Author Topic: Reminder! Time to charge up the ice fishing batteries! (Read 2261 times)

Agronomist_at_IA · « **on:** Jun 20, 2017, 06:54 AM »

Thought I would put up a reminder to charge and top off the ice fishing gear batteries since it is almost July. A little maintenance goes a long way in keeping the Lead acid battery preformance up.

vanhln · « **Reply #1 on:** Jun 20, 2017, 09:40 AM »

good point. I made sure my M18 fuels were charged up the other day....

Mittenman · « **Reply #2 on:** Jun 20, 2017, 07:33 PM »

Good reminder. I have mine charging right now.

Chris338378 · « **Reply #3 on:** Jun 20, 2017, 09:31 PM »

I keep mine on my Battery Tender Jr. I've always been told to charge the battery once a month but does anyone turn on the machines to run the battery down then charge it up during the off season?

perchnut · « **Reply #4 on:** Jun 21, 2017, 08:57 AM »

Good point. I was going to start up the sled this weekend too and let it run for a bit.....

Spider1 · « **Reply #5 on:** Jun 21, 2017, 09:48 AM »

Chris, it's the NiCd batteries that develope a "memory". You don't have to run down a sealed lead acid battery to charge it. An SLA will lose about 3% of it's charge every month and it is recommended that an SLA be recharged each month but should not be left without a recharge for longer than 6 months. An SLA should never be stored with a low charge. If it is completely depleted during storage it may never be able to recover a full charge.

http://www.atbatt.com/sealed-lead-acid-batteries/faq

Reinert · « **Reply #6 on:** Jun 23, 2017, 11:13 AM »

Thanks for the reminder! Everything is charging now

Chris338378 · « **Reply #7 on:** Jun 23, 2017, 02:06 PM »

Thanks for the info Spider, I don't know much about the different type of batteries other than they're not cheap. I keep mine on my Battery Tender Jr so I don't have to worry about remembering to charge it.

rgfixit · « **Reply #8 on:** Jun 23, 2017, 05:29 PM »

Bunch of baloney! Manufacturer's hype.
I have SLA's more than 5 years old that don't see the charger more than 3x a year. They're as good as new.

Rg

wyogator · « **Reply #9 on:** Jun 24, 2017, 10:59 AM »

I just topped mine off about two weeks ago. The thing was fully charged in less than 30 minutes. Thanks for the reminder.

Fish Butcher · « **Reply #10 on:** Jun 25, 2017, 12:00 PM »

Quote from: rgfixit on Jun 23, 2017, 05:29 PM

Bunch of baloney! Manufacturer's hype.
I have SLA's more than 5 years old that don't see the charger more than 3x a year. They're as good as new.

Rg

x2. Tried it both ways and does not make a difference.

Agronomist_at_IA · « **Reply #11 on:** Jun 27, 2017, 08:04 AM »

Quote from: rgfixit on Jun 23, 2017, 05:29 PM

Bunch of baloney! Manufacturer's hype.
I have SLA's more than 5 years old that don't see the charger more than 3x a year. They're as good as new.

Rg

Interesting. I've had the exact opposite experiance.

UFCreel · « **Reply #12 on:** Jun 27, 2017, 08:11 AM »

I have been using Vexilars digital charger V-410 for years now. I have two of them. with 5 battery's to charge i just leave them plunged in and change them every couple of weeks.

Thearcher1340 · « **Reply #13 on:** Jun 27, 2017, 08:33 PM »

Great reminder n thank you

RStock521 · « **Reply #14 on:** Jun 27, 2017, 08:39 PM »

Thanks for the reminder. If nothing else, gives me something to do...

Tackle · « **Reply #15 on:** Jun 27, 2017, 09:00 PM »

Time to charge the fleet!

rgfixit · « **Reply #16 on:** Jun 30, 2017, 06:26 AM »

Well, in my former career, I dealt with SLA's by the tens of thousands. UPS systems, emergency lighting, alarm systems, energy management systems.......you name it. In my experience it's not when you charge them.....it's how you charge them.

But, like the man said.....it gives you something to do.

Rg

3300 · « **Reply #17 on:** Jun 30, 2017, 11:27 AM »

Quote from: rgfixit on Jun 30, 2017, 06:26 AM

Well, in my former career, I dealt with SLA's by the tens of thousands. UPS systems, emergency lighting, alarm systems, energy management systems.......you name it. In my experience it's not when you charge them.....it's how you charge them.

But, like the man said.....it gives you something to do.

Rg

don't those systems keep a float charge constantly?

rgfixit · « **Reply #18 on:** Jun 30, 2017, 02:08 PM »

Not all of them.

Rg

Flint · « **Reply #19 on:** Jun 30, 2017, 08:27 PM »

Doing it.

vaughan · « **Reply #20 on:** Jun 30, 2017, 10:36 PM »

Should I charge my ION battery?

vaughan · « **Reply #21 on:** Jun 30, 2017, 10:38 PM »

Should I be charging my ION battery also?

Agronomist_at_IA · « **Reply #22 on:** Jul 01, 2017, 06:35 AM »

Surely can't hurt to maintain top off the charge.

aquarium234 · « **Reply #23 on:** Jul 01, 2017, 06:50 AM »

My friend destroyed 2 battery s in 2 years and both were name brand when they say charge every 6 months it does help i just leave mine float charging so does he now.....

Chris338378 · « **Reply #24 on:** Jul 01, 2017, 08:44 AM »

Does it make any difference in the battery's life span if you don't use the battery over the off season opposed to using it a few times?

3300 · « **Reply #25 on:** Jul 01, 2017, 09:48 AM »

batteries are rated for X amount of cycles (discharged/recharged). using it say half way down and then charging it wouldn't make that a full cycle. two of those uses would make it a full cycle.
car batteries only have a short draw on them to get the system running and then stay in a charge state.

sla batteries should be kept at top charge, but they don't have a fast self discharge at all unless it's worn out.

lithium batteries are supposed to be at half charge if not used for extended periods. that's why they are sold half charged and are supposed to be fully charged before using them.

batteries "fade away". they loose their ability to hold their charge as they wear out. you can tell also by how fast they take their charge using the same charger. unless you get a shorted cell, then the battery is gone.

Agronomist_at_IA · « **Reply #26 on:** Jul 02, 2017, 10:02 PM »

330 did a pretty good job.

Some things to point out is that with SLA batteries we are using have a 200-300 average life cycle.

Every time you discharge and charge the battery it would be a cycle. Every cycle causes a small loss of battery capacity. The primary reasons for its relatively short cycle life and small loss of battery capacity are grid corrosion on the positive electrode, depletion of the active material and expansion of the positive plates. The deeper the discharge of a cycle, typically will cause a larger small amount of battery loss which will also lower the number of cycles the battery will get.

So to sum up what I just posted. A guy that keeps his batteries charged up, and takes care off them vs. a guy that drains the battery dead and charges it just when he needs it should get more cycles out of the battery and have a battery that will last longer with longer run times over the life of the battery.

From experiance my Ice fishing batteries (deep cycle in the fish house) that is usually charged/maintained well throught the season which seldom gets drain to dead seem to last a lot longer and hold on stronger then the deep cycle trolling motor batteries which get drained to zero then recharged. The trolling motor batteries do get some help keeping them hooked up to the on board float/maintain charger which has the recondition cycle on it to help keep battery capacity.

I guess the real short version is just keep the batteries charged up well and a guy should get the most you can out of them.

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Author Topic: Reminder! Time to charge up the ice fishing batteries! (Read 2261 times)