Cold water and dormant boats take a heavy toll on marine batteries. At freezing temperatures, a battery can shed around 20 per cent of its output, and in conditions colder than that the loss can reach 50 per cent. Leave a battery sitting unused for a month or two and sulphation sets in, a process responsible for 85 per cent of all battery failures and the unwelcome expense that greets many boat owners when the boating season returns.
The solution is straightforward: keep the battery on a maintenance charger through the winter months. CTEK's CT5 is a 5-amp unit built around eight-stage charging technology designed to keep batteries in good shape across the off-season. It monitors battery health continuously, delivers a top-up charge whenever one is needed, and incorporates a desulphation function capable of recovering a neglected battery that might otherwise be written off. A healthy resting lead-acid battery sits at 12.72V and loses roughly 0.1V every month without use. Once voltage falls to 11.8V, the damage can become permanent.
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The CT5 5-amp charger bundle comes with a comfort indicator, a traffic-light style device that gives an instant read on battery state without requiring any interpretation of voltage numbers. The bundle is currently priced at $189.
Sort it now and the version of you standing at the helm on a sunny Saturday in November will be glad you did.
