Death of my Exide battery

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Mar 21, 2004
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29,554
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Near the beach in Delaware
Had my Exide deep cycle group 27 battery on a maintainer last winter and in June installed in my boat as house battery. It was tested by my battery tester and passed before I installed it.

Unfortunately even with battery switches off the CO detectors were on and over the next few months drained the battery. I think around 7V but it was a deep cycle.

Brought the battery home put it on the charger/maintainer for several days. Now it has 150 CCA and is rated for 550 CCA. FAIL.

Not a fan of Exide batteries and I guess one full discharge was one too many.

Walmart Everstart is replacing it.
 
How old was it?

I don't believe that the correct answer is "June", Bullwinkle. Read it again.
A deep cycle, that is only ~6 months old (?) couldn’t handle being run down to 7v ONCE?!? Guess “deep cycle” doesn’t really mean deep, but I do see where it was on a maintainer all winter. By way of comparison, I have an AZ JC 27 deep cycle here that gets occasional winch & trolling motor use, & it still tests OK… at TWELVE YEARS OLD.
 
not here to defend Exide... but a battery of unspecified age was connected to a load for a "few months" without charging and was then found to be sulfated. this has more to do with the treatment of the battery than the manufacturer.

a regular charger/maintainer will not desulfate it, unless it has a dedicated desulfation mode... and even if it does you have a 50/50 chance that it will actually work.

also... "deep cycle" is a relative term. your "marine" battery was not designed to be discharged below 50% SOC. after a "few months" you took it down to nothing, 0%, zilch. a newer battery might be able to recover from that, but an older already partially sulfated one? nope.
 
I am on about 3 years on my deep cycle boat batteries but I keep them on a maintainer except when the boat is in the water or on the trailer being moved. I believe mine are Everstart batteries from Walmart but I can't remember for sure.
 
Unfortunately I have not been able to use my boat this summer as I have encountered a string of issues that I am still working through. I am not sure how to handle keeping the 3 batteries charged while in rack storage. I can get the boat on a work rack and connect up chargers or get an adapter and plug in shore power. But I would need to stay at the marina until its done. I brought home the starting battery when it became week. Would not want to do that often. Nor all three.

I was wondering if I should go with AGM batteries due to rack storage

I guess I am hoping I will resolve the issues this year and next year when I use it often that the batteries will stay charged.
 
You let it sit for months below 100% state of charge, and quite possibly for months below 0% state of charge… and somehow Exide is junk?

You realize this is abusive for a lead acid battery, right? Doubt anything would perform well after that. It’s abusive plain and simple. Sulfation has occurred in a real way.
 
It was not the situation where the battery was discharged one day and I let it sit for a few months rather a small discharge by CO detectors over a few months.

It's a deep cycle so I would have expected a little better results than a starting battery.

Yes I am aware letting a deeply discharged battery sit for months is not a great idea.

It's been on my Battery Minder for over a week with it's desulfation circuit humming away. Hopefully the sulfation is melting away like the glaciers due to climate change.
 
You need a master battery disconnect switch/isolator. Makes it easy to 100% disconnect any draws.

I just replaced a 3-1/2 year old Exide in my '96 Jeep. That's a good life for Phoenix, the longest lasting battery that Jeep has had since my grandpa bought it 15 years ago. Didn't have any issues with it, but I don't want to be stranded out in the desert. Also just installed a big stereo. Would have put another Exide in but Costco sells Interstates for $74.99 with a 3 year warranty.
 
Had my Exide deep cycle group 27 battery on a maintainer last winter and in June installed in my boat as house battery. It was tested by my battery tester and passed before I installed it.

Unfortunately even with battery switches off the CO detectors were on and over the next few months drained the battery. I think around 7V but it was a deep cycle.

Brought the battery home put it on the charger/maintainer for several days. Now it has 150 CCA and is rated for 550 CCA. FAIL.

Not a fan of Exide batteries and I guess one full discharge was one too many.

Walmart Everstart is replacing it.
Here's the deal. If you want your battery to last longer, you must get the largest marine battery that will fit in your battery compartment. See if you can find a group 31 size battery that will fit in your battery compartment.
 
You need a master battery disconnect switch/isolator. Makes it easy to 100% disconnect any draws.

I just replaced a 3-1/2 year old Exide in my '96 Jeep. That's a good life for Phoenix, the longest lasting battery that Jeep has had since my grandpa bought it 15 years ago. Didn't have any issues with it, but I don't want to be stranded out in the desert. Also just installed a big stereo. Would have put another Exide in but Costco sells Interstates for $74.99 with a 3 year warranty.
Well you never disconnect the auto bilge. Never. Chaparral will say you never should disconnect the CO detector and that is why it's wired the way it is. Auto bilge pump has no current draw unless you are actually pumping water and in that case you are glad it always has power.
 
This is really the case of a new to me boat and being stored in a new to me way (rack storage). And a boat that had continuing problems preventing it from being used which would have charged the battery. Any size battery would end up discharged.
 
Chaparral will say you never should disconnect the CO detector and that is why it's wired the way it is.

Their lawyers advised them to say that so if someone disconnects the CO detector and dies as a result, the next-of-kin won't win the lawsuit.

If the boat is unoccupied and being stored there is no need or use for the CO detector.
 
I'll admit I know nothing about boat storage, but do you have shore power available? if so, then keep it on a maintenance charger and then who cares about the bilge pump or the CO alarm?

here's what I recommend. a cheap offshore charger that holds 13.6V float even with a significant parasitic draw. I have 8 of these and keep them on all my cars, lawn tractor, sump pump back up systems, etc. if I had a boat sitting in storage I'd have one of these connected to the battery for sure...
https://www.amazon.com/FOXSUR-Intelligent-Automatic-Maintainer-Batteries-Blue/dp/B088QCXNMY/?th=1
 
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