by Ray » Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:19 am
The Optima's are designed and built for complete discharge and recharge. If you want a great battery, you will have to pay thru the nose for it.
If you want a good one, don't get a no name one. I found that out the hard way.
Gel cell and AGM are the best as far as being able to drain down to zero and recharge 1000's of times.
A good charger will also keep them up well.
After discharging and recharging several times, a build up on the lead plates will form. Most good chargers will have what they call an equalize
setting that will pulse the first few minutes to break the build up from the lead plates.
I have a Pro Mariner on my Chris Craft. Those batteries stay in great shape for over 5 years. Each time I go on shore power, the battery charger
goes into equalize mode for a few minutes.
I have a Guest that came on my Cobia, not sure if it has an equalize setting on it or not, but the batteries are holding up good for now.
I have the Interstate's in my boat, that is what it came with. I will keep them till they die, but I won't replace them with Interstates.
If you buy a smart charger and use Gel Cell or AGM batteries, you will have to set the charger for those types of batteries. The charger usually
comes set for Lead Acid batteries. It is usually a switch or a jumper to change settings. If not, you will damage some expensive batteries.