for a deep cycle battery depending on what size you get. If you have a battery to return you will typically get $ 10.00 to $ 15.00 knocked off the price of the new battery by recycling and old one.

Personally I don't see any real advantage to the more advanced AGM batteries or gel-cell batteries, especially when you are going to be putting the battery in a battery box and hauling it out of the boat into the garage for charging. The old stuff still works for me.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[sharrison]

I agree with what's been said, get a good automatic charger right off the bat, It will save your battery and pay for itself in the long run. I use two Schumacher XCS15 chargers, One for my Trolling motor battery and one for my electronics battery.
The XC10 will work fine as well though, Just take slightly longer to charge since it's 10 amps instead of 15.

I also personally like the Everstart MAXX batteries from Walmart since they are decent priced and have a 2 year free replacement warranty, And Walmart is everywhere so it's easy to get it swapped out. They also have a regular Everstart but it only has a 12 month warranty.
The group 24 Everstart (not a MAXX) I use for my FF and lighting was bought back in Feb of 2007 and it just now started to act up. It's been used in several diferent boats so I can't complain at all about that. I use a Group 29 Everstart MAXX for my Trolling motor and it lasts all day with a 45# MinnKota Edge TM on my 14' Semi V.

I priced out the replacement Everstart MAXX battery today and the group 24 was $75. The group 29 was $99 when I bought it earlier this month. Walmart charges a $9 dollar core if you do not have a battery to turn in when you buy the new one. I'm sure those prices are not the same at each store, Walmarts site doesn't list prices for the batteries so you have to call or go in to check..

 

[user 7806]

This is what I have been using to charge my battery and it has been working fine https://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-XCS15-15-10-2-Amp-Marine-Battery-Charger/15140196?findingMethod=rr

The battery I am using came with the boat and I think it's the one Walmart sells. Been using it since Feb when I bought the boat and it too has been doing fine.

When I return from fishing I put the battery on the charger and leave it til I take the boat out again.

 

[nomowork]

I have a really old Schumacher 4 amp car battery charger that I use on all of my car and boat batteries. From what I learned, a slow charge (smaller amps) is best for a good charge on the battery. The 4 amp charger will take about eight hours to charge a really low battery.

I HAD two Harbor Freight float chargers to maintain two boat batteries. The problem with those were that even though the red light was on, the chargers weren't really working so on the day before an outing, I found that one battery was only at 6 volts! I bought a 1 1/2 amp Schumacher charger/maintainer charger at the auto parts store that actually shows charging status and maintaining status after fully charged. So far it's worked well so will probably buy a second one for the other boat battery.

I'm not too worried about the battery condition on my tin as the outboard is a pull start and I do carry oars but on my ocean going boat a back up battery is almost essential.

Think safety first!

 

[Kismet]

Schumacher here, too.

Old one has lasted 20 years; new one has all these lights and LED numbers AND can be left on.

 

[CajunCanuck]

Not usually a Sears "fan", but I recently purchased on the these (due to being on sale for $25).....Bought it for the Lawnmower, and other batteries I have in the garage (mostly to maintain them)

https://www.sears.com/diehard-platinum-6v-12v-battery-charger-and-maintainer/p-02871239000P?prdNo=10&blockNo=10&blockType=G10

It works great......displays the status of what it doing......several different types of connections....and during charging, it is only pumping out around 14.4v (which is better than the 15 or 16v a crappy charger puts out) which will not "boil" your battery....

Just my 2 cents.....

 

[russ010]

If you want to do it right the first time, spend a little extra and do it right. Get an AGM battery as opposed to a wet cell (you have to keep up with the water and all that in them too much).. but with an AGM or a GEL battery, you plug it up and let it go. As for a battery charger, I would consider getting an on-board charger. They are worth their weight in gold. Noco Genius are what I've been using for the last 2 years, and it has given me zero problems. It's also what was suggested to me by a pro angler.
I used to use the Wal-Mart batteries, but people started abusing the warranty and getting new batteries every year or so, or just before the warranty ran out. I took my last one in about a year ago, and they made me take it back to their garage area and put it on their battery tester. It took almost an hour for that thing to run - but it was bad. I dunno, they were good batteries, but I also had one of those batteries start to boil over on me and an extra $100 battery was worth me getting as opposed to a hole in my aluminum from the acid eating away at it.

Amazon generally carries really good deals on NOCO chargers, I just picked up 2 - 3-Bank chargers for a little over $100. The batteries that I'm using are Odyssey Trolling Thunder. They have a 3-4 Year Warranty, but last 3-10 years as well.

Battery - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trolling-Thunder-34m-PC1500ST-Deep-cycle-marine-battery-by-Odyssey-/160864863910?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item25744b06a6&vxp=mtr

Charger (one bank) - https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GEN1-On-Board-Battery-Charger/dp/B003JSHQW0/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1347044516&sr=8-11&keywords=noco+genius

For a about $10 more, you can get a 2 bank. You don't need 2 batteries to use it, just put both leads on the one battery... it will take care of the rest - https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GEN2-On-Board-Battery-Charger/dp/B003JSJS5I/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t