Vaughn said:
Take it from somebody who ruined way too many batteries before he finally
figured it out...
It is far more likely that this guy has just never had a really good
charger. If you have a charger that charges to too high a voltage, you are
certainly better off to isolate the battery bank and charge it manually
occasionally; which is exactly what he is doing.
Vaughn
Well, my good Trace inverter/charger was hooked up to four Trojans for a year
in a warm shed, and I was disappointed in the battery life. Part of it was
undoubtedly the excess heat, but I've found that constant charging a small
battery bank with little load didn't work out very well for me. The Trace got
moved to my van, where the charger portion is _really_ oversized for the single
marine trolling battery that it now lives with. I charge less frequently and
am getting better battery life.
Charger amperage does need to fit the size of the battery bank, and I'm more
inclined to think the boat owner was simply overcharging rather than creating
any "memory" effect on a small portion of the plate. Then again, I'm only
speaking from my experience and what I've read.