Ketchup Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 Outside of the fishing game, we also like to ride ATV's along with other things. We have a trip to Oklahoma coming up to play in the sand, so with this being the slow time of year for most shops, and me wanting to get a few things gone thru, I decided to drop my 4-wheeler off. I told Kevin, the owner what I wanted done, and said I would wait for his call when he had it all completed. Sitting on my couch yesterday watching fishing, I see his number pop up on my phone. Excitedly I answered, hoping he was done and I could go pick it up. With the tone in his voice, I assumed something was wrong. I asked how everything went and he said great. Cleaned the carb, did a valve job on it, and a few other things. Then came the pause. He said before he left Friday, he put the battery charger on it as the battery was a little weak, so when I came to get it yesterday, it would be good to go. He said around 11pm his alarm company called to say his alarm went off. His worker went there and everything looked ok,. Around 11:15 the neighboring business called him to say heavy smoke was coming from his building. By the time he got there, the building was on fire. Turns out my battery which was connected to the charger blew and caught fire, which burned my 4-wheeler to rubble. I have are heard of guys talk about situations they have had with leaving a charger on their boat, but until this situation with my ATV, I never figured it would hit so close. For years and years I've left chargers on between fishing trips with no issues. Now come the wait. He said his adjuster will be out tomorrow "Monday" and we will go from there. He said I will get taken care of no matter what. Just thought I'd share my battery charger experience. TinBoats BassClub. An aluminum only bass club. If interested in info send me a PM.
fishinwrench Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 I never NEVER leave a charger on overnight. There's no reason for it. I don't care how much you pay for a battery charger the diodes in them are still the same. I preach this on here all the time.....If the integrity of a battery is at all questionable REPLACE IT. Not intending to knock your service center but if your battery was so dead that he felt it necessary to leave the charger on it overnite then he should have just sold you a fresh one. awhuber 1
Ketchup Posted January 24, 2016 Author Posted January 24, 2016 Lesson learned wrench. Couldn't amagine the aftermath of a boat doing it with 22 gallons of fuel and fumes within inches. TinBoats BassClub. An aluminum only bass club. If interested in info send me a PM.
fishinwrench Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 6 minutes ago, Ketchup said: Lesson learned wrench. Couldn't amazing the aftermath of a boat doing it with 22 gallons of fuel and fumes within inches. Yep. All it takes is for a diode to get hot and fail, then the battery starts boiling. If it boils partially dry (which yours probably did) then lead gets hot and starts moving around until it shorts out, and you have instant fire. I don't trust the Auto/Maintain feature on any charger. I charge on Manual and check it every 30-40 minutes, with a few "cool down" periods if the battery is below 1/2 charged. I've seen them blow 4 times so I'm pretty paranoid about it.
BilletHead Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 So tell me fellas what do you guys think of the little maintainers you leave on all the time during off seasons? Wow ketchup bummer but thanks for bringing this to attention, BilletHead "We have met the enemy and it is us", Pogo If you compete with your fellow anglers, you become their competitor, If you help them you become their friend" Lefty Kreh " Never display your knowledge, you only share it" Lefty Kreh "Eat more bass and there will be more room for walleye to grow!" BilletHead " One thing in life is for sure. If you are careful you can straddle the barbed wire fence but make one mistake and you will be hurting" BilletHead P.S. "May your fences be short or hope you have long legs" BilletHead
fishinwrench Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 I guess my question concerning the maintainers is... Why? A periodic/semi-consistent 2amp feed is really unnecessary IMO. Your battery sat on a shelf for many months (unmaintained) before you bought it. If you aren't using it for a couple months then hit it with 10amps Manual for 30 minutes or so every 3-4weeks IF IT NEEDS IT. If static voltage is 12.7 or above then leave it alone. If it is 12.5 or below give it 10amps for an hour or so....but NOT ALL DAY/NIGHT. Cold weather isn't any harder on a battery than hot weather is.
BilletHead Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 Just knowing that cold weather is hard on batteries I have been told one of the automatic maintainers is a good thing. Especially to us that get busy or are just old and senile forgetting as I do in my off season. I have been doing this just on the starting battery. I just check the deep cycle like time to time like you said IF I remember. So how hot and how cold is bad? Cannot think in a garage it gets too hot but three degrees like it did one night here I am thinking is pretty extreme? I have in the past pulled batteries and stored them in my shop. Oh by the way we did sleep on the porch that three degree night:) BilletHead "We have met the enemy and it is us", Pogo If you compete with your fellow anglers, you become their competitor, If you help them you become their friend" Lefty Kreh " Never display your knowledge, you only share it" Lefty Kreh "Eat more bass and there will be more room for walleye to grow!" BilletHead " One thing in life is for sure. If you are careful you can straddle the barbed wire fence but make one mistake and you will be hurting" BilletHead P.S. "May your fences be short or hope you have long legs" BilletHead
fishinwrench Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 I dunno, but I don't think it stays that cold for that long around here. I never even try to get 3 years out of a boat battery. Knowing that my batteries (3) are pretty fresh is worth 300.00 every other year to me. I don't wait for them to go bad because I see what old crappy batteries do to stuff. Same with my trucks, flashlights, ect. they get new batteries whether they want it or not.
BilletHead Posted January 24, 2016 Posted January 24, 2016 Thanks Wrench I remember you saying three years max and get rid of it. So one year down for me and another two and out they go! Thinking I may try to get three out of my two, BilletHead "We have met the enemy and it is us", Pogo If you compete with your fellow anglers, you become their competitor, If you help them you become their friend" Lefty Kreh " Never display your knowledge, you only share it" Lefty Kreh "Eat more bass and there will be more room for walleye to grow!" BilletHead " One thing in life is for sure. If you are careful you can straddle the barbed wire fence but make one mistake and you will be hurting" BilletHead P.S. "May your fences be short or hope you have long legs" BilletHead
Old plug Posted January 25, 2016 Posted January 25, 2016 both of my battery charges are only 11/2 amp. Never have a problem with them. i have caught a 10 amp trickle type charging at the top of the indicator and humming real hard. Thtviscwhen Inchanged to the little charger. Pretty hard for one of thoseclittle things to over charge.
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