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Old 11-28-2014, 08:24 AM   #12
JFP in PA
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: It's a kind of magic.....
Posts: 6,273
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe B View Post
Tim, I've found that when my boat batteries get old and are ready to get rid of, they seem to take a charge quickly, but won't hold it for long and seem to have no storage ability. As I mentioned, your battery may be toast from going dead and need to be load tested.
What is happening is the internal resistance of the battery is rising due to plate sulphation over time. The higher internal resistance falsely confuses the charger into thinking the battery is fully charged when in fact it is not, and the charger shuts off.

Sulphation is a normal process in all batteries, but can be nearly eliminated by using a quality maintainer that has a de-sulphation step in the charge profile, which significantly reduces the build up, dramatically extending the battery's life, which more than offsets the extra bucks you spent for the better maintainer.
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