Sudden battery charging problem

I have a 3 1/2 year old (biggest) walmart trollin bat. (evermaxx) or (marine maxx) i think ...
I had always used the 2 amp trickle charge and gotten about a day and a half run time :)
Recently i read a post by Shine (i think) that said he had always used the 10 amp with out problems so i tried it about 2 weeks ago...Hoping to quicken the charging time so i could do 2 bat's in one night :rolleyes:
At slabfest i noticed that i was runnin near wide open to maintain a .9 mph in the wind and half motor speed with no wind in only 6 hours of trollin :(
After 3 days of slabfest it is doin the same but now in 3 hours...:eek:
I reverted back to the 2 amp trickle to find that it doesn't fix it :confused:
Did i do wrong in this or is this battery just givin out from normal wear n tear??? This is my 1st trollin bat. .... I am still a newbie to this :D

depending on how much you use it its prob nearing the end of its usefull life. Have you checked the water level in it????? Check water and if its all fine and dandy then I would say its time to replace. I fish often so I only get around 3yrs out of a trolling motor battery, and I check water about every 3 trips.

hey Joe as much as you been on the lake lately when do you have time to charge it lol. sounds like to me it may be time to replace .

I'm only getting about 2 good years from my trolling batteries. If I can't get a 12-14 hour day of trolling out of them then I'm replacing them. I'd have to say yours are probably about done.

I just bought 2 of the big ever maxx batt,s my old ones did what you described they were about 4 or 5 years old which i think is good for battery life. I,ve got one of those schumacher battery chargers that has 2- 10 -15 amps that has a maintainer & tester tells when battery is bad. I would say your battery has went thru its death cycle.:eek: Hope this helps.:)

time for a new one! like i told you on the phone, its not good to charge a battery when you get home just to make sure its full for the next trip. i do it anyways but it does reduce the life of the battery. what happens when you charge a battery is this:

the battery should be charged only once per day because each charge cycle removes a microscopic layer from the entire grid and eventually the upper portion of the grid can not carry the current. that is one of the main reasons that grid design and composition is extremely important in lead-acid batteries for a long service life. if you do chrage it every trip even though its not completely dead, i would say its better for it to charge on 2 amp, real slow. or you could buy 2 batteries and alternate the charge on them.

Lowes sells electrolytes, you might be able to breath some new life in it.

Joe, you should only charge the battery with two amps at a time. You take it out slowly so put it back in slowly. I get four to five years out of batteries. Mine goes on charge asap when I get home or to apower source. I can troll 12 to 14 hours easily even in wind.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EARL KITCHENS

Joe, you should only charge the battery with two amps at a time. You take it out slowly so put it back in slowly. I get four to five years out of batteries. Mine goes on charge asap when I get home or to apower source. I can troll 12 to 14 hours easily even in wind.

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I knew it, i shouldn't have done that 10amp charge. The problem started right after that. And has continuely gotten worse ever since then. :eek:
Guess i learned this lesson the hard way! :D haha :o

Believe it or not but I was going to post on this very same subject this morning. Now I don't have to. Thanks