Battery Question

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  • toomuchuv
    • Mar 2013
    • 190

    • Canada

    • 2014 SAN 230

    #16
    I've had the same Optima forever and it has never quit! That being said, assuming you have a battery switch, the best setup is to run a "starting" battery for just that and a "deep cycle" for running your accessories. Just remember to never run switch through off if your motor is running or you will fry your alternator.
    "I'm on a boat........"

    Comment

    • OptimaJim
      • Mar 2010
      • 8


      • 1997 Sport Nautique

      #17
      Quinner, many folks will find that a D34M will get the job done, although the larger D27M and even larger D31M will both offer more cranking amps and reserve capacity. Fitment may be an issue with those larger batteries though. For folks who use a dual battery system as toomuchuv suggests, if the batteries aren't identical in age, size and type, they should be properly-isolated from each other.

      It's also important to keep in mind that as you add accessories and potentially additional batteries to your vessel, the demands placed on the charging system will increase accordingly. The alternator that came on your boat may have been chosen with the intent that it would maintain the battery and power a modest amount of accessories. If your demand begins to outstrip your alternator's ability to provide power, you will shorten your alternator life. It is always a good idea to fully-recharge your batteries as soon as you come off the water, as your alternator may not have had enough time to do that while the engine was running.

      Jim McIlvaine
      eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
      www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

      Comment

      • Rick
        1,000 Post Club Member
        • Mar 2004
        • 1250

        • San Diego, Ca

        • 1962 Keaton Utility. 2000 Ski 1965 Barracuda

        #18
        My Blue top just died, manufactured n 12/06. I have a small stereo that almost never gets used. I think I'll be going with yellow to this time. I think it was $150 7 yearsfor $150 seems like a good deal. If you have a Ski you have an 8" height limitation You need to go with a 34
        Nautiqueless in San Diego

        Comment

        • Zach@n3
          Senior Member of PLANETNAUTIQUE
          • Sep 2012
          • 736

          • Indianapolis Indiana

          • 1986 2001 ski nautique 68 correct craft skylark

          #19
          I have had the best luck in the world with Deka Marine. I had a group 24 in my boat and my dad's boat for a total of about 8-9 years. My boat would play tunes on standby for hours and hours. I would leave the battery in the boat all winter long just detached. No charge in the spring and it would crank the boat until the carb got fuel and it fired. It died one summer when we let it set for a 3 week period or so. Pretty darn good IMHO. I was in a pinch and had to get a battery that weekend so it now sports an O'reilly super start. Been very happy with that as well. It sees all the same type of use and cranks the boat over just fine every spring since then(I think its 3 years old or so now). The new boats come from factory with Deka 24M7 batteries. 1000 Cranking and 800 Cold Crank. Team edition boats come with two of those.
          [EMAIL="Zach@n3boatworks.com"]Zach@n3boatworks.com[/EMAIL]

          Comment

          • wake_fun
            1,000 Post Club Member
            • Jul 2003
            • 1330

            • CA

            • 1995 Super Sport

            #20
            I installed two blue top Optima batteries in my boat in July 2006. They are on a Minkota charger which is installed in my boat. They are plugged in 24/7 and still are perfect
            Photo Album
            Ballast Install 1
            Ballast Install 2
            Amp Install
            PPass Install
            Alternator Install

            Comment

            • countiemountie
              • Aug 2006
              • 63

              • Kalkaska and SE MI

              • 2024 GS22

              #21
              I have been running the biggest Blue Top Optima (31M?) in 2 different boats for the past 6 years without failure. I have used / abused the battery to run the boat lift, left it sit for a few months without a charge on it, and then come back and it would fire the boat up no problems.

              Recently it has lost some kick so I now run my lift motor with 2 Auto Zone deep cycles, run in 24 volt config. You can't beat the price of the Auto Zone batteries. I think I paid a little over $100 each. I figure if one dies, no big loss. So far so good.

              Interstate batteries have a very good rep when considering cost to performance. If I was to replace my boats Optima, I would take a look at Interstate.

              My batteries may sit for a couple months without use. Pulling them out of the boat and throwing them on a charger is a PITA, that's why I have stayed with deep cycles. You will pay a small up charge over a starting battery; however, the convenience and features are well worth it.

