# Deep cycle battery



## thomasr (Oct 1, 2016)

I have a 15 month old Everstart deep cycle battery.  Used it only a few times in the boat.  When not in use I keep it on a battery tender.  Went out in the shed the other day and noticed the battery tender light was flashing red.  I checked the battery with a meter and it had .3 volts at best.  All cells had proper amount of liquid.  Put my smart battery charger on it and it flashed bad...won't even attempt to charge it.  What the heck??  I put the battery tender on my lawn mower and it appears to be functioning as advertised.  So what happened?  Of course the battery itself only has a 12 month warranty so not going to be an option.  I thought I was doing the smart thing by keeping a tender on it.  Is it common to have a battery go bad sitting on a tender?  Is there anything that can be done to revive it?  This is a first for me.


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## Backlasher82 (Oct 1, 2016)

Adding tap water instead of distilled can cause sulfation of batteries from the minerals found in tap water from municipal and wells.

I have never tried it myself but I've heard of batteries being revived using desulfation chargers or Epsom salt.


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## thomasr (Oct 1, 2016)

Concur on the tap water.  I always keep distilled water on hand just for batteries, but then I don't think I ever needed to add any to this battery, I only used it a couple times and immediately charged it and put it on the battery tender.  Liquid levels are still good.  I'm thinking sulfation may be at least part of my problem, but for ever reference I found on the internet saying Epsom salt could fix it I found another calling it snake oil.  I'm trying my 30 year old dumb battery charger right now.  Supposedly they can (for lack of a better term) burn sulfation off when a smart charger gets the signal to quit.  Supposedly that's all a desulfation charger does...it just turns off after 8 or so hours.  I'm trying to get smart on these batteries.


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## Rich Kaminski (Oct 2, 2016)

Let me know how it goes. I have the same problem with the same brand battery. I tried the Epsom salt routine and nothing, just 2 amps of charge.


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## T-N-T (Oct 2, 2016)

So, I was thinking.  I leave my camper plugged in all the time to keep that battery "tended". Most people do.  The camper has a trickle charger that keeps the battery topped off.  It is recommended to do this 

So, your battery must just be a dud?  Otherwise people would be having trouble all over the RV community?  Right?


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## ribber (Oct 2, 2016)

I had a similar issue years ago with an Everstart, and vowed to never buy another.


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## fixitfred (Oct 2, 2016)

There's all kinds of things that can go wrong with a battery.  Sometimes with proper care they just die an untimely death.

You may want to try a batteryminder.  Maybe I just got lucky but I brought one back from the dead.  Now that I think about it I might have killed one too but that one may not have been in good shape to begin with.


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## tsharp (Oct 2, 2016)

I use to by nothing but Everstart batteries all the time. Every year I had to buy another battery for my riding mow, 3 years ago I took it to get repaired for not starting. the repair man changed the battery and cleaned the carb. it's been 3 years now and have not touched the battery. He installed a Interstate battery. That is all I buy for my boat. You pay for what you get. Not to insult you.


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## Backlasher82 (Oct 2, 2016)

Everstart and Interstate are both made by Johnson Controls.


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## T-N-T (Oct 2, 2016)

Not all batteries are created equal.
Some have a 1 year warranty
others have a 2 year.

There is a reason for that.


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## Backlasher82 (Oct 2, 2016)

TopherAndTick said:


> Not all batteries are created equal.
> Some have a 1 year warranty
> others have a 2 year.
> 
> There is a reason for that.



Usually it's because the higher price covers the extended warranty. 

Bottom line, sulfation is the most common cause of early battery failure and sulfation is caused by poor maintenance, either letting a discharged battery sit, low acid level, not using distilled water, etc. 

Not saying that was the problem in Thomas' case but it is the reason why a lot of people have to buy a new battery for their mower, ATV, motorcycle, PWC, etc every year. They park it and don't think about it for months until the next season and it won't start. If you need a carb clean and battery to get your stuff running again, you have only yourself to blame.


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## tsharp (Oct 2, 2016)

You may be right on the carb cleaning but it's been 3 years and the same battery?


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## thomasr (Oct 2, 2016)

*Update!!*

I have an update.

