Car Battery Charger | can i use a car battery cahrger on my deep cycle marine battery?

10 Responses to “can i use a car battery cahrger on my deep cycle marine battery?”

1. l.t_has_a_503

   yes wont hurt it

2. herbabii4lyfe

   yes its a 12 volt battery so it does work hope this helped

3. pokerjoev

   Yes

4. dll72

   yes if the voltage is the same.. you state that it is a 1 amp charger… and 12 volts.. if that is correct it will work but it will take some time as it is a trickle charger which means it is a slow charge..

5. Gamblaholic

   I am not an expert, but I think as long as the charger is set at the same voltage as the battery, it should be fine.
   I worked at a manufacturing plant that used marine batteries for 1-ton hydraulic lifts and they used a regular (but larger and faster) battery charger. There weren’t any issues with the batteries.

6. Ras phil

   I do not see why you cannot use a car charger to charge your marine battery. I do it all the time. Just make sure you you select the right voltage to match the voltage of the battery. ! amp is really trickle charge and will take a long time to fully charge the battery. Make sure you follow all directions for your charger and battery..

7. Bob O

   Hook it up and see if it works. “Deep cycle” means it’s kinda built to tolerate being discharged to nearly dead. No lead/acid battery really benefits from that kind of behavior. They all create sulfates that clog the battery plates as they discharge. But, if you’re going to power a trolling motor, “deep cycle” is what you want ’cause you’re bound to fish until the motor won’t run any more.

   Automatic chargers sometimes won’t even kick in to charge if the battery is lower than it’s built to detect and manage. In other words, you know the battery is extremely low, you know your charger is good, yet if it won’t start the charging process, then it’s just not built to deliver a charge when the battery voltage is really low.

   If that happens and if you want to be able to use your 1 amp charger, then first hook it to a “manual” type charger. Or, hook it to your car using jumper cables. Run the engine for about 15 minutes. Then hook your 1 amp automatic to it and see if the little automatic will then take over.

   People have the same problem with all batteries if the charge gets really low. Some automatics won’t start a charge cycle in that case. There are some Shumacher’s that will do it. They are more toward the top of the line of the truly automatics. There are also battery chargers that have both manual and automatic settings.

   So:
   1. Hook it up and see what happens. Can’t hurt. If it starts the charge cycle, let it run. However, 1 amp isn’t much. It might not even be enough to overcome the internal resistance of your battery in such a state of discharge.

   2. Hook your battery to your car with jumper cables (after starting your engine.) Let the engine run 15 minutes. Then, see if your 1 amp charger will do take over from there.

8. ranger_co_1_75

   Deep Cycle Batteries and Car Starting batteries are designed differently. A Starting battery is fully charged at 12.6 volts. A Deep Cycle Battery is fully charged at 14 volts.

   A starting battery can have all the charge dumped in it very quickly since it will reach full charge before heat can build in the battery from the charging process.

   A deep cycle can take a starting battery charge quickly, and then the charge needs to decrease as the battery slowly builds to 14 volts, or the heat will damage the battery or shorten its life if it doesn’t cause the case to swell or the plates to short. It takes a minimum of 24 hours charging for a deep cycle battery to reach full charge, after being discharged.

   So the simple answer is, yes your car starting battery charger will work, but it will only give your deep cycle battery 12.6 volts, enough electricity to start an engine, not enough to run a device for a prolonged time.

9. truenorth675

   Yep, you sure can.

10. Dave M

    A lot of good info here.

    Simply put, yes…set on 12 it will not hurt and after a long period it should ramp up the cells to about 12 volts(+/-).

    That being said…this is not a fully charged condition for a deep cycle(14V +/-).

Leave a Reply