falconman515 wrote:
Can I just throw my Schumacker charger on the batteries every month for a few and be fine?
Or is there an advantage to my batteries by having them maintained and fully charged at all times?
I keep them stored in the garage and the water is still full and fine after about a dozen discharges and charges last summer / fall.
I will be using them again come June / July ... maybe I will hold off and get a battery tender when they go back in storage again in the fall.
But is this really needed if I throw a quick charge on them every month???
You could get close to the same longevity by just periodically charging (depending on overall use through the year).
The better thing about having the Battery Minder on the batteries 24/7 is that it is "set it and forget it" and in the theoretical sense, if the batteries are always being fed low level charge, sulfation can't gain as much foothold.
One thing I noticed, recently, with my bank of 2-6V GC2's is that they respond well to higher voltage charge while in storage. My solar charge controller does the work with it's temp compensation and I was monitoring voltages, periodically, during the Winter. On some cold days, the controller was pushing 14.9V at the fully charged batteries. Last week I checked specific gravities with a hydrometer and the measurements were greater than when put in storage. The electrolyte levels had not changed appreciatively.
