Batteries

jetstream · 10 December 2010, 12:10

Hello, I have the wiring for two batteries on my Osprey Eagle and just wanted to know if I would have to get certain 12 volt batteries ! I have bought batteries in the past for cars and was told that different cars used different 12 volt battery types. Is it marine batteries that I would have to buy ? Thanks for any help. Mark

chewy · 10 December 2010, 13:10

Normal car batteries for me or truck batteries on larger diesels.

Erin · 10 December 2010, 13:53

A two battery set-up on a boat either means you have two engines with a battery each, or one engine and a domestic battery to supply all the electronics independant from the engine. The 'spare' battery is also useful if your main engine starting battery dies for some reason.

In a perfect world, you would select a standard car type starting battery for the engine and use a deep cycle leisure battery capable of deep discharge for the domestic side. Alternatively you just buy a couple of cheap Halfords batteries and get on with life

. You may need to replace them every 5 or so years though

.

Pikey Dave · 11 December 2010, 22:10

You pays your money & makes your choice. I want to be sure that the engines will start, especially if we have divers in the water (me!!) Can't go wrong with Optima blue tops, but you pay for 'em

Never let me down on 3 boats.

Razorbill RIBs · 12 December 2010, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Can't go wrong with Optima blue tops, but you pay for 'em

When I shopped for blue tops (have been excellent btw) I found a wide range of prices out there.....pays to shop around

Downhilldai · 12 December 2010, 19:29

Wait until you get an engine and check the spec of battery it requires.

Simon B · 12 December 2010, 19:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Downhilldai

Wait until you get an engine and check the spec of battery it requires.

That's good advice, it will set the minimum size for you. Optima batteries have a huge following and the battery often seen in land rovers, though there are other manufacturers banging out top quality products.

Pikey Dave · 13 December 2010, 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Downhilldai

Wait until you get an engine and check the spec of battery it requires.

AND the size of the battery leads

If the batteries are in the console it might be 5-6m away from the engine. The lead size will start to go up & the price with it.

BruceB · 13 December 2010, 22:53

One of my batteries has started giving up the ghost after just over two years. I ended up just buying 88Ah leisure batteries again and they always worked fine till the last few weeks. I reckon I just have a duff plate in one as the battery voltage is low on the duffer.
I bought two for £100 delivered and after checking the price of "bluetops" I reckon I could replace both of them three or four times over for the same cost as one set of them.

Erin · 14 December 2010, 07:56

Ah, but how many of those failures are going to happen at a convenient time when your boat is not away from home and your'e near a Halfords to pick up a replacement?

Poly · 14 December 2010, 08:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erin

Ah, but how many of those failures are going to happen at a convenient time when your boat is not away from home and your'e near a Halfords to pick up a replacement?

He's got two engines so he'd be really unlucky to have both fail simultaneously. Then he might need to get out his string to pull start the engine.

You are never that far from a halfords or motor factors of some sort in the UK - so a failure on a long trip is not likely to bugger up the whole trip.

It sounds like Bruce keeps a close eye on condition and so will have an early warning of many failures. With a "quality" battery you may become over confident and stop watching it - a failure then comes as a surprise.

Razorbill RIBs · 14 December 2010, 08:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

I bought two for £100 delivered and after checking the price of "bluetops" I reckon I could replace both of them three or four times over for the same cost as one set of them.

Know what you mean re price Bruce

, but when we changed to an Opti, received lots of advice from different quarters that the Opti's needed a rating of 1000 ( Minimum ) Marine Cranking Amps & 750 ( Minimum ) Cold cranking Amps.....Understand they can also throw a wobbler (electronically - faults etc) if they don't have correct spec batteries....guess other modern /manuf engines may have similar requirements?

As has been said before, what battery will depend on what engine the OPer goes for, but with regards price, think I ended up paying around £130 each after quite a bit of haggling /shopping around....I remember that there was a BIG difference in pricing out there, some places nearer £200 each!!

Off to sea now.....going to try and find some Dolphins to monitor

Pikey Dave · 14 December 2010, 09:07

Like I Said

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

You pays your money & makes your choice. I want to be sure that the engines will start, especially if we have divers in the water (me!!) Can't go wrong with Optima blue tops, but you pay for 'em

Never let me down on 3 boats.

It's your money, your choice

BruceB · 14 December 2010, 16:40

My last boat had a single leisure battery and it was still going strong after 4 years use and never let me down.
Now I have two and one of them has failed after about 2 1/2 years, I suspect a hard landing has cracked or damaged it as it won't hold a full charge now for more than a day or so and its the same age and type as the other.
All that happened is that the first start of the day requires me to switch to the other battery, after 30mins running both work perfectly for the rest of the day.
I am just changing them both as a precaution. Its not that I wouldn't mind two Blue tops but they are just too expensive for my wallet............

martini · 14 December 2010, 17:19

My advice would be to fit the biggest batteries you can possibly fit in where they go, you can never have too much battery power

Erin · 14 December 2010, 18:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by martini

My advice would be to fit the biggest batteries you can possibly fit in where they go, you can never have too much battery power

But that's just the Martini motto for everything isn't it. Biggest is best

martini · 14 December 2010, 19:13

What, are you suggesting it isn't

Erin · 15 December 2010, 11:25

Yes, until it comes to mooring fees

9D280 · 15 December 2010, 12:10

For what it's worth, every so often I perform a practice pull start on the engine. Using the law written by a certain Mr Sod, this has ensured my battery (bought at milliseconds' notice for £45

from a Kwik Fit near my location at the time) has so far not failed me!

For the record, I have since discovered my original 80AH deep cycle batt had nothing wrong with it, the problem was corrosion on the isolator innards, so when "on" it had a nice resistive lump of corrosion between the terminals. Ironically the emergency purchase is about half the weight of the old one......

All joking aside, if your engine(s) is / are old school 2- strokes then once they are spinning all the battery needs to do is smooth the suupply to your electronic toys & store some electrical juice to crank the engine next time you start.