              Comment

              • sodbuster88
                Senior Member of PLANETNAUTIQUE
                • Nov 2008
                • 368

                • Clayton, NC


                #22
                Originally posted by Zach@n3 View Post
                I have had the best luck in the world with Deka Marine.
                I concur...and have used them in everything both on and off road. I've seen a great reliability / durability record with Deka.
                Peace..

                Comment

                • Westlotorn
                  • Apr 2013
                  • 36

                  • Folsom CA

                  • 1978 Ski Nautique 1987 Malibu Skier 95 Ski Nautique purchased in 2013 with 100 original hours on it.

                  #23
                  I have always used Automotive batteries, I used to buy the biggest I could fit with the highest cranking amps and they lasted about 2-3 years, ( 30 years now of tournament boat ownership ). I spoke with the battery manufacturer at a show and he told me the really high rated batteries have the plates squeezed in so tight they could actually help cause failure in a boat application where they get pounded as we hit waves. I dropped to mid grade for amp rating, still buying the largest box size that will fit and I started getting 4-5 years use.
                  I do not run a large stereo with high amp draw.
                  The Optima style battery will fail to recharge if fully drained, the trick to charge these when they refuse to charge is to charge them while they are connected to a known good 12V battery. You can connect the dead battery to a good battery with jumper cables and then connect to the battery charger. Once the Optima takes a charge while connected to the good battery they are usually good for normal service again. Before this trick got out many good Optima batteries were thrown out as bad.

                  Comment

                  • pe4me
                    • Jan 2013
                    • 165

                    • Dhahran, KSA/ Green Bay, Wi

                    • 1997 SSN 2006 210 TE www.whitelake.com 1994 Prostar 205 (restored) 198

                    #24
                    Boats, skid-steers, diesel trucks and dump trailers have all been my frustration over the years. The single best thing to do is talk to the local battery store tech, for me it was the interstate store owner. He gave me the exact battery for the application at half the cost. The key is talking to the guy in charge. He introduced me to the refurbished line that saved a huge amount and exceeded expectations. In the instance for my boat, I was running a mild system on a single battery and he gave me a battery that I thought was small but he assured me it packed a big punch. It did. He did a similar thing for my dump trailer with the same results. So a guy to get service (I never needed), a knowledgable contact (not advice from a forum {which can be good}), awesome battery at a fair price.
                    [COLOR=#333333]2006 210 TE[/COLOR]
                    [COLOR=#333333]www.whitelake.com[/COLOR]
                    [COLOR=#333333]1994 Prostar 205 (restored)[/COLOR]
                    [COLOR=#333333]1986 Dixie Skier OB[/COLOR]

                    Comment

                    • OptimaJim
                      • Mar 2010
                      • 8


                      • 1997 Sport Nautique

                      #25
                      Many of the “bad” batteries returned under warranty these days are just deeply-discharged. If someone is using a charger with very basic functionality, it may not be capable of recovering a battery that has been deeply-discharged. In those instances, the parallel charging technique Westoltorn described can “fool” those older chargers into delivering current to the deeply-discharged battery. So what happens to those “discharge-only” warranty returns? Guys like pe4me buy them. Sometimes folks don't even want to deal with recovering a deeply-discharged battery and just buy a replacement. They get $10-15 for the core and retailers that sell “refurbished” batteries get a huge margin for a few hours of charging and a wipe-down with a damp rag and the customer gets a good deal on someone else's used, but perfectly good battery.

                      Jim McIlvaine
                      eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
                      www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

                      Comment

                      • nyryan2001
                        1,000 Post Club Member
                        • Mar 2013
                        • 1993

                        • Lake Anna


                        #26
                        Jim-

                        side question-

                        whats the impact of mixing in a few Optimas... with lead acids. So a ProSport20 charger has chips designed for wetcell or the gel cell batteries like Optima. What happens long term is the Optimas are charged along with the wet cells on the wet cell chip?

