I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

John H. wrote:
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

An inexpensive "trickle" charger can do more damage than good. You
really want to charge the battery with a smart charger, that will turn
itself on and off as needed.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:58:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
[email protected] wrote:

John H. wrote:
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

An inexpensive "trickle" charger can do more damage than good. You
really want to charge the battery with a smart charger, that will turn
itself on and off as needed.

No, mine's an older version of this one: http://tinyurl.com/24e7r7

It's a 125/15/2 fully automatic. I said 10 amps earlier, but the actual is
15.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:45:49 GMT, wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:23:43 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:58:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
[email protected] wrote:

John H. wrote:
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

An inexpensive "trickle" charger can do more damage than good. You
really want to charge the battery with a smart charger, that will turn
itself on and off as needed.

No, mine's an older version of this one: http://tinyurl.com/24e7r7

It's a 125/15/2 fully automatic. I said 10 amps earlier, but the actual is
15.

That's not a 3 stage smart charger. You will have a tough time
properly charging a deep cycle battery using that. Walmart sells a
smaller Schumacher "smart charger" for about $75 that is actully
pretty good. It will also properly charge AGM's and Gell Cells if you
ever have the need.


I think you may be correct. This charger has been around for a while. Maybe
I owe myself a present for being a good boy. I'm thinking of something like
this: http://tinyurl.com/2nbjqy

But, I don't see anything there about '3 stage smart charger'.

"John H." wrote in message
...

I think you may be correct. This charger has been around for a while.
*Maybe
I owe myself a present for being a good boy*. I'm thinking of something
like
this: http://tinyurl.com/2nbjqy

But, I don't see anything there about '3 stage smart charger'.


You gotta get of that crack habit.

"John H." wrote in message
...

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:45:49 GMT, wrote:


That's not a 3 stage smart charger. You will have a tough time
properly charging a deep cycle battery using that. Walmart sells a
smaller Schumacher "smart charger" for about $75 that is actully
pretty good. It will also properly charge AGM's and Gell Cells if you
ever have the need.


I think you may be correct. This charger has been around for a while.
Maybe
I owe myself a present for being a good boy. I'm thinking of something
like
this: http://tinyurl.com/2nbjqy

But, I don't see anything there about '3 stage smart charger'.

A true 3 stage smart charger automatically follows an ideal charge profile
for a battery.
The first stage is a "Bulk" charge mode and the voltage is in excess of 14.5
volts. Once the battery starts building it's capacity, the charger switches
to an "Absorption" mode were the voltage is dropped to below a lead acid
boil over rate (14.4 volts). After an extended cycle in this mode the
charger switches to a "Float mode whereby it will automatically maintain the
full charge.

Some smart chargers also have an automatic "De sulfate" mode whereby if it
senses that the battery is not taking a charge due to the plates being
sulfated, it cranks the voltage up to 15 or 16 volts for a period of time,
attempting to "burn off" the sulfate from the plates. It then retries the
bulk charge mode and if the battery now responds, it continues with the
stages.

The little smart "Maintainers" also operate in different ways. Some simply
maintain a voltage below the boil over threshold. Others cycle off every
once in a while, allowing the battery to naturally discharge, then kick back
on to charge it back up.

Eisboch

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:54:38 GMT, wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:16:29 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:45:49 GMT, wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:23:43 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:58:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
[email protected] wrote:

John H. wrote:
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

An inexpensive "trickle" charger can do more damage than good. You
really want to charge the battery with a smart charger, that will turn
itself on and off as needed.

No, mine's an older version of this one: http://tinyurl.com/24e7r7

It's a 125/15/2 fully automatic. I said 10 amps earlier, but the actual is
15.

That's not a 3 stage smart charger. You will have a tough time
properly charging a deep cycle battery using that. Walmart sells a
smaller Schumacher "smart charger" for about $75 that is actully
pretty good. It will also properly charge AGM's and Gell Cells if you
ever have the need.


I think you may be correct. This charger has been around for a while. Maybe
I owe myself a present for being a good boy. I'm thinking of something like
this: http://tinyurl.com/2nbjqy

But, I don't see anything there about '3 stage smart charger'.

Here's the one you want. As I said, Walmart has this one for about $75
or maybe a bit less.

http://store.schumachermart.com/ssc-1000a.html

I'll have one before the day is out. Thanks!

(And thanks to the Fed for printing money.)

"John H." wrote in message
...
I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?
My understanding is that these cheap smart chargers merely change the
set/reset voltages depending on your switch settings and battery voltage.
Your battery may not be able to charge to level that satisfys the charger.
Try a different charger or do a few charge/discharge cycles if the battery
is brand new. If the battery has gone flat, you may have to desulfate it.
There is a lot of information about battery charging on the Surette website
and other sites.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:35:13 -0500, John H.
wrote:

I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

Couple of things come to mind. First is if the battery is indeed
"good". I've bought new batteries that weren't worth the powder to
blow to hell.

Second, read the manual for the charger. That blinking green light
doesn't sound right to me - as if it's a trouble code.

Third, is the charger good?

The chargers I have all work fine at 2 amps and have three LEDs to
indicate status - red for trouble, yellow for charging and green for
finished.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:20:50 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:35:13 -0500, John H.
wrote:

I'm keeping the battery from the new boat in the garage so I can put a
charger on it every so often during the winter. The battery is a Nautilus
Gold Marine Deep Cycle, NG-27.

Yesterday I attempted to charge the battery with an automatic charger set
at 2 amps, 12 volt, deep cycle setting. The little green light began
blinking as though all was going well.

About 24 hours later, I noticed the little red light had come on,
indicating I should check the battery. I disconnected everything.

I'm thinking that 2 amps is not enough to charge the battery, and that I
should try it at 10 amps. But, I don't want to damage a brand new, never
used battery!

Ideas anyone?

Couple of things come to mind. First is if the battery is indeed
"good". I've bought new batteries that weren't worth the powder to
blow to hell.

Second, read the manual for the charger. That blinking green light
doesn't sound right to me - as if it's a trouble code.

Third, is the charger good?

The chargers I have all work fine at 2 amps and have three LEDs to
indicate status - red for trouble, yellow for charging and green for
finished.

Schumaker instructions that came with the charger don't even mention the
lights! Mine has only two, green and red. The green normally blinks while
charging and glows continuously when the battery's charged.

I just checked it after having it on the motorcycle battery. The green
light blinked when I connected it, but had a steady glow when I just
checked it. The motorcycle battery wasn't in a very discharged state, so
the charger took only an hour or so to top it off.

I'll try setting the charger at the 15 amp setting and see what happens.