Cold water and sitting boats are hard on marine batteries. Output drops by 20% when temperatures hit freezing, and by up to 50% in colder conditions. Leave a battery unused for a month or two and it starts to sulphate – the cause of 85% of all battery failures, and the reason so many boaties face a grudge purchase when summer rolls back around.
The answer is maintenance charging over winter. CTEK’s CT5 (5amp charger) uses eight-stage charging technology that monitors battery health, applies a top-up when needed, and includes a desulphation function that can pull a neglected battery back from the edge. A resting lead-acid battery sits at 12.72V when fully charged and loses 0.1V per month. By the time it drops to 11.8V, damage can be permanent.
The CT5, 5amp charger bundle includes a comfort indicator – a simple traffic light device that shows battery state at a glance – and is currently available for $189.
Sort it now. Your future self, standing at the helm on a sunny Saturday in November, will be glad you did.
The team at Lusty & Blundell can get you sorted with the CTEK battery charger.