I did dome more digging around on the web and came across a DIY site.  It may have been from Australia or England because the guy had an accent, I dunno.  It wasn’t on youtube, it was a video within the website.  If I can find the site again I’ll post a link.

I tended to give this guy a little credence because he came at more scientifically than most on youtube.  In a nutshell, he said a lot of contemporary battery maintenance problems are caused by the so –called smart chargers.  As the sulfate builds up in a battery the smart charger sees that as resistance and actually throttles back the charging amps to what it thinks is “safe”.   When the resistance gets to great that flags the charger and it will stop trying to charge…then we think we have a bad battery. That’s why an older battery seems to take longer to charge…our 10 amp charger may only be charging at 2-3-4 amps.  This is where he said a dumb charger can come to the rescue. 

If a dumb charger is rated at 6 amps, it doesn’t care about the resistance and pumps the whole 6 amps into the battery, in a sense, blasting away at the sulfate build up.  Okay it’s not really blasting the sulfate away but he said something really scientific and said it inhibited the sulfate from sticking.  But, we all know the dangers of a dumb charger, we can actually over charge our battery, boiling out the liquid and frying the battery.  So you have to keep an eye on it.  

I’m sure I over simplified all that, but the basic premise follows the bloke’s principles.

So here’s what I did .  I dug out my 30 year old Sears 6 amp charger.  I loosened the caps on the battery and hooked the dumb charger up.  The needle on charger didn’t move, but, he said it would do that.  Despite what the gauge read the charger was hitting the battery with its full 6 amps…it just wasn’t charging it.  He said it may take a few hours or days for the charge to loosen ( for lack of a better term) the sulfate.  As it did, the needle on the amp gauge would slowly rise as the charger loosened the sulfate and actually started to charge the battery.  In my case it took 2 hours for the needle to creep from below the zero line to even with the zero line.  At 4 hours it was almost to the 1 mark. At 5 hours it was a little past the 1 line.    I lose track when I checked it next but it was right before bedtime and it was solidly at 2.  I left it running all night.  This morning when I checked it and it was better than 5, maybe 5.5.  I left for the hunting lease at about 8:30, with the battery still hooked up to the dumb charger.  Got home about 6:00 and the needle was pegged on 6 amps.  For grins I unhooked the dumb charger, and hooked up my smart charger.  Prior to using the dumb charger, the smart charger would get a fault and not even attempt to charge the battery.  This time, the smart charger kicked in and registered the battery at 95% charged.  I went in and took a shower and then checked it again and it’s at 99%.  It’s been at 99% for almost 45 minutes now, so maybe after all that, that’s as good as it’s going to get but getting it to 99% and having the smart charger to recognize it waaayyy better than where I was at.  

However, the bloke said that I/we may have to exercise the battery.  Let it discharge to about 25% and then charge it up again.  Run it down to about 25% then recharge.  This exercising is important to keeping the sulfate in from forming/solidifying.  I don’t want to say it causes the lead plates to expand and contract but he said if that’s what it takes for you to get your mind wrapped around it go with that.  Bunch of scientific stuff.  Too early to tell but maybe that’s what I need to do to get it back at 100%.  

Tomorrow I’ll hook an old headlight to the battery and run it down and exercise it like he said.  There’s some math I can do to determine the capacity of work the battery is putting out and compare to what’s on the label and see what I have left.  I don’t like math so I just may use my seat of the pants calculator.    I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Couple points to keep in mind “according to him”.  Epsom salt.   He called it an old wives’ tale.  While he did admit it will show all indications of a battery coming back to life, it’s just a momentary blip on the scope.  While the salt initially appears to help, it’s not a long term fix.  In fact the salts while actually harm the battery more than initially.  He did say there may be some credence to leaving the salt mixture in for a couple charging cycles, then flushing the salt water out of the battery,  then refilling it with an acid water mix and then trying again.  The salt may in fact loosen the sulfate more, but he had not tried that yet.

A smart charger with a desulfating option…well the option just puts it in dumb mode for a predetermined amount of time…like 8 hours…so it can hit the plates with the full amps to inhibit the sulfate buildup.  The same can be done with a dumb charger, just keep an eye on it.

