|
|
Posts: 84
Location: Knot on the WATER | Heard different views of leaving your 4bank charger on to long charging your batteries, is it harmful or not? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1901
Location: MN | If it is a "smart" charger as most are and reverts to a trickle charger or mainenence charge then you should be good. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I still unplug my charger when the lights turn green. With any multi bank onboard, you need to watch the lights. I have seen dual pro, pro mariner, minn kota all remain in a charge mode too long from time to time then after unpugging and replugging in, they go quickly to green. I never just plug it in and forget about it. While 90+% of the time plugging and walking away is okay, I prefer to watch what my charger is doing to be on the safe side. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3479
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
As stated above, most of the chargers out there that are on-board mounted are 3 phase chargers and when the batteries are full, they go into a maintenance type of mode which is similar to a trickle charge.
The main issue that I believe everyone should be watchful for is potential failure of the charger. If the charger somehow fails when you leave it plugged in for extended periods of time, you run the risk of overcharging, which can be a very very bad situation...
The suggestion I have always followed is to get the batteries charged and unplug. Very little drainage will happen, unless something is left on.
For winter, charge them up, and unhook the batteries from everything except the charger leads. Then, once a month, plug in the charger for a few hours and everything will stay fully charged through the winter (even through the coldest of temperatures) and you should be good to go. When the batteries are good, they should not lose their charge over winter...especially if nothing is hooked up to them.
Steve |
|
| |
