Battery tending

[James Salisbury]

Hello,
I am looking for a safe and efficient way to keep my battery charged while it is in my garage for the winter. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Thank you, James

[MN Ryan]

Just one battery or multiples? Lead/acid battery, AGM, lithium?

It's hard to go wrong with NOCO. If you just want a trickle charger for one battery, a Genius1 or Genius2 would do the trick. Of course, you could get something bigger (Genius10) that offers more than just a trickle charge (but still offers a trickle charge option). They also have multi-bank chargers if you have more than one battery.

They have tons of options. More info would help make a decision.

[shag]

I have had very good luck with NOCO chargers. Please do not go cheap on a charger/maintainer. What ever you choose, be sure it has a built in ability to turn off when battery reaches capacity.
I have been to fires caused my cheap battery chargers that folks fault to check.

[charlesml3]

I just go "old school" on this. I don't order my boats with a built-in charger because I just can't see any good reason for it. During the winter, I take the batteries out of the boat and put them in my basement. About once a month or so, I hook them up one at a time to a good trickle charger and top them up. That's all I do. I've been doing it this way for decades.

-Charles

[MN Ryan]

Yeah, I don't have a dedicated onboard charger. I see the utility in a fishing boat where you're routinely drawing down and charging deep cycles for your trolling motor, but I don't think it's necessary in a tow boat.

[James Salisbury]

I really appreciate all the great discussion on maintaining a good charge on my single lead/Iacid battery. It looks as if I will be upgrading charging equipment soon. Again, I really thank you all for your advice. Hope to see you all on the water.
James

[MN Ryan]

...single lead/Iacid battery.

Easy, peasy, then. Pick a NOCO, and you'll be golden.

[bturner]

I'm with Charles and do the exact same thing. First of every month during the winter I charge all the batteries (boat, jet ski, lawn tractor and 70 Mach1). They're all sitting there on the workbench in the basement and I just rotate the charger to each of them while dreaming of summer. I have an Optima charger which I bought for my Blue Tops. Works great for all the other batteries as well.

[charlesml3]

Yep, that's exactly what I do. They rarely need more than a few minutes each on the charger.

[Polidori]

I remove both of my Optimas and put a Battery Tender Jr. on each one all winter. Hasn’t failed me yet.

[James Salisbury]

That sounds like a a good plan. Thank you.

I wonder if there has been any success using a solar charger plugged into the 12 volt plug with it’s circuit breaker pushed in?

[NautiqueJeff]

I used a solar panel on a Fish Nautique that needed the bilge pump left on. I connected the panel directly to the battery though.