Next Generation Boat Battery Chargers Bring Comforts of Home to Boaters

If you want to get the most out of your battery, you will need a boat battery charger. However, deciding on what type of boat charger to use is a daunting task. And that’s because you not only have to select from hundreds of different types of boat battery chargers, but also need to know how to determine your boat’s power needs.

Boat battery chargers come in many sizes and types. Regardless of the type, the one thing all battery chargers have in common is an energy source. The simplest types of battery chargers just contain a battery and a battery charging circuit. In these systems, the charging circuit simply transfers the electronic fuel in one battery to another. Although these systems are useful for repeatedly charging portable devices, they really don’t offer much more than having extra batteries on board. .

More useful battery chargers charge a battery from energy sources other than batteries. Traditionally, large-scale battery charges have used combustion engines to drive a generator and an inverter to charge a battery, just like when you drive your car down the road.

With the advent of portable alternative energy devices, boaters have even better energy source options. Solar battery chargers complete with solar cells, internal battery, and solar panel hook-ups are one option. Other options include handheld plastic wind turbines and underwater hydro propellers. If that’s not enough to satisfy your need for back up power, there are even kinetic and flywheel devices that can convert motion to energy. Although seemingly new, these motion-to-energy devices have been around for years. Although now hard to find, bicycle light generators used to be the norm for bicycles before attachable flashlights and LED lights become popular.

Regardless of the type of boat battery charger you decide to buy, two of the most important things to know about boat chargers is how much electronic fuel, also known as amperes, they can supply and how fast they can supply it. On the other side, you will have to know just how much and how fast your on board electronic devices use electrical energy.

If you’re powering kitchen appliances and water heaters on your boats, you are going to need heavy duty battery chargers that can draw energy from different sources as well as deliver large amounts of electrical energy quickly. For smaller battery powered devices, like portable GPS devices and satellite phones, small self-contained battery chargers will do. For emergencies, small solar battery chargers and small handheld plastic wind generators will often supply enough power to receive or send a signal even if you’re working with drained batteries.

One of the most basic electrical specifications to consider when selecting a battery boat charger is its charging current level, often given in amperes. The higher the charging current, the faster your boat battery charger can charge your boat batteries. And that’s because the amount of electronic fuel your battery stores is the product of the charging current and the charger connection time.

However just as important as your battery charger specifications are your battery’s specifications. The amount of electronic fuel a battery can store is given in terms of ampere-hour. A battery with a 20 ampere-hour rating can store 5 times as much electronic fuel as a battery with a 4 ampere-hour rating. However a battery charger with a 2 ampere charging current will take ten hours to do the same job.

Another important boat battery charge consideration is how long it takes your boat battery charger to charge. Often a boat battery charger will have its own internal battery and charging circuit that connects the internal battery directly to your wall socket or to the USB port on your laptop PC. A high quality battery charger will be able to charge its own internal battery, often in under an hour from your wall socket.

Just like you don’t want to overfill your gas tank, you also don’t want to overfill your battery. To keep that from happening, make sure your battery charger has overvoltage protection. Overvoltage protection will automatically switch off the battery charger when the battery is full.