Battery Update 2014

It was at the back end of 2010 that we last changed our leisure batteries. At the time we upgraded the bank to effectively double our available capacity. Since then we have enjoyed trouble free, worry free (well in power terms anyway) boating.

We have noticed since the start of this year that whilst they are still coping admirably with our power demands that they have lost some capacity. Not enough to cause us a problem, but enough to be noticeable.

We are fairly sure that they will see us through this summer with no problems; in fact since the weather has got milder they seem to have recovered slightly. Our power demands during the summer months tend to be less than during the winter months due to less use of the diesel heating which is our main drain on the batteries.

It remains to be seen how they will cope with a good shake up at sea this year. In previous years they have not taken too kindly to being shook up and have seemingly failed in spectacular style before being revived as if by magic with a 24 hour charge via the battery charger and shore power. Whether they will survive this treatment this year is any bodies guess!

We have never been particularly precious about our battery charging regime. During the week whilst the boat is tucked in the marina they are looked after by a four stage charger, but whilst we are out and about cruising they are less molly coddled. We try not to drain them too deeply, in fact this set have rarely been below 12.2V, however we are less than strict with ensuring that they are fully recharged. We don’t sit with the engine running in neutral for hours on end, it seems a bit wasteful having the big diesel growling away for a meagre few amps extra power yet using fuel at a vastly greater rate.

If we do manage to squeeze the summer out of these batteries, which we should easily be able to do, then we will have managed four years, which doesn’t seem to be out of the ordinary. At this point it will certainly be time to replace them.  We use the boat so we want the batteries to be up to the job. I don’t see the point in trying to squeeze every last amp out of them but being let down in the process. So watch this space.