Battery charger

[Cituan Rats]

I just installed a Pro Mariner three bank battery charger on my boat and seems to be operating as expected. My question is do you leave it plugged in 24/7 year round or just plug it in a couple days before I plan on going fishing? Thanks.

 

[Gadestroyer74]

I leave my Minnkota plug in year round it’s a maintence also

 

[Cituan Rats]

I leave my Minnkota plug in year round it’s a maintence also

The manual did state to leave it connected but I was just afraid of frying the batteries.

 

[Gadestroyer74]

I am no expert just what I have read and experienced with mine. The digital chargers are designed to keep the batteries charged and maintain. They have built in protection circuits to prevent over charging. You certainly do not want your batteries to go down and stay down it damages them

 

[BoosterC]

If the batteries are lead acid. Yes, I leave it plugged in unless there are expected thunderstorms. If it is going to be 6 mos or more, I'd unplug them just to have one less potential mishap. Be sure to check the water levels about evey 6 mos.


Lithiums...NO do not leave them active on the charger. Long term storage Lithiums behave and store best at about 50% or less charge.

 

[LTZ25]

I leave mine plugged in 24/7/365 and no problem I have a MKPC using lithium batteries .

 

[Ajohnson0587]

I leave mine plugged in year round, for the last 2yrs I have owned a boat. I'm running 2 Dakota lithium's & and a ProGuide AGM cranking battery for the motor, no issues, but I am a year round fisherman. I ran Dakota Lithium's in my Kayak for 3yrs before that and never had an issue, best thing to do is read up on what the battery manufacture recommends for a charger. Also, I'd imagine that most quality batteries would be fine being left plugged up, as long as they are seeing regular use. If you're leaving it plugged up for a sold yr or more without use, it can't be good for anything on a boat let alone the batteries.

 

[ecoutside]

Bringing this back up! I’m in the market for an On-Board charger. Question is do you guys leave your trolling motor hooked up while charging?

I’ve got a 12V powerdrive ipilot with the leads hooked directly to the battery. I currently unhook the leads to charge with a portable 6 amp charger. Might just save my money if I still need to unhook my leads from the battery? What say you @Dustin Pate

 

[ilbcnu]

Best practice on ulterra and i pilots is to unplug them while charging to prevent damage to the mother board

 

[hipster dufus]

Im running ionic lithiums for tm, everstart starter, noco 3 bank. Charge em when i get home. Unplug nxt day or as soon as i see them full. Dont like the idea of leaving em plugged in 24/7. Plug em back in nite before. I might stop doing this cause the lithiums dont need it. Ill probably charge em every other trip.ionics hav the bluetooth app , so i know state of charge. Have fished 3 days w no charge.

 

[Ajohnson0587]

NOCO 3 bank in the rear and a Single bank under the front deck that's charging the battery for my graphs. I also bought the 125v power inlet sockets that make plugging up to extension cord a breeze. The best thing about the NOCO's is they can charge Lead acid, AGM, and Lithium, plus almost every Lithium battery manufacture recommends or is ok with you using the NOCO brand chargers.

 

[JROESEL]

Bringing this back up! I’m in the market for an On-Board charger. Question is do you guys leave your trolling motor hooked up while charging?

I’ve got a 12V powerdrive ipilot with the leads hooked directly to the battery. I currently unhook the leads to charge with a portable 6 amp charger. Might just save my money if I still need to unhook my leads from the battery? What say you @Dustin Pate

Get a 60 amp resettable breaker, just hit the button to remove your trolling motor from the circuit, I ran 5 group 31 batteries in my rig, and left them plugged in year round, if you buy a reputable charger, it has a onboard computer to go into maintenance mode,
You don’t want your batteries to continuously drop charge, a lead acid will, I also have everything that’s not on the circuit for the trolling motor, on a 60 amp power shut off switch, I ran a jumper to a buss bar to power all the electronics, two flips of a switch and nothing gets power in my boat, and I always shut it off when not on the water, even trailering it

60 Amp Circuit Breaker MKR-27

We strongly recommend purchasing a circuit breaker for two reasons: It's an inexpensive insurance policy for your motor in case your prop gets fouled or something causes an overload Coast Guard regulations require a breaker on these types of electrical systems The Minn Kota MKR-27, 60 amp...

www.trollingmotors.net

 

[JROESEL]

Im running ionic lithiums for tm, everstart starter, noco 3 bank. Charge em when i get home. Unplug nxt day or as soon as i see them full. Dont like the idea of leaving em plugged in 24/7. Plug em back in nite before. I might stop doing this cause the lithiums dont need it. Ill probably charge em every other trip.ionics hav the bluetooth app , so i know state of charge. Have fished 3 days w no charge.

I just switched to ionic, I dropped 290 lbs going from lead to lithium, I’ve had them on the water three times now and haven’t got below 78%, that 36v garmin brushless trolling motor is a beast with these batteries, it’s amazing the power these batteries have, I got the (3) 50ah for tm and 125ah for everything else, haven’t got below 89% on that 125ah, I also got there charger, it says to plug them up and let it be, so that’s what I’m doing, the charger is smarter then some people I know

 

[ecoutside]

Get a 60 amp resettable breaker, just hit the button to remove your trolling motor from the circuit, I ran 5 group 31 batteries in my rig, and left them plugged in year round, if you buy a reputable charger, it has a onboard computer to go into maintenance mode,
You don’t want your batteries to continuously drop charge, a lead acid will, I also have everything that’s not on the circuit for the trolling motor, on a 60 amp power shut off switch, I ran a jumper to a buss bar to power all the electronics, two flips of a switch and nothing gets power in my boat, and I always shut it off when not on the water, even trailering it

60 Amp Circuit Breaker MKR-27

We strongly recommend purchasing a circuit breaker for two reasons: It's an inexpensive insurance policy for your motor in case your prop gets fouled or something causes an overload Coast Guard regulations require a breaker on these types of electrical systems The Minn Kota MKR-27, 60 amp...

www.trollingmotors.net

Funny you mention the circuit breaker, I already have the Minn Kota 60amp breaker installed. It comes down to convenience for me now. Do I want to have to crawl up in the boat to flip the breaker or add a plug to reach from ground level? I’ll let you guys know