Before You Store Your Boat This Winter: Marine Battery Tips You Need to Know About
Posted on: 19 March 2018
When the weather grows cooler, you probably plan to store your boat or personal watercraft away for the winter. Whilst you might assume that placing your boat or watercraft away for the winter is all you need to do to keep it safe and sound, there's actually something else you need to think about first: the marine battery. Here's what you need to do to protect both your boat or watercraft and your marine battery for the winter months.
Remove Your Marine Battery
Before you put your boat or watercraft in storage, disconnect it and remove it. If you leave the battery connected, you may have several different problems, including:
- Battery explosion: when left for months unattended, the battery could potentially swell or even explode whilst you're completely unaware of it. This could cause serious permanent damage to your boat or watercraft as well as ruin the marine battery.
- Frozen battery: the battery may discharge at an accelerated rate whilst left in the boat, leaving it dead very quickly. This leaves it susceptible to freezing whilst inside the boat -- and this could potentially cause damage to other parts of the boat.
- Battery corrosion: battery corrosion is easy to monitor when you're using the boat or watercraft on a regular basis, but when you don't even glance at the battery for months, there's a chance for corrosion to become quite advanced. If battery corrosion develops in a battery inside your watercraft or boat, it can destroy the battery -- and potentially other parts of the watercraft or boat -- before the warm weather is back.
Store Your Battery Properly
You can purchase a specialised marine battery wrap to protect your battery whilst it's in storage, or you can fashion your own by wrapping the battery securely in a heavy blanket. Marine batteries are best stored in a relatively cool and dry place. If you keep your watercraft or boat in a storage facility, you can store the battery in the same place -- the important thing is that you don't leave it inside the boat!
Charge Your Battery Regularly During the Winter
When your battery sits unused for a long period of time, you still need to keep it charged. Whilst you don't need to charge it constantly (and in fact that can be harmful,) you do need to use a charger to power it up every month or so. Be sure to use only the charger recommended by the manufacturer of your watercraft or boat.
Regular charging is important because a completely dead marine battery is much more susceptible to freezing than a charged one is. Additionally, allowing your battery to go completely dead over the winter puts additional strain on it and can shorten its life overall.
As shown above, it takes just a few simple steps to make sure that marine batteries stay safe and healthy for the winter months. Put the above tips into practise this winter to make sure you have a fully functional watercraft or boat this spring and summer!
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