marine starting battery????

[mutron77]

Hi,<br />Is there anything special about a marine starting battery vs a car battery, other than the screw on posts? I want to get my newly carb kitted, impellared, and tuned 90 horse out on the lake this weekend and am a little short on cash for a battery. I see at Autozone that they have "marine terminals" that you can buy in the battery section to add the screw posts to a regular battery. They are $2.99 and I can use a good car battery that I have on hand instead of buying a "marine starting battery" for about $50. Any concerns in doing this? Is a deep cycle battery also good to use for starting?<br /><br />thanks<br /><br />H90

 

[ZmOz]

Re: marine starting battery????

You will be just fine with a car battery. "marine" batteries are a little bit more heavy duty and reliable, but that's really not much of a concern in a lake. My boat has a 5 year old car battery in it...and I'm assuming it had a car battery for 25 years before that. I wouldn't go out in the middle of the ocean with one, but there's nothing to worry about in a lake.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: marine starting battery????

I agree with ZmOz. Stick the terminals on and go for it. The Marine Batteries have thicker plates in them to help with the jarring on the water and such. But your car battery will work fine on the lake for now. Try to get the real thing when you've got the funds and use the car battery as a backup. You don't want a Deep Cycle Battery for starting purposes. A regular Marine Starting or "Duel Purpose" Battery will do the job better.

 

[JB]

Re: marine starting battery????

Moving to General Outboard

 

[kd6nem]

Re: marine starting battery????

Using a deep cycle for starting does require the battery to be a bit larger than a cranking battery to get the same cranking current, but for some it may make more sense than a starting battery. I prefer a deep cycle myself and it has served me very well. It will be much more tolerant of prolonged loads and deeper discharging. They are more rugged than cranking batteries both physically and electrically. Generally it should outlast a cranking type battery. But it does come with a bit of a size & weight penalty. Not enough to make me think twice about, though. And without adequate maintenance it won't last nearly as long as promised. Use your car battery for now, no problem there. The more accessories you use off that battery (assuming you have only one- two different batteries can be a better idea when using a lot of extra stuff, though) the more sense it makes to consider a properly sized deep cycle. I should note that I run a 55Hp outboard which is much easier to crank over than a big hemi V8. It might start to be too much weight penalty if you're talking big block high compression engines.

 

[roscoe]

Re: marine starting battery????

Don't ever use a car battery in your boat. You will give your boat a complex, it won't know if it should be a car or a boat. The poor thing will lose a sense of self and suffer from low self esteem. <br /><br />Just funning you, go for it.

 

[cobra 3.0]

Re: marine starting battery????

Up here in Canada, there isn't much difference in price between a marine/deep cycle and a good car battery...try Costco or Wallmart.

 

[quantumleap]

Re: marine starting battery????

Autozone sells marine starting batteries for $39 in my neck of the woods. $43 at wally.

 

[Walt T]

Re: marine starting battery????

Roscoe, you can help your poor boat by calling 1-800-DR-LAURA.

 

[KCLOST]

Re: marine starting battery????

Rick brought up a good point about "duel purpose" batteries. They are my prefered choice... The proper technical term for them is "compromise" batteries... I like them because they have both features of a starting and deep cycle battery... <br />I have one now used for starting, planning on buying two more when the old trolling batteries wear out... This will allow me to switch batteries around every once in a while and hopefully prolong their lives....<br /><br />Here is a little more info on Marine batteries...<br /><br />There are two applications that manufacturers build their marine batteries for: Starting and Deep Cycle. <br />As the name implies, starter batteries are meant to get combustion engines going. They have thin lead plates which allow them to discharge a lot of energy very quickly.<br />However, they do not tolerate being discharged deeply, as the thin lead plates needed for starter currents degrade quickly under deep discharge and re-charging cycles.<br />Most starter batteries will only tolerate being completely discharged a few times before being irreversibly damaged <br />Deep Cycle marine batteries have thicker lead plates that make them resistant to degradation due to deep discharges. <br />They cannot dispense charge as quickly as a starter battery although deep cycle batteries can be used to start combustion engines (you'd just need more battery than if you used a starter type battery instead).<br />Some manufacturers build "compromise" batteries that claim to act as starter as well as deep cycle cells.