Leaving batteries on charge for prolonged periods of time.

[Neil 32]

Probably a dumb question but here goes. 

Just before lock down we came back from a few days away and I did what I normally do and put the house batteries on charge. It's a decent charger, galvanic isolated with multi step regulator etc (from memory I think it ends up in a sort of "maintenance state" or something like that). 

Ordinarily I remove the charger next time I go down knowing they are fully topped off... but...you know...COVID.

Any issues with it being sat on the charger for months at a time? Or should the multi-step regulator keep it all in good shape? Thoughts anyone? I could get someone to switch it off at the shore end if needed but not sure it's a problem?

BTW they are pretty new batteries, both same brand and 100 and something Ahrs each so they should be in good order to start with.

BTW2 being at home all day means I get a lot of time to worry about stuff I probably shouldn't worry about!

 

[Black Panther 654]

My understanding is the regulator takes care of that. But IT is the expert.

[Deep Purple 213]

I hope it's okay because I've got two C-Teks running out at the hangar. I had another charger on as well but as I couldn't establish it's maintenance ability so I disconnected it. I've just been told I'm allowed to do a maintenance run on the plane, no flying though , so i'll check them out this week.

Luckily the boat has a very good solar system so thats not a worry

[KM... 820]

If you have a real good charger you'll be fine, most these days are smarter than the users.

 

We've been told this morning we can do short do not leave the circuit flights to keep currency but no more. But my medical fell off 3 weeks ago, bum!

[lateral 110]

45 minutes ago, Knot Me... maybe said:

If you have a real good charger you'll be fine, most these days are smarter than the users.

 

 

That!

Manual reading is not a skill easily acquired.

Keeping electrolyte up I can understand.

 

[Island Time 771]

Theoretically they can stay on a "maintenance" or "float" charge indefinitely.  In my experience though, I've seen batts prematurely die with this regime - over years though, not months. I'm not sure why this is. 

On my own boat I use shore power to run the fridge at the dock, but leave the batt charger off - solar keeps batts full. 

[Deep Purple 213]

1 hour ago, Knot Me... maybe said:

If you have a real good charger you'll be fine, most these days are smarter than the users.

 

We've been told this morning we can do short do not leave the circuit flights to keep currency but no more. But my medical fell off 3 weeks ago, bum!

Automatic extension of medicals and BFR's til 24th June is in place

[mcp 20]

19 minutes ago, Island Time said:

In my experience though, I've seen batts prematurely die with this regime - over years though, not months. I'm not sure why this is. 

 

No temperature compensation in a hot boat would do that. 

[Fogg 177]

I’ve been plugged into shore power & charging 24/7 for years - the longest single stint being literally about 9 months whilst I was living outside NZ - and had no problems. But I was using professionally installed kit including Victron charger. I’ve had several Victron units over the years and I reckon they’re the real deal (although not cheap). 

[idlerboat 82]

The batteries will last longer on than off.

Commercial and emergency battery back up systems sit on a charger of some sort permanently . Letting the charge drop and then running it back up is hard cycling, which has a finite number in any battery system.