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Posts: 633
Location: Madison, WI | I replaced the starting battery in my boat from a cheap 5 yr old no-name 500 amp battery to an optima blue top 1125 amp. I have just a small battery maintainer (not a 1 bank charger) installed on my starting battery just to keep a charge if i let the boat sit for a while. The only thing is i can leave my boat plugged in for days and that maintainer never says my battery is charged? it used to say my old one was fully charged after a few hours and with the optima it never changes? Is my new battery too big for this or is it because optima uses cells, or is the charger too small? I just dont want to hurt this very expensive battery? |
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Posts: 5874
| Older charger and spiral cell battery technology. newer chargers have selections for the different type batteries. |
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Posts: 4342
Location: Smith Creek | You need to blast those optimas with 10+ amps for about an hour before they'll take a trickle charge. What you're doing won't hurt the battery, just won't charge it. |
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Posts: 44
| Optima batteries are dry cells and need a completely different charger... A regular charger won't don't anything for them so I'm sure a regular battery tender won't either... Nothing you can't find at any auto parts store for cheap |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Your maintainer is just that, it maintains the battery at float voltage (13.5V<->13.6V) once its charged. Blasting it for 10hrs, then using the maintainer will quite likely cause long term damage because you are not fully recharging the battery. A typical 100AH battery on a 10A charger needs ~ 24 hrs to fully recharge, if its been discharged to ~10.5V.
Its not a dry battery either, it has liquid electrolyte! They're a type of VRLA battery (AGM). The battery plate composition, design and packaging are different than a contentional 12V battery, that's also what gives it some performance advantages. Follow Sled's advice and get a multi-mode charger. I also believe the Optima website has charging information in the FAQ's section. If you can't find the answer's to your questions, call them!
Good luck,
Al |
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Posts: 5874
| Sled? You called me Sled? Thanks Al! I'll remember that. |
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Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Ohh my gosh Shep! That's really an unforgivable mistake - would you forgive me if I provided dinner & libations the next time we meet? I don't know what came over me - it must have been all the heat & sunshine up in Canada 20th-27th of July- although some folks would speculate my brain was fried long before that!
My most sincere apology. Please, please, let me make this up somehow, Sled is this ugly golfer/fisherman, and lurking internet predator, and you're a fine engineer/muskie fisherman and walleye guy. I can't for the life of me explain how I could confuse him for you! Notice, I tempered your description a bit too, Sled's would be much more extensive and potentially as confusing as both Wiki & the "Cloud"....
I'm really sorry, you'll notice Sled didn't correct my mistake, and that's very common of parasitic Internet predators, i.e., they feed on undeserved praise.
Have fun!
Al |
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