Battery question

[jbsoonerfan]

I haven't been able to take the boat out since June due to softball and other family obligations, Then deer season cam around etc. Well, long story short, I kept my boat plugged up till about July when we got our pool and we used that plug in to run our pimp. My boat sits under our carport. We had a chance of severe storms one time for a week or so so I took it to my Mom's and put it in her barn for a week or maybe 10 days. I brought it home and parked it back under the carport. About a week ago I decided to plug it back up to charge the batteries and my 2 TM batteries charged and my on-board charger light said "check connection" on my starting battery. I let me TM batteries charge and unplugged it and hooked a charger up to my starting battery. It never would take a charge. I had a buddy over and he said he doesn't think there is any way the battery is shot (it is about a year old). He thinks mice got into it while it was in the barn. My plan was to just buy a new battery and see if that fixes it. This one registers 0.0 on a volt meter and will not charge. What would you guys do????

[Chris Catignani]

Sometimes you can put a dead battery on "boost" (if your charger has it) and it will start to take a charge.

[A-Jay]

What would you guys do????

Replace the battery and then go the local animal shelter

and get my Mom a Big Ol'Barn Cat.

A-Jay

 

[TnRiver46]

Is this a lead acid battery ??

 

There are some tricks to reviving such a battery. The first to try is what the charger said, check connection. A little corrosion or a nick in a cable somewhere can foul it. The next is to try is what @Chris Catignani said, a defibrillation if you will. Take it out of the boat, make sure there’s water in each cell, then charge it with a high amperage. I’ve got one of those battery chargers on wheels that can go up to 220 amps or something like that. If you don’t have that kind of charger, use jumper cables and jump it with your truck. Or take into a parts store and let them check/test/charge.  On a battery that lost its charge but is still good, this usually works. 
 

If still dead, this sounds crazy and I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it. My buddies had a boat that wouldn’t start, we checked the battery and it was 2015 and deep cycle, not cranking and wouldn’t take a charge.  I had brought an extra starting battery on the trip because mine is 2016, still works but it was camping in middle of nowhere so I brought an extra. They bought that new battery off me and just set the 2015 deep cycle aside. On a long camping trip with a lot of weather too hot to fish, a lot of us were sitting around in the shade just looking at that battery. We all tried charging it with different chargers, wouldn’t do much. One guy says “you know, sometimes those lead plates get corrosion in between them. You can slam it onto the ground, break it loose, then boil as hot as you can with a charger and she will fire up and at least get you to auto zone……..” Well here we are, too hot to fish, let’s try it. Wouldn’t ya know that battery is still working to this day after we did that. They let me take it home since I sold them my crank battery and I let another friend have it, he still runs his 12v trolling motor with it haha

 

 

[jbsoonerfan]

Update - I had the day off yesterday so I just went and bought a new battery. Got it put in today and so far everything seems to be good to go. I didn't have time today, but I am going to go put some new gas in tomorrow and take her to the lake and try to get her going.

[Way2slow]

Don't be surprised if your TM batteries only last a lot shorter time than you expected.

Batteries self discharge, when they drop below approximately 85%, the start to sulphate.  The more it drops and the longer it sets, the more it sulphates and the harder it gets.  There is nothing you are going to be able to do to desulphate it when it does.  Don't think for a second one of the chargers that claims to desulphate one will do it when it has hardened.  There are all kinds of witches brews and snake oil remedies people will claim to work, but generally, the only thing that really works is the funds it takes to buy new ones.

A brand new battery left discharged for 30 days is basically junk.  That's why you should only buy new batteries from places that have a high volume of turnover, and check the date sticker on them for when they were stocked in the store.  That little code sticker you see on them, that's the date the are stocked in the store, not the manufacturing date, That's a secrete code that's embossed in the battery.

[BassnChris]

I betcha you won't be taking it tomorrow ?

Who would've thunked it?

 

Unseasonably Warm and sometimes hot weather in OK all the way up to a few days past Christmas

and then here comes the winter.

 

On 12/18/2021 at 10:46 PM, jbsoonerfan said:

Update - I had the day off yesterday so I just went and bought a new battery. Got it put in today and so far everything seems to be good to go. I didn't have time today, but I am going to go put some new gas in tomorrow and take her to the lake and try to get her going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gim]

Don’t park it in a barn anymore.

[gm4511]

If I read your original post correctly, the starting battery was not charged between July and early December of last year.

 

You made the right decision replacing the battery.  Starting batteries will self discharge over time as Way2slow said.  They're also subject to parasitic drain from electrical things that remains on even with your key turned off.