Again, according to him, being able to resurrect a 10 year old battery is another wives’ tale.  The longer the sulfate stays on the plates the harder it gets and nothing short of a lightning strike will get it off.  So the sooner you can treat a seemingly bad battery the better your chances of coaxing some more life out of it.  

So I’ll let you know how the exercising goes and get back with you.  For grins I may try all this another deep cycle battery I have that’s been sitting around for about 4 years, just to see.  I have some Epsom salt  in the cupboard so I may give that rinse thing a try.  What have I got to loose?

I realize this would be so much better if I could find the link to the site and the bloke I’m talking about but for the life of me it’s not jumping out at me.  I’ll keep searching.  Sorry it’s so long but I thought some of you might be into this kind of thing.  Cheers!


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## Backlasher82 (Oct 3, 2016)

tsharp said:


> You may be right on the carb cleaning but it's been 3 years and the same battery?



The carb clean is just an indication of neglect and a surefire explanation of why the battery sulfated.

I got over 7 years of use out of the last Everstart Maxx batteries I had in my boat through proper maintenance, I'd say I got my money's worth.


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## 7Mag Hunter (Oct 3, 2016)

Try a more powerful battery charger designed to
charge deep cycle batteries.....Might just need a
stronger voltage to charge it back up....


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## Eudora (Oct 3, 2016)

Yep - I've been through the Johnson Control factories in Iowa and Kansas.  They build batteries for Interstate, Everlast, ACDelco, Motorcraft, Walmart ....  Interstate has them built with their special cases, the rest are just black boxes that go through a sticker line.  Exide, Johnson Control and Deka-East Penn are the three big players.  Johnson Control also makes the Optima Battery.  Hard to swear off one "store brand" because you may go somewhere else and it is the same battery, just a different sticker.


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## GoldDot40 (Oct 3, 2016)

My charger has a desulfation mode, as well as a deep cycle mode...and even further with AGM, and regular wet acid batteries. Then it has different amp modes tailored to the size of a specific battery. 

In desulfate mode, it pulse charges the 'dead' battery and conditions the cells so they will take the charge. Then it adjusts itself to a trickle charge until the battery is able to take the max dosage. Once it hits 90%, it slows back to a trickle charge so that the battery gets a complete charge. Mine has never failed to charge a sulfated battery and make it usable for a little bit. Once one is sulfated, it's time to at least start shopping for a new one anyway.

Have to think of it like filling a water bottle from the sink. Turn it wide open, the water gushes back out without actually filling the bottle full. Turn the flow way down, and it easily fills to the top.

And BTW, I've never ran anything in my boats but Ever Starts from Walmart and haven't ever had any issues worth buying a different brand. Last set in my boat lasted 6 years.


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## thomasr (Oct 3, 2016)

Golddot40, please tell me about your charger.  Brand  and model and if you're happy with it.  I think a desulfate mode and deep cycle mode may be good options.  Might need to add another charger to the arsenal.

Update on my battery.  Left it on slow charge all day.  Came home and it was 100%.  I now have a 200,000 candle power Q-beam hooked up to it.  We'll see how long that lasts.

Update #2.  Ran the Q-beam for 2 hours 15 minutes.  Hooked the smart charger back up and it indicated it was still 75% charged.  I'm kind of optimistic.  Once it charges back up I'll put the Q-beam back on it and leave it burning longer when I'm able to stick around and keep an eye on it.  Again, I'm kind of optimistic.


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## GoldDot40 (Oct 4, 2016)

This is what I use and it works flawlessly.
Schumacher Battery Charger

My Stratos boat had its own on-board charger that worked great. I use the Schumacher charger for pretty much everything else.


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## hipster dufus (Nov 4, 2016)

got 7 yrs out of 2 everstart deepcycles. got a new one and it is 2 yrs old. for me the secret is a smart charger right as soon as i get home. i do not wait till next time i want to go. also use distilled water but rarely( 2 yrs) do i have to add.have a schumacher smart 2/4/6 amp charger set it on 6 and check in 4-6 hours if not full i leave overnite.i only run the tm off this battery.


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