Sport 190 Winterized - Battery Care?

dburne

dburne

New Member
Jun 8, 2012
590
Nashville TN
Boat Info
2013 Sea Ray 190 Sport
Engines
4.3 MPI Mercruiser Alpha One
Today is a sad, sad day.
I hauled our new Sport 190 ( purchased in Feb), up to the dealer and had it winterized today. No more boating for us, till late April/early May of 15. :(

We have had some really great times in it this year, we went to the lake a bunch of times - lost count - put app 35 hours on the engine. Now, we do anchor and hang out a lot at the lake when we go as well. Had a great 4th of July, spent 15 hours on the lake culminating in a great fireworks show at the end.

We did not seem to get around to doing couple things I wanted to do, like weekend trips to other lakes, but hey there is always next year.
The Sport 190 even survived a horrific hail storm we had here on the evening of the 6th - the hail and wind got our roof ( entire roof has to be replaced), and both of our vehicles ( thank goodness for insurance), but the boat stored outside with it's factory cover was not phased. Most likely what helped it, was I have it between my garage and a tree line - I think with the direction of the storm, the garage was a nice buffer for it.

Anyhow, here shortly I will be covering it back up and parking it in the same spot, for the off season. I think what I am going to do is pull both batteries ( have 2 batteries with selector switch), and keep them in the garage. I would like to keep the batteries nice and healthy for the off season, I have a simple battery charger, but thinking I would like to look for more of a battery tender to keep them in good shape.

Any recommendations for a tender? Can it take care of both batteries at the same time?
I will also take some good pics of how my batteries are connected, so can make sure I get them hooked back up properly when I put them back in.

Thanks for any tips,
 
Battery Tender is a well known, and very good, battery maintainer (and I'm sure there's others). I personally use a brand called Battery Minder - same idea as the Tender, but also adds a desulphation mode which is a good thing for long battery life. If both batteries are exactly the same size, then you can fully charge each one individually and then hook them together and charge both at the same time for the entire winter. Myself, though, I have a charger for each battery. They're only about $50 and I figure it's money well spent. I currently have about 6 of these, but my oldest set is about 10 years old and still going strong.

Be sure to check your fluid level a few times over the winter and ONLY use distilled water to top off (if needed).

Pictures are a good idea - you can also use masking tape (can write on it) to tape together the various wires that go to the positive or negative terminal.
 
Well she's cleaned up, covered up , and tucked away for the off season. I did take pics of the batteries, and we got the leads labeled hopefully appropriately. Lot of wires there, I have not pulled the batteries yet, when I get the battery tender then I will go back there and get them out - kind of dreading that part.
 
That'll work.

Don't be overwhelmed by the wires. Remove the wires ONE terminal at a time and label - it'll be easier than you're anticipating.
 
IMHO the overwhelming part is lifting the darn things over the gunwhales without wrecking the boat or yourself.
 
Long time lurker here trying to ensure that I don't damage anything. My '06 220 Sundeck is stored in an unheated garage over the Winter. I've always removed the batteries from my boats and stored them in my basement. I hit them with a trickle charge for a couple of days before I reinstall in the Spring. As I get older, and the batteries get heavier, I'd rather leave them in the boat. I have the normal parallel 2 battery setup with a Perko switch (matching Interstate marine batteries). I just bought a Battery Minder 1510 on Dennis's recommendation and am still unclear about it's use as an "onboard" device. Is there any risk to the batteries or the electrical system if I leave the boat's battery cables and wires connected and just attach the Minder's clips or ring terminals to the batteries and plug it in for the Winter? If I leave the switch set to "Both", it should charge and desulfate both batteries even though I've only connected the Minder to one of them, right? Lastly, can I close up the cover with the batteries connected to the Minder or is the hydrogen gas build up too concentrated that way (factory Sunbrella cockpit cover).

On another note, I'd like to thank Dennis for all of his advice on this forum. I've been a Peters Marine customer for a few years now and have had nothing but great experiences with all of the staff there - thanks again!
 
Hey qx72bs,

Just notice you had posted in this thread, and not gotten any replies. I would think, unless you have the boat rigged for an on board charging system, your best bet would be to yank those batteries out of there. I know I would not be comfortable just putting a charger of any type into that battery compartment with the boat covered up .
However I am no where near as knowledgeable on batteries in boats as others here, just my opinion on what I would do.

Maybe someone else will come along that can better answer your question as well.

In fact I have had a brutal last few weeks of travel for my work, combined with some rainy weekends, today is the first chance I have gotten to get out there and pull my batteries and get them on the tender I purchased. About to go do that shortly, keeping my fingers crossed LOL.

And you are right, Dennis has been an invaluable aid here for me I know, as well as others, with all of his excellent advice. We are fortunate to have him hand around here!
 
I am pleased to report success, thankfully with the help of my wonderful wife, I have both Interstate Marine batteries out and in the garage on the Deltran 2 bank battery tender. I got them unhooked, and then she pulled them out and handed down to me outside of the boat. I have a bad back, had back surgery couple of years ago.

Hey question, for some reason I am thinking it is not good to let a battery sit on a concrete floor, is that correct or is that an old false tale? I didn't out of precaution.

One last question, if we were going out of town for a week on vacation, would it be best to unhook the tender to be safe? Otherwise I plan on leaving it on 24/7...

Thanks again for all the helpful advice gang!
 
Thanks, QX! That's very nice of you to say. Keep the chargers out of the engine compartment. But you can tuck them in up top somewhere (out of the weather in case a cover leaks), and just let the cords run down to the batteries. Keep the switch off (among other things, it cuts down on a few various components of your boat being constantly on). Attach the charger to one of the batteries and let it charge until it reaches the maintenance phase (give it a day or two). Then charge the other one the same way. The use a piece of small-gauge (maybe 14-/16-ish - more than enough) wire to connect the two positives of the batteries together. A floor lamp-size electrical cord is fine. Now you're good to go. From a charging stand-point it might be OK to leave the switch on 'both', but (besides the excess draw over the winter of leaving it on 'both') I'd rather err on keeping the charging path as short as possible.
 
Don, old battery cases where made out of a different material that would leach acid (or something like that - I forget the exact specifics) when on a cold, damp concrete floor. So, it's an "old" tale, but not a "false" tale. For the batteries that I have in my garage over the Winter, though... guess what I still do? I just can't get myself to leave them directly on the concrete!!! :smt101

Vacation... no worries - leave them attached and forget about it till Spring.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Don, old battery cases where made out of a different material that would leach acid (or something like that - I forget the exact specifics) when on a cold, damp concrete floor. So, it's an "old" tale, but not a "false" tale. For the batteries that I have in my garage over the Winter, though... guess what I still do? I just can't get myself to leave them directly on the concrete!!! :smt101

Vacation... no worries - leave them attached and forget about it till Spring.
Click to expand...

Lol, I will continue to do so as well.
Thanks Dennis, will leave them hooked up and look forward to them being in great shape ready to go in the spring ( which can't get here soon enough)!
 
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