Thank you fine gentlemen

I certainly learned a lot about recharging deep cycle batteries and lots of
great recommendations.

Thanks for all the recommendations and suggestions.

73s






"Jim Higgins" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:09:35 -0500, "Tom" wrote:

Hi
I know it is a bit off topic but I know a lot of knowledge here and the
boating groups seem finished.

I have three batteries for my boats, two are the larger sized 12volt deep
cycle, the heavier ones (about 50 lbs) about 700 something amp. Nautalis
from Canadian Tire, the other is the regular size deep cycle 12volt (about
30lb) .
The battery charger is the Canadian tire 2amp/10amp automatic charger. Has
setting for deepcycle batteries.

Because both those heavy batteries (4 years old) were drained very low,
almost dead


Very deep discharge runs the risk of developing shorts thru the
separators (glass mats) that can prevent the batteries ever again
achieving full charge. Such batteries will also not hold a charge.


it took about a week to charge one of them before the green
light came on on the charger. They always measured 12v and always kept
fluid
full. Both batteries charged fully in about a week with that charger
(about
5 days each) at 10 amps. Sometimes I switch the charger to 2 amps (high
power rates).


Question... when you say 10 amps and 2 amps, are you referring just to
the name of the setting or can you confirm that 2 amps and 10 amps of
current were actually flowing. Does the charger have an ammeter?


The other regular sized boat battery (for my 70hp outboard) is about 5
years, always shows 12v and full, and charged up np and green light came
on.

I put all three on the shelf in the garage here in Ontario and tapped the
batteries together in parellel and put the charger back on the center
battery and haven't seen the green light come on that charger now for over
a
week. I keep it on 10amps overnight because cheaper rate, then switch to 2
amps for the day, then weekends 10amps solid.

Why no green light? Was green light when individually charged them.

I know the smaller battery is much less amps than the other two (pair)
batteries.

That last bit isn't an issue in and of itself.

What's the temperature in your garage? What's the voltage of the
batteries with the charger connected and operating? How much charge
current is flowing? (I'm not asking you for the charge setting, but
rather for ACTUAL current flow.)


My objective was to bring them all up to charge (green light) then keep
them
in storage in the garage with the one amp charger I have from Canadian
tire
and keep it there all winter on the 1amp charger 24,7.

A reasonable goal assuming the 1-amp charger cuts off at a battery
voltage that doesn't result in excessive gassing, otherwise spring
will find 3 dried up batteries. It also assumes 1 amp is adequate to
keep these OLD batteries fully charged. And it assumes the voltage
this charger is capable of putting out, and the voltage setting within
it, is adequate for a battery sitting in a COLD garage. You need a
higher voltage to fully charge and maintain a cold battery.


Any ideas why the batch of them aren't coming to green light? And is that
a
good storage idea?

Read the above carefully and answer all questions and we'll be closer
to figuring that out. Do NOT make assumptions about the current that
is flowing. If you aren't able to read it on a meter, you need to say
so clearly. When you measure voltages it would be nice to see a
number to 2 places after the decimal.

One more thing you can do. Disconnect the charger over night, measure
battery voltage, then reconnect the charger and measure voltage at
regular intervals of no less than 1 hour for as long as you can. This
will tell us something about the capabilities of the charger when
operating in the cold garage. Do this AFTER measuring battery voltage
on charge (and after extended charging) as requested earlier.