Marine Battery question?

[Gladius]

I have a question on marine batteries. I know that alot of the marine batteries are not true deep cell batteries. My question to you pro's :grouphug: is what is the best battery for the money? I need a battery for a 14' aluminum fishing boat to be used for a trolling motor. I have also heard that the golf cart batteries are a good battery?
Thanks Guys, Greg :help:

[double trouble]

both auto zone and costco sell a deep cycle/starting battery manufactured by johnson controls. that was the old die hard battery before they went to exide.you should get 5 years out of one if you keep it charged and don't let it freeze up. both are 65-70 dollars ,but the costco battery is 5 bucks cheaper.My duralast is 2 years old and going strong. My old die hards are 4 years old and getting a little weaker.I did see a guy selling optima deep cells for $100 at the flea market . I wonder if they are as good as advertized? Dan :o

[WALLEYE MIKE]

I got my deep cycle batteries at Sam's club for about $65. 900CCA and 205 reserve minutes. Size 27 or 31 can't remember.

[Gladius]

Thats where I get confused Mike with all the numbers that are associated with these batteries. About how long might I get with a battery like that with a trolling motor? Maybe an hour or 2? :confused:
Thanks, Greg

[WALLEYE MIKE]

All depends on your amp draw of your motor. At slow speed you draw less and at full speed you draw more and your battery won't last as long. You divide amps being used into the amt. of total amps in the battery to get the length of time it will last at full charge. If you use your motor intermititly it will last even longer. A 27 size battery won't last as long as a 31 size either. Just off hand a 31 size battery should last you a good 4-6 hours at least at maximum draw.

[jpollman]

Gladius,

I've got an Exide Deep Cycle/Cranking battery. It's a size 24 and has 630 Cranking Amps with 130 minute reserve. I've had it for about three years and bought it for about $50 at Walmart or Kmart. (can't remember which) I use it to run my 35 lb Minn Kota trolling motor on my 10' Pond Prowler. I usually fish HEAVY weeds and usually fish for several hours and almost always run it on high speed. I've yet to kill the thing in one trip. I usually bring it home and throw it on a slow charge just to top it off after using it but I bet that I could get two or three shorter trips out of it without topping it off. But that's not good either. You're better off recharging it once you're done with it.

Hope this helps

John

[ibthetrout]

I have a similar setup and use the marine battery that came on my popup camper. It's not a very big battery, but if I stay out of 5th speed I can go 4-6 hours with no problem. That's not constant use, but if you are moving from spot to spot anchoring for a while and fishing you should be good. I have a 52lb thrust minkota on a 10' jon. When I buy another battery I going to get one of those big SOB's so I can go all day!

Good luck and have fun! :fish:

[double trouble]

just remember that sears wal-mart and sams club batteries are made by exide. the company was bankrupt a few years ago and their quality has been poor.stick to interstate, delco , motorcraft, costco , optima, and auto zone, not in any particular order.

[Steven Arend]

A deep cycle battery is designed to be drained before recharging. Every time you hook a deep cycle to the charger it take life out of the battery. If you have a deep cycle that does not seem to be holding a charge you need to "Jump charge it" that is if you have a charger that has a setting for 12V @ 60amp. charge the batter on this setting for 15-20 mins. and then which the charge to 12V @ 2amp till it is fully charged. If you don't have a setting for jump charging hook the battery up to you vehicle's battery while it is running for about 30min. then hook it up to the charger. Hawker Battery use to make a good deep cycle called the "Trolling Thunder" but I think they're out of business. The optima deep cells are another good deep cell battery.

Steve

[jpollman]

Steve,

Here's a link to a very good battery information site.

http://www.pacificpowerbatteries.com/batteries.html

Click on the Deep Cycle battery link and it has a lot of good information there.
deep cycle batteries do NOT form a "memory" ! If you want to extend the life of your deep cycle battery it should be recharged as soon after you use it as possible. If the battery is drawn down to less than 80% of its capacity and allowed to set for any length of time it can become "sulfated". A layer of lead sulfate will be deposited on the lead plates and ruin the battery.

Read through some of the FAQ's listed on that site. It is very good and dispells a lot of the battery myths floating around out there.

[ESOX]

http://www.marine-electronics.net/techarticle/battery_faq/b_faq.htm#6

[jpollman]

THAT'S the site I was looking for ! Thanks Paul. :)
I had it in my previous favorites list but lost it when I had to reformat a couple of months ago. Now it's back where it belongs. ;)

[double trouble]

battery manufactures and brand names

Battery manufacturers, distributors, or large chain stores will often private label their batteries, for example, EverStart for Wal-Mart, DieHard for Sears and DuraLast for Auto Zone. The larger chain stores might have batteries with their private label made by several manufacturers depending on the location to reduce shipping costs or to provide more different types or sized of batteries. Below is a list in alphabetical order of the largest battery manufacturers, joint ventures, distributors, and dealers with some of their brand names, trademarks and private labels, hyperlinks to their Web addresses and telephone numbers. The manufacturers are in bold type. Ownership, supply contracts, branding, Web addresses and telephone numbers are subject to change. For example, EnerSys purchased Hawker and portions of Yuasa; Johnson Controls acquired the automotive battery portions of Hoppecke, Varta, Bosch and Grupo IMSA; and Yuasa and Japan Storage Battery have merged as GS Yuasa.

The manufacturer's code number will be on the battery and is only sure way of identifying the manufacturer. Ask the dealer who made the battery. Material Safety Data Sheets, (MSDS) can provide a useful source of information on the manufacturer of the battery. Manufacturers, joint ventures or distributors will sometimes have lines within a trademark or brand, for example, Bronze, Gold, Silver, Premium, Heavy Duty, Commercial, Standard, Plus, Turbo, Calcium, Classic, Maintenance Free, etc., for differentiating quality, features or warranty periods. They will also contract with other manufacturers to build special purpose batteries and batteries to complete their product lines that are not economically feasible to build themselves.

Trademarks, brand names and registrations are owned by their respective companies and are as shown below. Web addresses will often change, so you can use an Internet search tool like http://www.google.com or http://www.yahoo.com/ to locate the most current information. Other good sources of battery manufactures is BaSyTec's Hyperlink list at http://www.basytec.de or the membership list of Associations, Business Directories or Hyperlink Lists found in the Battery References and Information Links List at http://www.batteryfaq.org. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, (FAQs) and additional information on car, motorcycle, truck, marine, and recreational vehicle starting and deep cycle lead-acid batteries can be found at http://www.batteryfaq.org.

Tip: Use Ctrl-F to find a manufacturer's or brand name.

For additions, errors or omissions, please e-mail Bill Darden at info@batteryfaq.org.


hope this helps a little Dan

[Sixshooter]

I can vouche for interstate, diehards, and opitmas. they are all manf. by the same company.

I have an optima in my boat for my deep cycle and it works GREAT...but it costs a butt load of cash.

STEVE YOU ARE FULL OF POOP....the Deep cycle memory thing is PHONY. you will actually kill your battery quicker by tottally draining it every trip out.