battery question

[nel]

Last november, I stored my one year old trolling motor battery in the garage, and left it plugged into an automatic charger.

The charger charges when the voltage drops, and stops when the battery is fully charge.

 

Basically, I forgot about the battery. So, today, I decided that maybe it would be wise to put some water in it...

I pretty much poured a 1.5 litres of distilled water into it....so I'm guessing it was pretty dry inside...

 

Should I be shopping for a new battery? Or do you think it'll survive?

[Big Cliff]

That does sound like a lot of water but I am no battery expert. I'd try sending an email to the battery Mfg. and see what thay say.

[nel]

it's a bass pro shop battery...

 

I wonder if their warranty covers stupidity..

[GbayGiant]

I did that a couple years ago and still have the same batteries, if your charger auto stops than it should be fine and then it trickle charges by itself every so often, I try to charge them up once a month in the winter. You'll just have to see when you hook them up but they should be fine. If they were all the way out of water you could have a problem, that's never happened to me so I don't know about that.

[lookinforwalleye]

I wonder where the water went?

If the battery discharged over the winter and froze then it`s probably dead or at least damaged, a fully charged battery will not freeze but one that is not will freeze and that will ruin a battery.

 

I would just try and charge it again and see if it holds a charge if it doesn`t then it gone.

[Fisherman]

Sorry but most of those "automatic" chargers, aren't quite that "smart". As for being down 1.5l of water, you might have rescued it it time. The automatic charger charged long and strong and basically evaporated the water out of the battery by over gassing. If you want a charger that can be left alone for 6 months at a time then get a Battery Minder or Battery Tender from VDC electronics.

[huey graphite]

Three months is not significant but more than likely the electrolyte (lead acid) was low before then and hence low when you started charging it. You can bet the electrolyte has sulfated and adhered to the plates. Now that you've refilled it, once it reaches full charge, do a load test on it (connect your trolling motor). If you have a voltmeter, monitor the voltage under load and see how quickly it drops. A fully charged battery should measure just under 13 volts and about 12.0 volts when fully disharged.

 

My employer recently invested in some interesting technology that provides a pulse to sulfated batteries and over the course of several days or weeks, can recover bad batteries by reversing the sulfation.

 

I used this on my marine battery that was rated at 450cca. Prior to pulsing it, I tested it and measured 250cca. After 3 days under pulse, it increased to 435cca.

[Frankypro]

I am guessing that it's a deep cycle battery and not cold crankin battery ( sorry if I don't have the correct terms) so have you tried chraging it agian? Slow and steady. It may keep a charge O.K. you don't know unless you try.

 

Deep cycle batteries last a long time (years) if you keep them charged up all of the time.

 

Let us know

[John Bacon]

I would suggest the you hook your charger up to a timer so that is only comes on for a short duration; that should allow you to forget about your batteries over the winter.

 

I hope your current battery is still okay.

[nel]

Thanks for the advice.

It's a deep cycle battery. The charger is a battery tender (says Battery Tender right on it). It's a trickle charger and is suppose to turn off when the voltage reaches a certain level. It's suppose to be a "plug in and forget device"...I just forgot about adding water.

 

Before I put in water, the battery meter indicated full charge.

After I put in the water, the battery meter indicated half charge.

After charging it for 2 minutes, the battery meter was back to full charge.

 

When I looked in before filling, the plates looked dry and rusty... I'm sure that's bad, that's why I'm so worried about it.

 

Since there are no replies saying that the battery is toast, I think I'll take my chances and use it when soft water season comes. If the battery is dies, I have a gas motor as backup...so I won't be stranded anywhere.