Andy0331

I've got an issue in my Cig with the stereo & ignition boxes being wired direct to the battery & killing it off in a matter of days, even with everything off.

I asked Tres about it before I dropped it off to him & he said that you shouldn't charge it for more than about 3 hours (assuming Optima batteries), he said much more than that starts to kill them off.

FWIW, when I first got it home, there wasn't even enough power to turn on cabin lights... 3 hours on the charger brought them up to 12v.

The Menace

Deep Cycle batteries need a long slow charge. Maybe not days but a long, slow charge. Putting them on full charge for a short time will actually promote sulfating, damage the plates and shorten battery life.

I gave Brett 3 days as an extreme example. Some batteries may take up to 12-24 hours to fully run a charge cycle which also includes cool down before using.

The Menace

Running anything (with exception of your bilge pumps) directly to your battery on a boat is a no-no. Parasite power is your worst enemy. That is why you always want to turn your batteries off.

You will also constantly be running (bleeding) power possibly promoting electrolysis on your exposed metal parts in the water.

Andy0331

Oh yeah, I know...

This "10-12k" stereo system in the boat has some great features....... the piss poor wiring setup is not one of them. Of all the things not to run directly to the battery would be 3, 4 gauge wires from the amps.. freaking brilliant.

One of several nitpicky things that Tres is taking care of for me.

lucky strike

My old Cig had a constavolt system in it.
When the batterys were full it shut down.

LS

pm203

I think that most Cigs have that. It is designed so that it can be plugged in all the time. When the battery level starts to get low,it turns on ,charges, and then shuts off when it is fully charged. Alot of guys leave theirs plugged in all the time.

The Menace

My TG has the system but I never use my shore power.

Was not sure all Cig's with SP were equipped with the charging system.

pm203

While my boat is in storage,I put a adapter on the shore power cable and plug it into a regular house type outlet.It keeps the batteries charged up nicely.

offshoredrillin

same with mine, plug in the shore power make sure to flip the charging switch in the control panel too

ratman

i run a 2 amp trickle chare 24/7 with no problems hooked to four batteries i think the batteries lose in charge about what it gives back so its a wash. the batteries never get warm from such a small amp charge