Fully charging your batteries after each discharge on a live-aboard cruising sailboat is simply not practical. Instead, most of us will cycle our batteries between 50 and 80% of their capacity. The bad news is that this will ruin your lead-acid batteries (regardless of type) in a distressingly short time due to sulphation.
Equalizing Batteries, The Reality
by John Harries
Fully charging your batteries after each discharge on a live-aboard cruising sailboat is simply not practical. Instead, most of us will cycle our batteries between 50 and 80% of their capacity. The bad news is that this will ruin your lead-acid batteries (regardless of type) in a distressingly short time due to sulphation.
Next: Battery Monitors, Part 1—Which Type Is Right For You?
Previous: Smart Chargers Are Not That Smart
- One Simple Law That Makes Electrical Systems Easy to Understand
- How Batteries Charge (Multiple Charging Sources Too)
- How Hard Can We Charge Our Lead Acid Batteries?
- Cruising Boat Electrical System Design, Part 1—Loads and Conservation
- Cruising Boat Electrical System Design, Part 2—Thinking About Systems
- Cruising Boat Electrical System Design, Part 3—Specifying Optimal Battery Bank Size
- The Danger of Voltage Drops From High Current (Amp) Loads
- How Batteries Get Wrecked and What To Do About It
- 11 Steps To Better Battery Life
- 10 Tips To Buy And Install A Live-aboard’s Alternator
- Stupid Alternator Regulators Get Smarter…Finally
- Smart Chargers Are Not That Smart
- Equalizing Batteries, The Reality
- Battery Monitors, Part 1—Which Type Is Right For You?
- Battery Monitors, Part 2—Recommended Unit
- Battery Monitors, Part 3—Calibration and Use
- Do You Need A Generator?
- Efficient Generator-Based Electrical Systems For Yachts
- Battery Bank Size and Generator Run Time, A Case Study
- Battery Options, Part 1—Lithium
- Battery Options, Part 2—Lead Acid
- Lithium Ion Batteries Explained
- Should Your Boat’s DC Electrical System Be 12 or 24 Volt?—Part 1
- Should Your Boat’s DC Electrical System Be 12 or 24 Volt?—Part 2
- Q&A—Are Battery Desulphators a Good Idea?
- Renewable Power
- Wind Generators
- Solar Power
- Hydro Power
- Watt & Sea Hydro Generator Review
John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for twenty years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 18 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.