12 volt marine starting battery, left switch on all winter

[AlanJ]

ok

 

seems when i put the boat away, i left the ignition switch on

i normally bring the batteries in the house but i thought i would be fishing all winter as usual.

 

so, battery is on charger, it has the needle over to where the fully charged light is, but the light is off.

after 5 months is this battery usable ?

or is deader then dead.

 

i forget, but i recall adead battery over winter is not fixable.

 

alanj

[irishfield]

The light gets lit from the battery voltage.. to confirm correct polarity. Give it time... it might come around. Once it repolarizes itself it will probably charge.

[tjsa]

I hadn't used my truck for 5 months. Sat in the driveway. Got cold, very cold. Both batteries froze.

Took 3 days with the charger on the main starting battery, but it came back to life. Now I have to put the charger on the 2nd battery, as the battery isolator is not doing anything to it so it seems. It may be toast, but have yet to check.

 

Gotta do the same thing to my quad battery, . Forgot to remove it last fall. Took 2 hrs. for it hooked up to my running truck to get enough of a charge to turn it over.

 

Give the charging a bit of time, it may recover, and if you can remove the covers to test the battery cell's electrolte's specific gravity, do that. It will tell you if you need a new one.

[AlanJ]

after an hour the needle moved from the far left side and is now on the right side, showing charging.

interesting.

 

i always thoght a dead battery would freeze, but the water is full in all cells.

 

since i have a minn kota trolling motor, i always have a spare battery on the boat if required.

i will see how this goes.

 

how long should it take to go to full charge ?

if it goes to full charge to quick, i may wonder about the battery's usability.

 

alanj