how do i: recharge a deep cycle battery? and check battery level?

[onosqv]

1) How to recharge a deep cycle battery? I believe that you cannot jump start a deep cycle battery. I've heard of trickle charging, but don't know exactly what is used and how it works, or how long you are suppose to "trickle charge."

2) How to check battery level? Can I just use a multimeter and it should be at 12v? What level is safe for a deep cycle battery?

Thanks!

[Rex]

1) It something you can buy, most "good" battery chargers have a few modes and one of them is "trickle" the charger itself will either tell you the expect time cycel to trickle or will have a gauge to tell you how much it's charged the battery. Nicer ones will trickle charge until the battery is fully charged and then turn themselves off.

2) volt meter

[drvr240sx3]

you cannot recharge a deep cycle battery...........i dont care what anyone else tells you b/c i know it cannot be done. i install stereo as my job and we have this argument everyday. even the people at autozone tried to tell us it could be done but when they tried(over and over again) it didnt work. if your deep cycle completely discharges then it cannot be recovered. if it is low then u can usually recharge it

[onosqv]

Thanks for the answers both of you guys.

And welcome to the forum drvr240sx3.

Ok, what I'm concerned w/ is when it is low (what voltage would this be? below 10v?).

I am planning on keeping tabs on my batteries (about once a week or so) and making sure they don't fall below a certain volt, which I have no idea what boundary that should be.

After they get too low, I'd do what Rex says and use a battery charger to bring them back up to a certain voltage (12v w/ the car off I believe).

Things seem to be getting clearer w/ your responses.

Thanks again guys!

[Simmsled]

The brilliant thing about a deep cycle is that it can be discharged and recharged many many many more times than a standard starter battery. The trickle charger is a great idea. At anything below 11 volts, trickle charge it. It will be easier on your alternator.

[onosqv]

Sounds good.

Jump starting a deep cycle battery is a big no-no right?

[drvr240sx3]

yeah dont jump start the deep cycle. as far as the voltage u should keep an eye on. it should always be between 11.5 and 12 volts. if you keep having to recharge it then either u are taxing them too much for your alternator to keep up with or something is wrong with ur vehicles electrical system. heres an idea also.....go larger gauge size on all your power wires, your grounds should be the same size as ur power and *** an additional chassis ground directly from your battery with 4,2,or 1/0 size wire. that should help also run any of those three sizes directly from your alternator to your battery. this helps more than you would guess. and the bigger the wire the better. if u run 1/0 gauge then expect to pay about $4 a foot but it is worth every penny. if u really wanna do it right then get a powermaster alternator. our experiece at the shop seems to show that they dont overheat.

[PoorManQ45]

Here's an excellent web page about batteries :

http://www.windsun.com/Batteri...ttery?

[DominickJ30]

you cannot recharge a deep cycle battery...........i dont care what anyone else tells you b/c i know it cannot be done. i install stereo as my job and we have this argument everyday. even the people at autozone tried to tell us it could be done but when they tried(over and over again) it didnt work. if your deep cycle completely discharges then it cannot be recovered. if it is low then u can usually recharge it

Umm I hate to burt yer bubble, but the whole point of a deep cycle battery that it can be discharged (when not in use, such as marine battery , RV etc.) and recharged when it is in use.

[PoorManQ45]

No, you cannot completely discharge a Deepcycle battery and then expect to recharge it.

Click on the link that I provided. Read it.

You can only let the battery get down to ~20% and still be able to recharge it

[Rex]

Remember, it is possible for the customer to have a completely discharged Yellow Top OPTIMA that will not start their engine; the advantages of the Yellow Top are that it can accept a rapid recharge and it will recover from discharge many more times.

[DominickJ30]

[QUOTE=Rex][/QUOTE]

there you go poormanQ45, the yellow top is the deepcycle i was referring to.

[PoorManQ45]

Bull$hit! You go drain a deep cycle battery. When you think it's dead, put a voltmeter on it. I want you to get it down below 0.5V. Then put it on a trickle charger.

Oh and Rex, you know what's wrong with that quote? They say that you can rapidly recharge the battery. Well, when you do a quick charge, you litterally fry the $hit out of the cells. Try quick charging a wet cell battery once(I've done this). After about 10 minutes, you will hear this "sizzling" coming from the battery. That's the sound of a battery cooking itself

P.S. I'll write up on the technicals of this in a little bit

[Rex]

Maybe what we have here is the conflict between Optima's "deep cycle" batteries abilities and true deep cycle marine batteries??

Is it possible Optima's Yellow Top isn't a true/standard deep cycle battery?

[Rex]

FWIW, the information I'm offering is from a battery manufacturer. AZ Wind & Sun appears to only be a distributor.

That doesn't mean they don't know there stuff, but I'd tend to consider Optima's info first.

[KaTS13-614]

Optimas are dry cell.