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I have not been fishing for a while, been too hot for me to enjoy it. Now that it is getting cooler I want to start fishing again and decided to make sure my trolling motor battery was charged. I open the battery campartment and find the trolling motor battery heavily corroded and the starting battery with very little on it. What caused this and how do I prevent it? Any good advice would be appreciated. Thanks
In all honesty, batteries are luck of the draw, some are good others not. When they start
leaking its generally overcharging that caused it, whether its old can cause this because of
sulfuration which leads to a weaker solution causing your charger to overcompensate. Also,
deterioration which is the same only "backwards", letting your battery sit for extended times
between charges, the end result is the same, less capacity. Heat kills batteries.
The primary reason for batteries to fail is age and lack of maintenance. Keep them charged and they're fine. Let them set and they go to heck pretty quickly. Corrosion is often an indication of a cracked case.
I usually try to charge the batteries once a month if I'm not using the boat, like in the summer heat, just plug it up for a day, and forget it till next month.