Offshoreonly.com - Battery Questions

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I have let my boat sit with switchs off and no charger, for 5 months, and started first try before.

Has anyone tried an Odyssey battery in their boat ? I know they are pricey , but are they any good ? I've had a blue Optima in the cat for going on thirteen seasons with no problems . Yea , I'm on borrowed time .

Yellow top, red top blue top, I`ve had many in both cars and trucks(mostly not by choice) and they would die way before they should.
Interstate is the way to go.

Delphi, Exide and Johnson Controls Industries make virtually every battery in the USA under a number of labels.

7 year old Optima Blue tops, great batteries. I store the boat for 8 months with the batteries in the boat,spring time i put them on a charger for a couple hours and they work all summer long. I don`t have much of a sound system but do the job for me. If one of them takes a crap i would with out a doubt buy the same battery.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the deep (Post 3885213)

I have Odyssey batteries in my skater for going on 3yrs now. They have been perfect with no issues. I own an electronics company and we use them all the time. Also have used other AGM batteries with no issues.
Regarding the stereo system and charging the batteries there are a lot of varibles on what type of charger you will need depending on how you will play the stereo at anchor and at the dock. We have done numerous JL systems and you really need to do some load calculations to figure out how much battery power you will need for the amount time you plan to use it without a charger. Solar chargers do not produce near enough amperage to charge a system like that under use.

Just wondering if you have 2 Optima Blue tops and want to put a house battery for upgrading Stereo does it have to be Optima?

Die hard Deep Cycle Marine Battery for 110.

Wannabe

Quote:

Originally Posted by boating37 (Post 3885547)

Just wondering if you have 2 Optima Blue tops and want to put a house battery for upgrading Stereo does it have to be Optima?

it is always best if you are adding battery capacity to an existing bank to use the same batteries. Does not necessarly have to be same brand but size and type is always good. Also if you are going to have a separate house battery you will need a means to charge it separately as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skaterdave (Post 3885094)

Deka make a marine AGM battery that works great. i have really good luck with the optima's blue tops. got 6 over yrs on the set in my cat before any issues. the deka's will fit in generic battery boxes vs the optimas cause of their radius corners.

solar chargers seem to be the answer or your going to have to pull the batteries. last company i worked for started to install solar chargers on their bobtail tractors. saved the mechanic from running around and having to jump start tractors on monday.

What he said. I have two 31 series AGM Deka batteries in my boat and run a lot of power all day long without issue. Throw it on a 30 amp charger at night and it is good to go by morning. One of them has been through 4 seasons of abuse and still going strong. The other is on its 3 rd year. These are tru "house, deep cycle" batteries. THey are not designed for engine cranking or to take a quick charge from an alternator. As a matter of fact I have them isolated on a switch and make sure when the boat is running the batteries are switched off. I have the two wired in parallel on #2 of my battery switch. I actually burned up an alternator because after a long day of radio play, both batteries were pretty low it was way too much load for the alternator. Leason learned... I charge them only with an Onboard charger.