This past Sunday, I spent part of the day changing out the
batteries aboard my 26 foot sailboat. The
boat is on the
water, which made for a some what chilly days’
work. Saturday would’ve been a better day for the
work, but I gave up working on the Sabbath some time ago. What I thought was interesting, was the fact that I was putting the gel cell
batteries back in the
boat that I had bought for her back in 1994 when I purchased her. The batteries are roughly eleven years old!!
A few Sundays ago, I took a friend of mine that attends the same Seventh Day Baptist church as I do, to the lake with me. Randy had never sailed before. I hadn’t been to my boat in awhile but I was confident that the batteries on board would crank up the inboard
diesel. I have a
solar panel and a trickle
charger that has always worked proficiently at keeping the batteries charged up during the sometime long periods of the
diesel lying still. To my disappointment, after Randy and I got on board and I tried to crank the diesel, it was obvious that both batteries were dead. In my mind, the batteries that had let me down are “new.” I had purchased the wet cell batteries to replace the gel cells with two seasons ago prior to making a trip to the
Dry Tortugas. What was ironic about it was that there wasn’t anything wrong with the gel cells that were aboard. I just reasoned that since the batteries were almost eleven years old, it would probably be wise to change them out before doing an
offshore trip.
Not wanting to dissappoint my friend Randy, we sailed the day without use of the diesel. It really challenged my sailing skills since my boats' slip is on the last finger pier, at the very far end of a long cove. Every now and then, I'll practice sailing back to the
dock, but on the day of mention, we sailed both from, and to the
dock, dropped
anchor under sail,and picked up
anchor under sail. Luckily, everything went perfect. I think Randy really believed that I knew what I was doing.
Back when I had I pulled the gel cells, I kept them, rather than discarding them. I have a piece of
equipment that I use for a side business that has a shot
battery. I charge up one of the gel cells and take it with me on jobs to jump start the bad
battery on the piece of
equipment. (Poor folks have poor ways) I have a trickle
charger at home that I use on my motorcycle, and also with the gel cells. When they aren’t needed, I rotate them on the trickle charger. Due to a heavy side job schedule, I had gotten slack in following this process and had let one of the gel cells drain completely down. I noticed that it only took about two days to completely recharge the dead gel cell battery on the trickle charger, while it took four and a half days for the dead wet cell battery. Both batteries are approximately of the same cranking amp rating. Of course there are a lot of variables in the strengths and weaknesses of batteries, but it amazed me that an eleven year old gel cell battery is out performing a two year old wet cell battery!
When I re-installed the gel cell batteries in the boat, it took about a dozen cranking attempts before the diesel fired up. I believe it was due to the fact that it had been so long since the diesel had been cranked up, and also due to the fact of the cold air temperature. But the old gel cells proved that they still have the juice to get the job done!! Now I’m wondering,……. are these batteries going to out live me?