super dave Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 I left my deep cycle battery in the garage since early fall and when I checked the water level, it was down quite a bit. I topped it up with distilled water and trickle charged it but it won't hold a charge. Is this battery pooched? Pls help battery experts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 if you have another good battery hook the 2 up together pos to pos neg to neg the put a charger on them, highest amps you can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormdunker Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 Charge it, discharge it a couple times, see if the battery does come back. This happened to my ATV battery. Water level was low, topped it up, it worked. One other hint make sure your battery is not sitting on bare concrete. Put it on a piece of plywood or a milk crate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davey buoy Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 Was going to say as well,full charge for a while. Should get it going again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokestackLightnin Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 One other hint make sure your battery is not sitting on bare concrete. Put it on a piece of plywood or a milk crate. This does not apply for newer batteries. Years ago when battery cases were hard rubber current could be conducted through the case and run to ground on a concrete floor. Nowadays battery cases are made of polypropylene, which is highly insulative material. How old are the deep cycle batteries? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 he needs to use enough amps that the battery get good and hot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 Charge it, discharge it a couple times, see if the battery does come back. This happened to my ATV battery. Water level was low, topped it up, it worked. One other hint make sure your battery is not sitting on bare concrete. Put it on a piece of plywood or a milk crate. And pray do tell what does discharging a battery do other than take useful life out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garnet Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 Yes take to garage in spring and hit it with 30 -45 amp charge for 15-20 minutes then charge normal. It likely is fine just needs a shock. Lawn tractor battery's almost always need a shock if you drain to low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormdunker Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 And pray do tell what does discharging a battery do other than take useful life out of it. Fisherman I did this procedure with my 12 volt ATV battery & it was successful. It had run very low on water as well. Battery has been good ever since! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 Fisherman I did this procedure with my 12 volt ATV battery & it was successful. It had run very low on water as well. Battery has been good ever since! Okay, other than taking a couple of life cycles out of the battery, that does nothing for the longevity of a regular lead acid/ maintenance free or AGM battery. The only ones that running through a couple of controlled charge/discharge cycles are NiCd. You may have been coincidentally lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dabluz Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 I left my deep cycle battery in the garage since early fall and when I checked the water level, it was down quite a bit. I topped it up with distilled water and trickle charged it but it won't hold a charge. Is this battery pooched? Pls help battery experts. What is the voltage of the battery? If less than 10 volts, many chargers will not charge a battery that has less than 10 volts. Do you have an intelligent battery charger? You need an intelligent battery charger that does recharge deep cycle batteries. Ordinary car chargers do not competely recharge deep cycle batteries....for reasons I don't know even though I did stints at a battery shop when in the military. Check the specific gravity of each cell to see if they are about equal. Yes, the specific gravity of the liquid will depend on how much distilled water you added to a particular cell but too low a reading does mean that maybe a cell is shorting out. Charge your battery at about 15 amps to 25 amps at the start but very soon after, drop the amperage to 10 amps so that the battery does not heat up. If the battery goes above 100F, remove charger to let the battery cool down a bit. Keep checking the specific gravity of each cell as you charge and add distilled water to just cover the plates. Every once in a while, shake the battery to remove any bubbles that can stick to the plates and decrease the efficiency of the charge. After 24 hours, your intelligent battery charger will tell you if the battery is rechargeable. Most intelligent battery charges have a desulfication mode after a certain number of hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
super dave Posted January 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 Thanks everyone. I'll try the suggestions. Dabluz, I don't know the answers to your questions. I just bought the battery and trolling motor off someone a few years back. Im going to try to post a picture. Would you mind taking a look at it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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