                        I think it'd be very minimal impact... as that chip really defines the pulses for conditioning cycles correct?
                        2019 G23 450
                        2014 G23 550
                        2013 G23 450
                        2011 Malibu Wakesetter 247
                        2007 Yamaha AR210

                        Comment

                        • Zach@n3
                          Senior Member of PLANETNAUTIQUE
                          • Sep 2012
                          • 736

                          • Indianapolis Indiana

                          • 1986 2001 ski nautique 68 correct craft skylark

                          #27
                          I have saved various types of deeply discharged batteries with the connect to a good somewhat charged 12v battery and start to charge the deeply discharged unit. After a little charge it by itself on a smart charger and they usually are as good as new. The only thing you usually can't save is a dead cell. I have seen dead cells do some freaky stuff. My old R/T Dakota was parked after lunch and restarted to go home. Upon attempted restart the interior lights got extremely bright and pulsated(like a horror movie ha)and all the gauges read full backwards. Assuming it reversed polarity.
                          [EMAIL="Zach@n3boatworks.com"]Zach@n3boatworks.com[/EMAIL]

                          Comment

                          • OptimaJim
                            • Mar 2010
                            • 8


                            • 1997 Sport Nautique

                            #28
                            nyryan2001, that's a great question and one that I wish more people would ask. I just read an article in a boating magazine about batteries and it never made mention of the fact that whenever multiple batteries are being used in the same bank, they should be identical in age, size and type (our batteries are AGM, not gel). As batteries age, their internal resistance tends to increase and flooded batteries also tend to have much higher internal resistance than AGM products. Batteries of different sizes also have different charging characteristics. Physically larger batteries or batteries with higher internal resistance will take longer to charge, than smaller batteries or those with low internal resistance. When folks start mixing up all those variables, it impacts how the batteries in multi-battery banks are charged and used.

                            Imagine you have two swimming pools connected to each other. The first pool is smaller than the second. If you stick a fire hose in the smaller pool and attempt to fill both pools, what will eventually happen to the water level in the small pool if the connection to the big pool doesn't move water as fast as the fire hose? The small pool will overflow before the big pool ever gets filled. If the hose is placed in the big pool, the small pool may never get filled all the way.

                            On the flipside of that, imagine the drain pipes for the two pools (internal resistance when delivering current) connect to a common outlet, but the small pool's drain pipe is twice the diameter of the big pool (lower internal resistance). The small pool will empty much faster than the big pool, right?

                            Unless your charger is able to identify each individual battery in a bank and somehow isolate and charge them individually (which it can't do if the batteries are connected to each other), it will probably charge them all the same way. Some may get overcharged, some may get undercharged and neither scenario is conducive for long-term performance and lifespan.

                            Zach@n3, I'm not sure what happened to your battery, but I think one of the conditions for reverse polarity to occur is for the battery to be fully-discharged. If your lights were illuminated, I don't think that happened. I think another condition for reverse polarity is for the completely-discharged battery to gain a negative charge. If you didn't modify the alternator or hook a battery charger up backwards, I'm not sure how you would've ended up with a negative charge.

                            Jim McIlvaine
                            eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
                            www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

                            Comment

                            • nyryan2001
                              1,000 Post Club Member
                              • Mar 2013
                              • 1993

                              • Lake Anna


                              #29
                              Jim, last question, and I do so respectfully-

                              Optimas reputation seems to have been drug thru the mud the last few years... allegations of poor QAQC, failed batteries, not holding up and Optima customer service not being all that friendly in making things right as far as the warranty period and what folks think is reasonable.

                              Other companies such and Dekka, Stinger, XS Power etc havent seemed to have the same issues. Pretty much search the internet right now and you cant go 10ft and someone is steering you away from Optima for whatever reason of bad expereince.

                              What gives?
                              2019 G23 450
                              2014 G23 550
                              2013 G23 450
                              2011 Malibu Wakesetter 247
                              2007 Yamaha AR210

                              Comment

                              • MLA
                                1,000 Post Club Member
                                • Dec 2009
                                • 1312

                                • Lake Wylie NC Area


                                #30
                                Originally posted by nyryan2001 View Post
                                Jim-

                                side question-

                                whats the impact of mixing in a few Optimas... with lead acids. So a ProSport20 charger has chips designed for wetcell or the gel cell batteries like Optima. What happens long term is the Optimas are charged along with the wet cells on the wet cell chip?

                                I think it'd be very minimal impact... as that chip really defines the pulses for conditioning cycles correct?
                                If im not mistaken, doesnt The Pro Mariner chargers use the same black chip for both wet-cell and AGM?

                                If the charger "sees" each bank independently and chargers and conditions as such, then i have no issue with having a starting bank with a traditional wet sell and a house bank with an AGM or 2 for example.

                                And I completely agree with Jim that a bank consisting of 2 or more batteries, they need to be the same size, age and type, in order to get the most life and performance out of them.

                                Comment

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